Photos on this page were taken with an Olympus OM-4Ti and a Sigma 600mm f8 mirror lens. Exposures range from about a 60th through to a 2000th on Boots Universal 400 ASA print film. (My other eclipse photos were taken with an OM-2SP, with a Zuiko 50-250mm f5 lens.)
Beinn Bhuidhe Mhór was not my first choice of viewing location for the eclipse. In retrospect, it couldn't have turned out better, with very few people elsewhere seeing the full anularity. I'd been hoping to get further north and west, but the weather forecast was less than favourable: A weak front was moving gradually north through the NW highlands, with high pressure building behind. The viewing area was a choice of low cloud to the NW or coastal fog to the SE. I hoped that Beinn Bhuidhe Mhór would land get into the narrow band between the two, far enough SE to miss the cloud and high enough up to get above the fog, and just a few miles inside the area of annularity. It was also easy to get to, with a track leading almost all the way to the summit.
With family and friends still trying to persuade me not to travel, I finally left Edinburgh late on Friday evening. Driving up the A9 was uneventful, but there were encouraging hints of brightness in the northern sky, and even a few stars showing through the twilight. The climb was fairly easy, with the bulldozed track very easy to follow and dry underfoot. I was settled in a bivi-bag at the trig point by 0325, with three different alarms set for 0430 - although I never really got to sleep.
The sky was 95% clear, but with thick banks of cloud out to the north and west. Although there was just a little light mist down by the coast when I first got high enough to see, but it had thickened up considerably by 0430, and I was extremely glad I'd decided to go for height.
Even so, I wasn't at all certain I'd see anything of the eclipse until the first thin sliver of a red crescent sun actually appeared through the cloud. It took me a few seconds to realise what I was looking at and to pick up the camera. The first shot was taken handheld, before I decided to get out of my bivi bag and use the trig point as a support. The rest was just sheer magic - and the photos tell the story.
I stayed on the summit until after 0600, just basking in the morning sunlight and reflecting on what I'd seen.
A collection of other pictures of this eclipse can be found at http://www.spaceweather.com/eclipses/gallery_31may03.html.
Photos of this Eclipse from flight NW34: http://eclipse.span.ch/2003asepix.htm