August 2017 solar eclipse follow-up

Decided to start this thread that people are talking about. I'd like to see images of the eclipse itself, pictures of people's set ups, descriptions of what you did that worked, accounts of mistakes you made, etc. it would even be okay to repost some of what got in the MiN thread so it will be here for us to review later.

I'll start.

What I did right.

1. The pictured set up is a Nikon D500 with 600/f4 AFS VR with front Spectrum Telescope glass filter. In my opinion, that kit was perfect.

2. I shot manual focus for everything. For non-totality I used manual exposure mode. For totality I used aperture priority mode. For every shot I bracketed 9 exposures at 0.7 using the fastest FS rate. I believe I would do all of that the next time also.

3. I got a right angle viewfinder, which was incredibly helpful when attached to a camera/lens that was pointing almost straight upwards.

Mistakes I made.

1. I was planning to use my Gitzo 1548 tripod with Jobu gimbal head as the support. Turns out it wouldn't allow the tilt that I needed. Luckily, I had also brought my 1348 with the Arca-Swiss ball head that saved the day.

2. I didn't make sure to keep the sun in the middle of my viewfinder during totality. The drift cost me the 360 degree view of the prominences on a few images.

3. Didn't use insect repellant and got about 25 chigger bites.

What I learned from others.

1. The people next to me had fairly basic camera gear, but were using a product I was unaware of. It is called Cam Ranger and consists of a wireless transmitter connected to the camera which allows remote control of all camera settings and a live view from a tablet. They couldn't control camera position from the tablet, although Cam Ranger also sells a remotely controllable ball head, but it only supports up to 6 pounds. I am seriously considering getting at least the transmitter.

Here's the viewing setup I used for my students: cheap Celestron 70mm f10 refractor with aperture cap, cheap Hugens 20mm eyepiece, and homemade projection box. Perfectly safe and several can view at once. Here's an image taken about 15 minutes from maximum eclipse.

Also used a solar filter over the front of my ancient 500mm f8 preset tele attached to my EOS Rebel T3 for a few images:

First contact, cropped

And another cropped image

maximum eclipse for my area

I had three devices on tripods for visual and telephoto work, and the telephoto took second place to visually enjoying the event and helping folks peer through 4" right-angle big eye binoculars and a 60 mm spotting scope (20x magnification on each). Lessons learned ...

1. Aiming a long telephoto or high magnification scopes for celestial objects through a solar filter is a challenge. For the binocs and spotting scope, I took note of how the filter holder shadow fell on the eyepiece end of the gear and placed a bit of black tape at the edge of the shadow. Once I showed folks how to line up the shadow with the tape marks, they could re-aim without my coaching.

2. To align the telephoto, I mounted the camera on an aluminum bar and c-clamped a straight 1"x1"x24" piece of wood on the bar. After pre-alignment, I could aim the assembly by watching for the shadows down the wood and find the sun in the camera eyepiece, then center in the frame from there.

3. My big eye right angle binocs are mounted in a Dobsonian rocker box and finding/tracking the sun was easy. The binocs are balanced and stay aimed without clamping.

4. Ball heads were problematic (BH-55 and Monoball). Once the sun rose past 45 degrees in altitude, the weight of the gear on top of the ball head was off center and there was considerable sag after tightening the ball. In addition, the slot orientation for high angle work created bad ergonomics with the tightening knob on the front of the ballhead vs. the side. Before 1st contact, sag after tightening was 1/2 solar diameter. As the sun's altitude increased, the weight imbalance also increased. At totality, the sag after tightening was 2+ solar diameters. I regret not taking the time to knock together a rocker box or other balanced mount for the camera+telephoto.

I had three devices on tripods for visual and telephoto work, and the telephoto took second place to visually enjoying the event and helping folks peer through 4" right-angle big eye binoculars and a 60 mm spotting scope (20x magnification on each). Lessons learned ...

 

1. Aiming a long telephoto or high magnification scopes for celestial objects through a solar filter is a challenge. For the binocs and spotting scope, I took note of how the filter holder shadow fell on the eyepiece end of the gear and placed a bit of black tape at the edge of the shadow. Once I showed folks how to line up the shadow with the tape marks, they could re-aim without my coaching.

 

2. To align the telephoto, I mounted the camera on an aluminum bar and c-clamped a straight 1"x1"x24" piece of wood on the bar. After pre-alignment, I could aim the assembly by watching for the shadows down the wood and find the sun in the camera eyepiece, then center in the frame from there.

 

3. My big eye right angle binocs are mounted in a Dobsonian rocker box and finding/tracking the sun was easy. The binocs are balanced and stay aimed without clamping.

 

4. Ball heads were problematic (BH-55 and Monoball). Once the sun rose past 45 degrees in altitude, the weight of the gear on top of the ball head was off center and there was considerable sag after tightening the ball. In addition, the slot orientation for high angle work created bad ergonomics with the tightening knob on the front of the ballhead vs. the side. Before 1st contact, sag after tightening was 1/2 solar diameter. As the sun's altitude increased, the weight imbalance also increased. At totality, the sag after tightening was 2+ solar diameters. I regret not taking the time to knock together a rocker box or other balanced mount for the camera+telephoto.

