Analemma photographed over the Temple of Zeus in Athens, Greece

Anthony Ayiomamitis

One of the most difficult photographs in astronomy is capturing the image of the sun's analemma over the course of a full year. Photographer Anthony Ayiomamitis is one of half a dozen or so photographers who has captured the analemma on film and the only photographer to capture multiple analemmas. Indeed, he has photographed 10 of them! Please see the editorial about Anthony in this issue of The Citizen Scientist, Editor.

Photographing the analemma is a lot of hard work but the end always justifies the means and the intervening pain and frustrations.

I know Dennis di Cicco personally, and it was his article in the March 2000 issue of Sky and Telescope where he described the five analemmas in existence at the time which inspired my six-year marathon to pursue this wild but rewarding project.

Here are the technical details:

Subject: Analemma with the Temple of Olympean Zeus (132 AD).
Location: Athens, Greece (38.2997 N, 23.7430 E).
<>Date: 30 Mar 2003 to 24 March 2004 (multiple exposure image).
Time of Exposure: 10:00:00 UTC.
Camera: Canon A-1.
Tele/Lens: Canon FD 24mm /f2.8 with f/11 for imaging.
Film: Fuji Super HQ 200.
Filter: Baader ND-5.
Exp Time: 1/60th sec.
Other Info: 47 multiple exposures on a single frame of film plus 1 foreground image.
Processing: Cropping, resizing and layers in Photoshop Version 6.

Further details and images of all of the analemmas I have captured on film are at http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Solar-Analemma-100000.htm.

Wanted: Gallery Contributions

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