Dennis in Texas Loc: Katy, Texas

And many thanks to Fotoartist. Please thank your telescope friends! Maybe just a little more tweeking but it beats anything I've come up with so far!

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

OK. This is my version of a sun spotter. 3/4" tube on "C" flange attached to the hotshoe of my camera and I made a black cardboard shield to slip around it just to be careful. But you just have to look at the back end with the Magic tape from a side glance move your camera and lens and when it gets its brightest you are centered. It's pretty easy to see that happen.

Dennis in Texas Loc: Katy, Texas

After seeing your sighting tube, I've definitely got to step up my game! And that's a compliment. Many thanks!

elliott937 Loc: St. Louis

Thank you for the picture, and for the idea. I will look into it later today.

elliott937 Loc: St. Louis

Okay, here's my big question. what was your tube made of? And how, again, did you attach it to the camera?

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

Picture is worth a thousand words. Here it is without the small cardboard shield. I made a "C" flange to attach tube (1/2"-3/4") to the hot shoe. I used a screw, you could use tape. Sun almost seems to focus on back end with tape when aligned.

elliott937 Loc: St. Louis

You are so right, a picture is worth a thousand words. And I thank you. I have work to do.

elliott937 Loc: St. Louis

Dennis, cjboy, and photoartist, I owe you my great thanks. I bought a device like the Sol-searcher, then stretched a yellow balloon (partial) over the lower end. I used an adjustable camp from the hardware store to keep the translucent balloon surface tight. Affixing it to the hot shoe, I moved the camera setup around so that the sun shadow was centered. Picture the rubber circular surface to be about a silver dollar size (remember those?) and the sun spot was about the size of a quarter. Easy to center that sun hot spot. I had the sun within minutes. The only remaining challenge is keeping my eye perfectly perfectly on a vertical line as I look down into my right-angle viewer. Perhaps Canon's is extra touchy, but if my eye moves just slightly "off center axis", the sun disappears. I think I'm good to go. We have rain in the forecast tomorrow, and I have a faculty meeting Thursday. But Friday, Saturday, and Sunday gives me more chances to practice, assuming we have clear to partly cloudy skies. THEN, I'll keep my fingers crossed for the following Monday.

You know, if anyone else were considering photographing the Eclipse (Totality in my case), the collection of all these six pages of discussion might come in very handy.

Thanks guys for teaming up with me.

Dennis in Texas Loc: Katy, Texas

A precautionary note.... The aiming tube is NOT a sighting tube. The tape on the end of the tube does NOT FILTER ANY OF THE DANGEROUS RAYS FROM THE SUN and one should only observe the light from an angle. One should NEVER ALLOW THE EYE TO COME INTO ALIGNMENT with the TUBE and the RAYS OF THE SUN.

elliott937 Loc: St. Louis

For my device, I cut the neck off of a balloon, and then stretched it over the end of the tube. That made it very easy to see the 'sun spot', and the darker perimeter around the sun spot. Moving the camera left/right and up/down was very easy to do. I picked a yellow balloon, but I could have picked most colors, and it could be viewed from an angle.

Your caution, Dennis, is a good one.

Tomorrow I'll post an image or two. I'm planning on photographing only the Totality. To me, this means that I have little idea of what exposure to use. But hey, I'll have a full 41 seconds, so I can shoot a bunch.

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

Correct!

Dennis in Texas Loc: Katy, Texas

I would like to add my thanks to Elliott for all I have learned from the string of comments found in this UHH forum topic. First and foremost thanks to Elliott for initiating this topic. Without the knowledge gained I would be struggling with peripheral but intractable issues on eclipse day. And a big thanks to Fotoartist for sharing the idea about the aiming tube***. I built a new tube today out of a piece of pvc and after setting it up on the lens, I found the sun in the viewfinder on the first look! And then I discovered I had the lens run out to its full 600mm so I was dealing with a much narrower field of view than if I had started at the 150mm postion!!

***A precautionary note.... The aiming tube is NOT a sighting tube. The tape on the end of the tube does NOT FILTER ANY OF THE DANGEROUS RAYS FROM THE SUN and one should only observe the light from an angle. One should NEVER ALLOW THE EYE TO COME INTO ALIGNMENT with the TUBE and the RAYS OF THE SUN.

ggttc Loc: TN

This is a pretty good shot....no CA and sharp.

RAW is going to help...

Good luck!

elliott937 Loc: St. Louis

Astromania 1X40RD Reflex Red Green Dot Sight lighted Scope Mount to fix to a DSLR camera flash type connection

It's Wednesday, time would be tight, but Amazon Prime, or possibly at your local camera store, this scope is a wonder for photographing Monday's Eclipse. Although intended for rifles and shotguns (according to the insert of my box, received yesterday), it's so easy to fit on the hot shoe of a DSLR. You don't look down it, and that would be dangerous. But I bought one of those screw-tighten clamps, like what you might put around the end of a hose to tighten a fitting. I also took a yellow balloon (pick your color, I thought yellow would work well, and it did), cut off the neck of the balloon. After stretching it over the lower (viewing) end, I used the clamp to tighten it, and stretch the balloon plastic. Now I have a yellow tight surface to see the sun formed on the plastic, and (important) viewing the image from the side. I don't need to look in the direction of the sun. When affixed to the camera/tripod, I simply move the camera so that the 'spot' of the sun is centered on the "balloon screen". Done!!! Look into my camera (with Thousand Oaks filter), and there it is, the sun. A tiny dot until I move the zoom ring out to 800mm, and it fills most of my screen.

It has made my job for Monday so easy. When the sun return here (rain forecast today), I'll practice each day, about noon, over the weekend. My practice yesterday took less than 10 minutes to set up, find the sun, and focus in on it.

I must thank again all of you who introduced me to concept, of making/using a translucent (not transparent) end of a tube to 'find the sun', and then set about photographing.

I wish all of us luck next Monday.

PS: While I've read even on here, UHH, comments like "why don't you just buy a print of the Totality, or watch it on TV?", that's not what this website is all about. It's about photographers investing the energy to capture an image we find beautiful to our eye and mind. For me, and for my friend in the campus library who would love to mount an image of our 2017 Eclipse, that is the quest for me next Monday. I so hope many of you join me in that quest.