The 2018 eclipse photo I took vs the 2024 one looks totally different

I compared my photos from the total eclipse in August 2018 near Madras, Oregon to the one this April in Dallas and the corona shape is way different. The 2018 one was spiky and long, but 2024 looked rounder and tighter. I know sunspot cycles affect this kind of thing, but the shift seems too big for just an 11 year cycle. Has anyone else noticed this or have a theory about what else could be going on?

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mia_park8d ago

The truth is the corona always looks different and it has nothing to do with the sun's mood that day. What actually changes your photo is the stuff between your lens and the sun: the camera, the lens, the zoom, how you exposed it, and the sky that day. Dallas in April sat under a hazy, wet sky while Madras in 2018 was high desert with dry clear air, and haze flattens out those long streamers and makes the whole thing look round and soft. On top of that, corona brightness drops off super fast, so a slightly different shutter speed or ISO will hide the faint outer spikes and leave only the tight core. Two photos from two different setups and two different skies will never match, even in the same eclipse minute.

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