duane klipping Loc: Bristow iowa

Do not get a threaded filter the last thing you want is to miss the beginning of totality by unscrewing a filter from the lens. You only have at best 150 sec to capture it. Get one that will slip off quickly. Also practice the routine so it becomes second nature to you.

If you need a room you should have already booked one. I had to settle for one 3 hrs from totality and booked one a month ago.

StanRP Loc: Ontario Canada

Hi Nick,

More than enough people have damaged their eyes taking Solar Eclipse photo's. While you can get a lot of help here on choosing filters for the camera, let me give you a suggestion to protect your eyes.

Buy or borrow an arc welders helmet. You can flip it up while working on the camera and flip it down to look directly at the Sun. Nasa recommends a #14 filter glass

https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhelp/safety.html


A further suggestion - I know that some have taped an arc welders filter glass on the lens hood to take photographs of the Sun.

ORpilot Loc: Prineville, Or

Canon has a great info site for the Solar Event. They will be updating it as Aug. gets closer. Great info for all. http://learn.usa.canon.com/resources/articles/2017/eclipse.shtml
Be safe. Use ONLY approved Filters such as those sold by Spectrum Telescope. http:/www.spectrumtelescope.com

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

I own and use both glass and Baader Solar Film filters. The Baader film yields a whiter Sun. The Orion (glass) filter comes in various sizes and gives a distinctly yellow/orange result. Just do a Google search for "Orion solar filters" and you'll find a number of places that sell them. I picked mine up from my local dealer, All-Star Telescope.

The image below was shot with the Orion filter. Its saturation has been reduced because I prefer a yellower color as opposed to orange. Of course you can obtain any color you want from either type of filter in postprocessing. An image with untouched saturation can be found at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/58664881@N02/32780706963/; rather boring image!

bwa

(Download)

Busbum Loc: 85367

Hi,
Have been on the site for awhile now, just reading, mainly and picking up tips for my photography...
So I figured I would share some of what I learned in photography the sun;
I am a avid amateur astronomer and found a simple way to make filters for the sun, of which I have made...
Here is one technique, though for a small telescope, which can be done for a lens...

http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/365006-fabrication-of-diy-solar-filter/#entry4676774

This way when totality arrives you can take off the filter and keep on shooting and then put back on!!!
HTH

markjay

CORONADO !
Get serious ! Thats what astronomy geeks use. The best.

btbg

Unless you already live in the path of totality your first order of business is to find a place to stay. I know that most of the motel rooms in Madras Oregon were booked three years ago and the rest have been gone for at least six months.

Prineville and Redmond also have no rooms left. I don't know about Bend, but I doubt if they have rooms either.

People have been renting out their houses or even camping spaces, but those are also getting tough to get and the prices are getting outrageous. Adding to the problem the police are expecting total gridlock in Central Oregon. It usually takes 45 minutes to drive from Madras to Bend but they are saying to expect as much as 7 hours on the day of the eclipse, so if you have to stay very far away as one poster here is (3 hours) you better plan ahead and get on the road really early.

How to photograph the eclipse isn't going to make any difference if you can't get to it.

Our newspaper would normally print that morning. Instead we aren't even going to open the office until 1p.m. because they think that all of the internet bandwith as well as phone service will be so taxed that they will fail before totality. We are hoping that by opening that much later service will be working again, but management is already saying that we might have to wait to print until the next day.

I'm supposed to shoot the eclipse from in the mountains where the Symbiosis 2017 event is taking place. The plan is to try to get back to town in time to get photos into the paper, but the expectation is that I won't be able to make it back in time and the photos will have to run in the next edition.

So, just a warning. If you are in a good location expect a mess. Madras, population about 7,000 is expecting nearly 100,000 visitors, while Prineville (just under 10,000) expects to have at least 50,000 visitors in the county despite not being in quite as good a location.

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

Arc welder glass is far from optical quality and gives horrendous results!

bwa

markjay

I have seen these crazy kinds of estimates so many times !
People in the center of these things think they are in the center of the world.
Believe me - itv will be no where near these numbers.
These numbers are created by self absorbed people who like to think they are having their 5 minutes of fame (as Andy Warhol famously once said).
That being said - I am sure there will be people - but nothing like what is described above.
hahaha

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

Personally I think put out attendance numbers like the above will drive people away. There may be far fewer people showing up as a result.

The above said, I've had my reservations for half a year and when I went looking for spots they were few and far away from decent viewing!!

bwa

wdross Loc: Castle Rock, Colorado

Not true if mounted properly and mounted on a long lense. I have a filter holder for my 3 X 3 welders glass and I had no problems get crisp clear shots with my 400mm lense. If one wants the yellow-orange colored sun shots, yes, welders glass will not produce such a shot. But welders glass will allow the capture of the pre-eclipse sun; just buy a good quality welders glass and mount it properly.

markjay

why do people keep talking about welders glass and all these "patch" solutions to this matter.
Get a Coronado filter. The entire company ONLY manufactures solar viewing equipment. It is the best solution.

wdross Loc: Castle Rock, Colorado

Welders glass is not a patch solution. Welders glass has, is, and can be used if that is what a person would like to do. If it is so unacceptable, why is it on the NASA website?

markjay

Fine. Go for it. Try to put welders glass in front of your camera lens, and hope that nothing slips up and blinds you when you are viewing and taking pictures.

wdross Loc: Castle Rock, Colorado

I have used my welders glass and filter holder for three total eclipses so far with absolutely no problems. All the information I use to shoot the eclipses is in a old astrophotography book (from back in the film only days) and from the NASA website. The NASA website is more than enough for any amateur to be able to come away from a total eclipse with a minimum of good pictures dependent on their abilities to understand the info on the site.