Hillbilly setting up for the coming eclipse 1 of more to come: Well hoggers this is my first attempt at shooting the sun, eclipse, coming soon. This is my home made cheap ass attempt.

riderxlx Loc: DFW area Texas

Well hoggers this is my first attempt at shooting the sun, eclipse, coming soon.
This is my home made cheap ass attempt. More to come, I will also post on the astronomy topic section too.
This is my Lumix FX 300, I have the filter I made today for the Nikon D300s drying on the patio. Well its 104 on my patio so it should dry up pretty quick.
I did a few wild ass shots this morning of the full sun.Now this is Texas so the sun is bright.
I used a beer carton for the framing and used the Baader planetatioum AstroSolar film which I got from an astronomy store in Seattle Wa.
I guess you experienced guys and gals could call this hillbilly rig'n, but lets see how it goes.
Just sharing.
Bruce

This is the collar for the filter

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Hey it fits first time, Ok beer time.

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I used this for the filter sheild

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getting there
getting there...

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I cut the filter sheet to fit between the cards and then glued the collor on.

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ready to try, Hey it fits !!! whoo hoo !

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no set up shot, testing the metering I need to do this.

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well it seems to be ? Uh, well I am just starting.

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MosheR Loc: New York City

riderxlx wrote:

Well hoggers this is my first attempt at shooting ... (show quote)

Very ingenious, Bruce. Good luck with your Jerry rigged rig, and just hope it isn't cloudy.

riderxlx Loc: DFW area Texas

MosheR wrote:

Very ingenious, Bruce. Good luck with your Jerry rigged rig, and just hope it isn't cloudy.

Thank you, this is just a wild ass off your hip attempt to do something different. And there will be more post coming as I set the D300s thingy up and figure out how to set the right metering for the both cameras.
Stay tuned, after the commercial breaks I hope to share more.
I love your travel posts , my gosh, that you for the reply.
Bruce.

MosheR Loc: New York City

riderxlx wrote:

Thank you, this is just a wild ass off your hip attempt to do something different. And there will be more post coming as I set the D300s thingy up and figure out how to set the right metering for the both cameras.
Stay tuned, after the commercial breaks I hope to share more.
I love your travel posts , my gosh, that you for the reply.
Bruce.

And thank you for loving my travel posts. It's not an ego thing. I just want as many folks as possible to see, from an ordinary regular little Brooklyn boy, what they don't usually get to experience.

bcheary Loc: Jacksonville, FL

riderxlx wrote:

Well hoggers this is my first attempt at shooting ... (show quote)

Good luck Bruce. I hope everything works out well!

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

DIY is with me is a tradition, solving a problem for oneself gives a feeling of pride. I tip my hat to you riderxlx

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

riderxlx wrote:

Well hoggers this is my first attempt at shooting ... (show quote)

The biggest concern is that it doesn't fall off when you're looking through the viewfinder. Tape it of if necessary.

riderxlx Loc: DFW area Texas

bcheary wrote:

Good luck Bruce. I hope everything works out well!

I need luck for sure.
b

riderxlx Loc: DFW area Texas

dpullum wrote:

DIY is with me is a tradition, solving a problem for oneself gives a feeling of pride. I tip my hat to you riderxlx

thank you, I will test them this morning.
b

riderxlx Loc: DFW area Texas

alberio wrote:

The biggest concern is that it doesn't fall off when you're looking through the viewfinder. Tape it of if necessary.

Thank you, I think tape on the D300 will be best since the collar is not as deep.
bruce

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

riderxlx wrote:

Well hoggers this is my first attempt at shooting ... (show quote)

Very practical solar imaging setup BUT the images are badly overexposed.

bwa

riderxlx Loc: DFW area Texas

bwana wrote:

Very practical solar imaging setup BUT the images are badly overexposed.

bwa

Yes they are over exposed but as I stated this is the first test run with both cameras.
What do you suggest I do to remedy this ?
I did tweak the settings in light room but I would rather get it right at the camera.
Thanks for the reply and looking at this.
Bruce.

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

riderxlx wrote:

Yes they are over exposed but as I stated this is the first test run with both cameras.
What do you suggest I do to remedy this ?
I did tweak the settings in light room but I would rather get it right at the camera.
Thanks for the reply and looking at this.
Bruce.

Shoot with the Manual setting. Set ISO to its lowest value on your camera. Stop down the lens a bit from full open, i.e.: f/8. Autofocus and lock it in. Adjust exposure until the histogram has neither black nor white clipping and you can see solar surface features.

Typical settings might be 600mm, f/9, ISO100, 1/250-1/500 sec. It is better to be underexposed as opposed to overexposed. You would probably end up with something similar to the image below:

bwa

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Mr Bill 2011 Loc: southern Indiana

riderxlx wrote:

Well hoggers this is my first attempt at shooting the sun, eclipse, coming soon.
This is my home made cheap ass attempt. More to come, I will also post on the astronomy topic section too.

Bruce

Well done, looks very similar to mine that I used for the eclipse in 2017; I used tape to stick it together rather than glue. It worked fine, and I plan to use it again next year. My solar filter came from Thousand Oaks, so settings may be different, but I settled on ISO 100, f 5.6, 1/320 sec., WB daylight, manual focus.

riderxlx Loc: DFW area Texas

bwana wrote:

Shoot with the Manual setting. Set ISO to its lowest value on your camera. Stop down the lens a bit from full open, i.e.: f/8. Autofocus and lock it in. Adjust exposure until the histogram has neither black nor white clipping and you can see solar surface features.

Typical settings might be 600mm, f/9, ISO100, 1/250-1/500 sec. It is better to be underexposed as opposed to overexposed. You would probably end up with something similar to the image below:

bwa

Thank you for the reply and tip. this is latest filter attachment. Since I only have a 400mm reach I do not know what details I can get but then again I am just getting ready for the partial eclipse in two weeks.
This is an idea I got last night so I rigged this up to the protective filter and screwed it on. I think your suggestions are going to help me. Ah yes, the beer was good too. I used the beer carton to make this.
bruce

bruce.

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