I have not read all the 6 pages of replies, so someone else may have already mentioned the Sony a6000 mirrorless. It is a great camera, you can get the kit lenses for not a huge amount of money or you can get a couple of much better Carl Zeiss lenses. I took the camera plus kit lenses to China and was really pleased with the results: it focusses really quickly and is superb in low light. I am very happy with mine (although I may upgrade to the better lenses when I have saved up a bit) and I would recommend that you find a camera shop that stocks the a6000 and see if it fits your hand comfortably.

It is legal. If you have a problem with that, take it up with your Government. Tax avoidance is legal: tax evasion is not. The Cayman Islands are a tax haven, courtesy of King George III and until the Governments of Britain and the USA change their laws, registering your company in the Cayman Islands for tax reasons is absolutely legal.
I carry a UK passport but, by dint of having lived and worked in the Cayman Islands for 24 years, I am also a Caymanian citizen. Sadly, I don't have enough money to make it worthwhile to own a company registered in the CI, so I pay my taxes to HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs)

This isn't the answer to your specific question, but if you are considering stacking programmes, have you considered Helicon Focus, made especially for photo stacking? Put out by Helicon Soft in the USA, it costs £15.00 here (I think about US$30.00 there) and is very easy to use. I believe you can download a free trial version before buying.

PhD but the questions were really easy. Funny, since I didn't even go to University (hardly anybody did in "those days" back then in the UK) But actually, the questions are really only general knowledge, not "education".

Wow, you actually have to pay $99 to get stuff delivered from Amazon in the US? I can order anything from Amazon this afternoon, and I will get it tomorrow - no postage, no charge. I am continually amazed by Amazon and the wonderful service we get over here.

Thank you to all the kind folks who responded to this plea for help: I even had responses from as far away as India!

I followed up on everything: did a huge amount of research and made copious notes, made myself a Baader solar filter for my lens but, because it showed the sun as white, I eventually bought another filter from Seymour Solar in the US which shows the sun as orange. I took all this stuff with me onto the ship, plus tripod, extra batteries, etc. etc. and worked out how to counteract the movement of the ship, and other vibrations. So now you would like to see the magnificent photos I took of a total solar eclipse, I guess?

It was a bitterly cold day in the Faroe Islands, it rained and there was a lot of cloud. Lots of us photographers stood out on the deck from 7.30 am with our cameras, tripods and camera covers, to make sure we had a good place and we waited....and waited.....and got very cold, and finally we saw glimpses of something that looked just like the moon at night, partially covered with cloud. I have a couple of photos of a small white slither of sun which are not worth anything. You would not know it was the sun, or that it was taken during an eclipse and none of us used our solar filters at all. We saw the shadow approach, it got dark and cold, and that was all.

But I did have a super holiday anyway, met some nice people, went ashore on the Scottish mainland and in Lerwick (Shetland Islands) and the Faroe Islands and will hopefully have some good photos of these places (have not downloaded them as yet).

I hope you all have better luck in 2017 when you are due a total solar eclipse over the USA. I don't think I shall be chasing it!

Maybe I should not have either! And it is not relevant to my comment, but I particularly like your almost- monochrome of the sailing ships. It's just different, which is interesting.

Thank you to all the kind folks who responded to this plea for help: I even had responses from as far away as India!

I followed up on everything: did a huge amount of research and made copious notes, made myself a Baader solar filter for my lens but, because it showed the sun as white, I eventually bought another filter from Seymour Solar in the US which shows the sun as orange. I took all this stuff with me onto the ship, plus tripod, extra batteries, etc. etc. and worked out how to counteract the movement of the ship, and other vibrations. So now you would like to see the magnificent photos I took of a total solar eclipse, I guess?

It was a bitterly cold day in the Faroe Islands, it rained and there was a lot of cloud. Lots of us photographers stood out on the deck from 7.30 am with our cameras, tripods and camera covers, to make sure we had a good place and we waited....and waited.....and got very cold, and finally we saw glimpses of something that looked just like the moon at night, partially covered with cloud. I have a couple of photos of a small white slither of sun which are not worth anything. You would not know it was the sun, or that it was taken during an eclipse and none of us used our solar filters at all. We saw the shadow approach, it got dark and cold, and that was all.

But I did have a super holiday anyway, met some nice people, went ashore on the Scottish mainland and in Lerwick (Shetland Islands) and the Faroe Islands and will hopefully have some good photos of these places (have not downloaded them as yet).

I hope you all have better luck in 2017 when you are due a total solar eclipse over the USA. I don't think I shall be chasing it!

If your comment means that you think that the results were not worth the cost of FotoSketcher, that seems like an un-neccessarily rude and unwarranted comment. The results may not be to your taste, but if the author likes what s/he has produced, surely that is all that matters. Why try and cut Indi down to your size?

He bought the house knowing that there was a public right of way going past his window: it would have shown up in his Deeds. He probably arrogantly thought he had enough clout to get the right of way closed. I personally think he is a horrible man with a horrible mouth and terrible manners and I am glad he does not (dis)grace our screens any more. But I expect someone will hire him and he will be back. :o(

I have separate insurance, it costs me a couple of hundred pounds sterling per annum. It sounds like a lot, but it covers me for total replacement at whatever the price is now. It worked really well for me when I dropped my 5D Mk11 into the sea in the Galapagos Islands with a 28-300mm lens attached, total of about nearly £4,000.
No questions asked (I did get a statement from our Zodiac's naturalist to authenticate my story!) and total new replacement. The premium has not gone up but my excess has (now at £500) so no more dropping of equipment is possible! But SO HAPPY (I'm shouting on purpose!) that I had the specialist insurance. I personally would not dream of not having it.

Yay! Count me in. I can smell it from here.

I'd love to cross the pond and do the 2017 eclipse, but I doubt it is going to happen. My husband is 80 and feels that his "long haul" days are over - and he is not interested in photography at all, other than looking at other people's images (and seeing how mine do!) at the Photography Club. Sadly, I don't think he is going to want to waste remaining holiday time travelling to the USA for an eclipse.

:( I guess you and your wife will have fun with it, though, and by now you should be an expert and end up with amazing images.

Hi, my avatar is a llama's eye, although with all that hair around it, it could well have been an Icelandic horse's eye. They are very hairy animals to help protect against the cold, as they stay out all through the winter.

What's the US/UK horse story? Am intrigued!

OK, yes, I do know who Bart Simpson is - just had not cottoned on that if you said "Bart" it would mean Bart Simpson, and from the way the messages went, it sounded as if every US ship had a "Bart" on it: as if it was to be expected that "Bart" would be on board, and I was just curious about that. Thanks for explaining.
And I don't think Bart S has any connection to Bonnie Prince Charlie! (Note Charlie, not Charles!) And I bet you did not know that Bonnie Prince Charlie's real names were: Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Severino Maria Stuart (1720 - 1788). I hope you were not referring to our current Prince Charles, who isn't very "bonnie" at all, and takes himself very seriously.