Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

Is there some kind of scope that one could attach to the hot shoe of a camera pointing at the sun that would project a more or less sharp outline of the sun on a piece of cardboard behind the camera, sort of like a pin-hole projection that one could see before even taking the lens cap off the camera? If this were mounted on the hotshot of a camera it would also help in orienting the camera and lens correctly, again, before even taking the lens cap off the camera.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

There was a total solar eclipse in February 1979. Totality was visible in Washington State and across Canada, but a a partial eclipse was visible across most of the rest of the US.

For that eclipse, the emphasis was on making camera obscura viewers, since appropriate solar viewing filters were not readily available at that time. The easiest way to do this is to take a cardboard box about 2 feet long and cut a square hole in one end, near the bottom of the box. Try a 2 x 2 inch square about one inch up from the bottom of the box and centered from side to side. Attach a white piece of paper to the other end. Now take a small square of aluminum foil, larger than the square that you cut out, say about 4 x 4 inches. Punch a small hole with the end of an ice pick or geometry compass. Tape the foil over the hole that you cut out. You will have to experiment with the size of the hole. A larger hole will make a brighter image, but a smaller hole will make a sharper image. If you've done things right, the projected image will be bigger than the hole.

Now turn the box over so that the opening is on the bottom. Face away from the sun and arrange the box so that the pinhole is behind your head (facing the sun) and you are looking at the paper. Make sure that your head is not between the pinhole and the paper and move around until you can see the sun projected on the paper. A longer box will produce a larger, but dimmer image. Experiment with adding cloth around the bottom opening to keep more ambient light out.

The next refinement would be to close the bottom of the box and make a reasonably light-tight opening somewhere reasonably near the pinhole to allow you to access the inside of the box with a camera lens (probably a macro lens) that will allow you to take a photo of the sun's image on the paper (screen).

Please note that the image produced on the screen in this manner is every bit as real an image of the sun as one created on a sensor by a lens, as long as the pinhole is very small. If it gets very large, it becomes just a spotlight image. not a resolved image of the sun. A reasonable pinhole size is probably between 1/64 and 1/32 inch. A projected image that is the same size as the pinhole tells you that your hole is too big.

You will probably not be able to see the corona through this arrangement...it just won't make a bright enough image.

Another option is simply to work without any equipment and watch what happens to the lighting and the appearance of the landscape. If you are anywhere in the vicinity of totality, you will see the entire character of the day's light change significantly. I haven't given a lot of thought yet to how to capture that photographically, but I was in Oklahoma City during the Canadian eclipse, and the change in light was striking.

Hope this helps some.