Solar Eclipse 2017

[USAFRet]

August 21, 2017, all the way across the continental US landmass.
https://www.space.com/33797-total-solar-eclipse-2017-guide.html

From my current location, we will see a partial. Assuming no cloud cover, of course.

You must have actual glasses or filters, certified for looking at the actual Sun.
ISO 12312-2 certified glasses or filters for your camera/telescope.

You WILL go blind otherwise. Or your camera sensor will burn out.

My glasses arrived today, this is a camera test image through the 'glasses'.
This was taken at 3:45PM, on a bright sunny day.

Before the actual 2-3 minutes on Aug 21....test, test, test. You only get one shot at this.
There is no do over.

 

[13thmonkey]

Saw one in france in the late 90's very cool, don't forget to observe without the camera too, preferably set the camera up so that you can just hit the remote trigger, so you can actually be there yourself too.

 

[USAFRet]

Saw one in france in the late 90's very cool, don't forget to observe without the camera too, preferably set the camera up so that you can just hit the remote trigger, so you can actually be there yourself too.

Right. The camera will be on its intervalometer, doing its own thing. Probably every 2-3 secs.

Still considering driving to my sister in laws house in NC. Path of totality.
But....cloud cover???

 

[13thmonkey]

Got to be on the path, we drove for about 6 hours and had to use a ferry, look at the weather charts for the a few days ahead and head out to the middle of nowhere if that's where it is clear.

Also go somewhere with some wildlife, listening to everything stop is amazing.

 

[kenrivers]

Is there any one particular filter you would recommend?

 

[USAFRet]

Is there any one particular filter you would recommend?

Something with the proper certification:
" ISO 12312-2 compliant and CE certified"

I got these glasses:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073X5TWQ6

One of them will become a donor for the camera.

 

[kenrivers]

Thank you. That is about a 1/10 the price of the filters I have seen at sites like B&H and considering the use the glasses look like a good option.

 

[USAFRet]

I'll post a pic of the 'finished' DIY filter once I've built it.

Basically, cardboard with a cutout for the glasses filter, taped to a standard UV filter screwed to the front of the camera.

 

[USAFRet]

So...

Sacrificing one of the Solar glasses from American Paper Optics, via Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Eclipse-Glasses-Certified-Assorted-Protection/dp/B01M2WDBQU

Some cardboard, duct tape, ND2 screw on filter, Fujinon 50-230mm lens. Fuji X-T1...

Now, just have to make 2 more. 1 for the Fuji HS10 to maybe make an actual video, and 1 for the very cheesy 500mm $88 lens I just bought, just for this.

 

[13thmonkey]

I thought I could see sunspots on that, but it was dirt on my screen.

 

[USAFRet]

I thought I could see sunspots on that, but it was dirt on my screen.

Far right, just below the center line.

 

[13thmonkey]

I thought I could see sunspots on that, but it was dirt on my screen.

Far right, just below the center line.

Got it, mine were bigger and more numerous, must find screen cleaner.

 

[USAFRet]

And unfortunately, our potential trip to the totality at my sister in laws house in NC is off the book.

A very old friend is coming that week...I am apparently on his Bucket List.
Cancer, doc said he was supposed to be dead last November. So he's doing a little bucket list, which includes coming here for a week.

 

[13thmonkey]

how far off the track of totality are you?

 

[USAFRet]

how far off the track of totality are you?

The red circle

We will get ~88% coverage.

 

[USAFRet]

Assuming I am still vertical and breathing, April 2024:
https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2024Apr08Tgoogle.html

 

[13thmonkey]

5 hour drive to the closest point is probably too much to make it a road trip, maybe it's something on his list that he didn't know would be on the list?

 

[USAFRet]

5 hour drive to the closest point is probably too much to make it a road trip, maybe it's something on his list that he didn't know would be on the list?

Logistics doesn't work.
They're driving from Cleveland to here on Sunday.

If we were going to sis in laws just south of Asheville NC, we'd go on Friday or Saturday, and come back here Tuesday.
Sleeping on an airbed in her living room...lol

Pretty sure he can't manage that much mileage in just a coupla days.
He already delayed the trip a week due to 'complications'.

And then the potentiality of cloud cover, and the probable insanity on the roads.

Ah well.

 

[13thmonkey]

suspected that might be the case, sorry to hear that about your friend, look after him, might be something worth looking at at 88%, but I know it falls off very quickly.

 

[USAFRet]

suspected that might be the case, sorry to hear that about your friend, look after him, might be something worth looking at at 88%, but I know it falls off very quickly.

Yeah, I've known him and wife since 1980.
His literal "last bits of life" trumps my desire for "once in a lifetime that may be clouded over anyway".

 

[13thmonkey]

it kind of does... hope all goes well with the visit.

 

[USAFRet]

At the moment of greatest coverage here:

 

[13thmonkey]

That's not bad at all. Well done.

 

[USAFRet]

That's not bad at all. Well done.

And, except for cropping, that is exactly as it came out of the camera.
No post exposure or sharpness changes.

 

[USAFRet]

That's not bad at all. Well done.

And, except for cropping, that is exactly as it came out of the camera.
No post exposure or sharpness changes.