Solar Eclipse - Important Information: With the eclipse fast approaching, we are still getting questions about viewing and photographing it. Here's the only thing you must know. Do not...

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

With the eclipse fast approaching, we are still getting questions about viewing and photographing it. Here's the only thing you must know.

Do not view or photograph the sun without special solar glasses and a solar filter on your camera.

jcboy3

jerryc41 wrote:

With the eclipse fast approaching, we are still getting questions about viewing and photographing it. Here's the only thing you must know.

Do not view or photograph the sun without special solar glasses and a solar filter on your camera.

And be very careful if you buy solar glasses now. There are a lot of fake glasses that may not be safe. As eclipse frenzy has been increasing, fake glasses have become very common. You can easily check if the glasses are dark enough; you simply should not be able to see anything except the bright sun or very bright lamps through them. But there is no simple way to check that the glasses are filtering dangerous ultraviolet or infrared light.

Read this:

http://time.com/4899457/amazon-refunds-eclipse-glasses/

I am meeting a large group in Casper, Wyoming. Many of them got burned buying cheap glasses on Amazon; they got refunded but now are having a hard time finding certified glasses.

lngroller

B&H still has them

John Howard Loc: SW Florida and Blue Ridge Mountains of NC.

I am in a location that will have 96% coverage and not 100% totality. I am taking all advice that I should not remove filter or glasses at this point. This is contrary to advice to remove filter during totality (a few minutes). This also means I will not get the detail in the sun edge and detail in the moon in the same shot. I will try to bracket in manual mode and merge in an HDR.

sjb3

John Howard wrote:

I am in a location that will have 96% coverage and not 100% totality. I am taking all advice that I should not remove filter or glasses at this point. This is contrary to advice to remove filter during totality (a few minutes). This also means I will not get the detail in the sun edge and detail in the moon in the same shot. I will try to bracket in manual mode and merge in an HDR.

That's exactly right; that remaining 4 percent will do just as much damage. As I understand it, the Sun stays glaringly bright right up to the last few seconds before totality, meaning that even as the surrounding sky starts to dim as the Moon closes in, the little bit of uncovered Sun is still so bright that you can't even see the Moon unless you filter the light.

bfstuff

Amazon swept with a broad brush! I bought solar glasses and filters (through Amazon) from a company called ICSTARS, and then got the Amazon refund e-mail. I subsequently got a follow-up from the company itself. Amazon was wrong in their case, but I never got another correction follow-up from Amazon. They are just covering their butt from lawsuits. They should have done more research before their knee-jerk reaction scarring everybody. I'm not saying they are wrong in every case, but they were in mine. Here's a link to the official American Astronomical Society (AAS) site where you (or Amazon) can check:

https://eclipse.aas.org/resources/solar-filters

CSI Dave Loc: Arizona

jcboy3 wrote:

And be very careful if you buy solar glasses now. ... (show quote)

I absolutely agree with this - be cautious about using cheap/fake glasses. I happen to have a microspectrophotometer (MSP) in my lab here, so I can examine the light spectrum passing through different materials. A few years ago on vacation I bought a cheap pair of "genuine" Ray Ban glasses (I knew they were fake but I was having fun with the street vendor). I later tested them in the lab - turns out they let more UV light in than visible light. Dangerous!

PS Haven't posted here in ages, still check in pretty often. Hi everyone.

fiodh Loc: New York

Without any intention of viewing nor photographing the solar eclipse, you might find this funny and might say that this is an old tale: I grew up in a "steel town" where my father used to work in a steel manufacturing company in the Philippines. I remember one day, as everyone talked about the coming eclipse (during the early 60's), my father came home with rectangular shaped thick black glass and gave them to us, and told us that we can use it to watch the sun. If I am not mistaken, those pieces of glass were taken from old welding helmets that steel workers used. Surely, we used them and I can only recall that it was one of the coolest things ever--looking at the sun without feeling the glare. Makes me wish that I still have that piece of glass. No, I am not going to buy any sunglasses nor a lens filter. I will just enjoy the photos that everyone will take and post here.
Happy viewing to those who will! :)

russchristopher

I have been practicing photographing the sun with my DSLR and solar filter. The smaller image is using a 40mm lens and the larger with a 150mm telephoto. Even looking at the images is annoying to the eyes. I will use the filter to take photographs of the progress of the eclipse. Since I am in the path of totality, I will be able to remove the solar filter and take pics as if it were of the moon at night. If you are not in the path of complete totality, there could be a problem if you try to remove the filter at any point in the process. Also, I have taken some pictures of the sun behind thin clouds. The solar filter + clouds blocks any image from reaching my camera, so I have removed the solar filter and added a UV with good results. Just FYI.

bfstuff

russchristopher wrote:

I have been practicing photographing the sun with ... (show quote)

What settings are you using? I took some the other day with a solar filter that I haven't downloaded to my computer yet. I was using ISO 200, F8 & 1/250 sec.

n3eg Loc: West coast USA

Or you could use a solar filter and put a quarter on a piece of glass and fake it instead of photographing the real thing. It's not rocket science like faking a moon landing.

Los-Angeles-Shooter Loc: Los Angeles

jerryc41 wrote:

With the eclipse fast approaching, we are still getting questions about viewing and photographing it. Here's the only thing you must know.

Do not view or photograph the sun without special solar glasses and a solar filter on your camera.

The Chinese have flooded the USA with worthless and counterfeit glasses and filters.

Wanderer2 Loc: Colorado Rocky Mountains

jerryc41 wrote:

With the eclipse fast approaching, we are still getting questions about viewing and photographing it. Here's the only thing you must know.

Do not view or photograph the sun without special solar glasses and a solar filter on your camera.

It may be stating the obvious but for the sake of completeness I would comment that it is possible to photograph the sun without solar glasses if the camera has a flip out lcd screen that allows the sun to be seen in live view while looking toward the ground and not upwards. The solar filter over the lens is still a must of course. Solar glasses are extremely dark and I would think that framing, reading the settings, etc. would be very difficult with them on. I'm glad my Pentax K-1 has a highly movable lcd - I've practiced shot the sun and it works very well for that purpose. Just never, never look up without the glasses!

n3eg Loc: West coast USA

Los-Angeles-Shooter wrote:

The Chinese have flooded the USA with worthless and counterfeit glasses and filters.

So THAT'S their master plan for invading the USA on Tuesday!