Annular Solar Eclipse of 2020 June 21
 from Saudi Arabia, Oman, India or Tibet (China)

As we were not able to travel abroad we have to use photos taken by amateur astronomers in Pakistan and India where the sky was clear and the temperature extremely hot at above 40°C (104F). Thanks to their dedication without which nothing would have been possible.

First lets have a look at pictures taken by Talha Zia from Sukkur in Pakistan.

Talha did use a Canon EOS 1200D/Rebel T5/Kiss X70 attached to a Celestron 102GT (102mm/1000mm), without any solar filter, on an alt/az mount and with the following exposure settings ISO 100, f/10 at 1/4000s per our recommendations. Such a setup does allow to record the Baily’s beads and chromosphere or even prominences, however one need to be extremely careful not to damage his equipment and/or cause any safety issue for his eyesight.
On the picture below taken at mid-eclipse we can see that the ring was still too bright to distinguish any beading naked eye; it is interesting to compare it to a picture of an even deeper annular in 1984.

Now we can compare the Baily’s beads and the simulations which can help determine the true photospheric solar radius by matching the beads timing, shape and pattern.

The same picture but merged with the simulation.

Unfortunately we have no pictures at second and third contacts. And after third contact the most interesting beads were missed as the series of pictures started sadly a couple seconds too late.

Soon I’ll add some pictures taken by Ajay Talwar from Sirsa in India.

Ajay used a Canon EOS 5D Mark III attached to a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens at 400mm, without any solar filter, on an equatorial mount and with the following exposure settings ISO 100, f/11 at 1/1000s; in fact a series of 8 evenly spaced bracketed pictures at shutter speeds ranging from 1/1000s to 1/8s were taken every 8 seconds but we kept only the fastest exposures as all the others were highly overexposed. Warning: when using no solar filter one has to be extremely careful as it’s risky.
Now we can compare the Baily’s beads and the simulations which can help determine the true photospheric solar radius by matching the beads timing, shape and pattern.

On July 5th, half a lunation after the Covid-19 Solstice Eclipse, Ajay did a webinar titled "Solstice Eclipse - Recollections from Sirsa". During this webinar, based on his close-up video of the Baily’s beads taken with a solar filter, he says that the eclipse was never annular from the Ganga Greens in the suburbs of Sirsa, yet this assertion is false. Even though on the video you can’t clearly see annularity, it doesn’t mean there wasn’t any ring for a couple of seconds. Firstly in a similar way as when imaging a Transit of Venus you have to cope with the black-drop phenomenon (optical diffraction) which creates a teardrop shape as the lunar mountains come near the Sun’s edge. Secondly at the resolution of the imaging train there is no way you can distinguish such details, and thirdly the use of a solar filter suppresses important data from the solar limb (this issue exists also with the timing of the contacts during a total solar eclipse). The end result is that making such an assertion is moot, moreover the images in visible light tell a completely different story with a continuous bright ring without any major brightness variations indicating lunar mountains blocking the Sun’s photosphere at all times in at least one given location on the solar limb. I will add one more argument, if the eclipse never became annular then it would imply the true photospheric solar radius is even smaller than the IAU official value, and we all know that this radius is probably substantially larger and that’s exactly what the photos taken without solar filter indicate…
You can see that the video is flipped from the proper orientation, yet because Ajay’s location was north of the centerline we can assume its top is more or less pointing towards the solar south.

There you go for the simulation at low resolution. If you look closely you may think the eclipse doesn’t become annular, yet it does and a higher resolution simulation will show it, just use Solar Eclipse Maestro. If you still don’t believe me I also provide a single frame at mid-eclipse and higher resolution to illustrate my point.

And at an even higher resolution leaving no doubts… You can wander across the lunar limb profile (the angle markers in dark blue above are the ones matching the angle values used in the linear profile below) and see it by yourself.

Manish Sharma, who was at the same location as Ajay Talwar, has used a Nikon D500 attached to a Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Comtemporary lens at 700mm effective (the D500 is a full-frame camera so a factor of 1.52 times has to be applied), without any solar filter, on a tripod without any tracking. The following exposure settings were used: ISO 125, f/40 with shutter speeds usually shorter than 1/000^th of a second.
Following up on Ajay’s assertion that the eclipse never became annular at their location, here is another proof of the contrary with the help of the unfiltered pictures by Manish. First you have a picture just before second contact, then less than three seconds later and last around mid-eclipse, all associated with their respective simulations. No question about it, the eclipse was indeed annular at this location for more than ten seconds. On the first photo we can see the gap in the photosphere caused by the last mountain shown on the high resolution simulation and also that the simulations perfectly match the pictures.

Lets now have a look at Manish’s pictures of the Baily’s beads.

Lets end with one last notable photo with Baily’s beads after third contact, chromosphere plus also a chromospheric arc interrupted by the lunar mountain causing third contact. This is the first time I’ve seen this knowing that the chromosphere height is about 2,000 kilometers, truly unbelievable and possibly a photography first!

We notice one more time a nearly perfect match when using a substantially enlarged true photospheric solar radius in place of the regular IAU radius of 959.63" at 1au. When taking the IAU radius it is not possible to obtain such a match with the Baily’s beads and the timing is also off.

For the next deep annulars it would be great to have amateurs photography them without any solar filter when the Baily’s beads are visble, that is between 10 seconds before second contact and 10 seconds after third contact. Of course for those observing near the edges of the eclipse path the duration of the Baily’s beads will be higher. During the annular phase it’s best and recommended to use a solar filter, both to protect your equipment but also get properly exposed pictures that can be of use.
A magnitude of 0.99 or bigger is best for greater results, yet the next opportunities being rather scarce, especially from the ground (the next one is in March 2035 from New Zealand or Tasmania), it is advised to fall back on a smaller magnitude of 0.95 and above even though it isn’t as advantageous. The October 2023 annular is an excellent opportunity to put into practice, otherwise there is the May 2031 annular.
For the exposure settings here is what’s recommended: ISO 100, f/10, 1/4000s.
While all this can still be accomplished during smaller magnitude annulars it isn’t as convenient and going near the edges of the eclipse path is then a must.