John,

Totally agree with your comments concerning the challenge of getting the sun in the viewfinder. In my case it was the D500/60mm combo. I was planning on rigging up something like what you describe in 2, but didn't get finished. I'm going to work on it ASAP so I don't forget it until 2024. What did work fairly well for me was using the live view to get the sun in the viewfinder and then the right angle viewfinder to tweak the position and shoot the pictures. For some reason, it was reasonable easy to do with the live view because you could sort of see where the "glare" was coming from and then find it on the LCD screen.

I didn't have any trouble with "creep" using my Gitzo 1348 tripod, Arca Swiss B1 and Really Right Stuff clamp. I was definitely very careful about getting it in the QR and screwing it down tight as I'm always nervous when I put that big rig on the tripod. Having said that, next time I'm going to rig a motorized equatorial mount for a camera attachment. Continually having to get the sum back in the viewfinder drove me crazy. :-)

John,

Totally agree with your comments concerning the challenge of getting the sun in the viewfinder. In my case it was the D500/60mm combo. I was planning on rigging up something like what you describe in 2, but didn't get finished. I'm going to work on it ASAP so I don't forget it until 2024. What did work fairly well for me was using the live view to get the sun in the viewfinder and then the right angle viewfinder to tweak the position and shoot the pictures. For some reason, it was reasonable easy to do with the live view because you could sort of see where the "glare" was coming from and then find it on the LCD screen.

I didn't have any trouble with "creep" using my Gitzo 1348 tripod, Arca Swiss B1 and Really Right Stuff clamp. I was definitely very careful about getting it in the QR and screwing it down tight as I'm always nervous when I put that big rig on the tripod. Having said that, next time I'm going to rig a motorized equatorial mount for a camera attachment. Continually having to get the sum back in the viewfinder drove me crazy. :)

I meant 600mm lens, not 60mm.

We had an outstanding experience, with perfect weather and a clear view from about 20 miles west of Rexburg, ID. Here is my setup. I had two cameras on tripods, one primary (D7100 with Tamron 150-600mm/5-6.3) and a secondary/backup (D5100 with Nikkor 70-300mm + Tamron 2x teleconverter) on sturdy tripods, both with home-fabricated solar filters. I set up the tripods so I could get underneath the bodies from a low-slung beach chair. My physicist wife and engineer daughters ran the telescopes and spotting scopes and binoculars for the rest of our group of about 25.

I did not get a precise a focus as I had hoped, but it was very difficult given the bright sun and backgrounds. Still, good enough to see sunspots.

We had the time tracked down to the second, and the very first hint of moon over the sun's disk was captured, even before I could clearly see it in my viewfinder:

Excitement grew as the moon tracked steadily across the sun's disk. I made an image about ever 2-1/2 minutes through the full duration of the event. Here are just a few in the progression:

As totality approached I looked off to the west and could see the moon's shadow racing towards us through the atmosphere. It looked like a thunderstorm, but without clouds. I pointed it out to the group, but,sadly, didn't have a camera free to try and capture it. Then, suddenly, Totality!

The sun was a black disk with vast tendrils of wispy light flowing outwards. I quickly pulled the filters off and tried to go through the pre-established series of exposures I had planned to make. In the excitement of the moment I totally flubbed it. Still, capturing in raw format gave me enough flexibility to extract these images. Here you can see solar prominences extending outwards from the sun's surface:

Bailey's Beads appeared, every so briefly, shining through valleys in the mountains of the moon:

And then, as Totality ended, the diamond ring! (I can only assume the oddity at 8:00 is an abberration in the lens?)

I should note that the temperature dropped over 20 degrees F as the sun passed behind the moon, and the horizon for 360 degrees around took on the aspect of a sunset. Then, Totality was over as quickly as it had come:

From there, it was the initial progression, in reverse, but worth every minute. You can see a more complete set of images in my gallery at <LINK> What an amazing, glorious experience. It was worth the effort, time, and trouble, even the travel and camping. I think we've caught the bug, and are wondering how we'll manage Texas in 2024,or maybe Argentina even sooner. I hope all of you had as much fun as we did. Thanks for sharing!

next time I'm going to rig a motorized equatorial mount for a camera attachment

I'm thinking the same thing, maybe even piggy-backing the camera on a good telescope, so I can spend more time enjoying the event and less time fussing with the equipment. Still, I'd do it all over in a heartbeat, given the opportunity.

I'm thinking the same thing, maybe even piggy-backing the camera on a good telescope, so I can spend more time enjoying the event and less time fussing with the equipment. Still, I'd do it all over in a heartbeat, given the opportunity.

I agree with your sentiments, David. Hard to describe the experience in words. Despite being somewhat burned by thick clouds during totality, the experience of sudden darkness, 10-15 degree temperature drop, wind dying from 15-20 mph to perhaps 5 mph, cicadas briefly sounding at "dusk", oohs and ahhs from folks watching, sudden light, temperature and wind back up to prior levels, cicadas briefly sounding at "dawn" all happening in about 3 minutes - well there is just no other experience like it. I will remember it for a long time. I also plan to see the 2024 eclipse and perhaps an earlier one also somewhere in the world. Meantime, while I am still excited I want to get all my other ideas developed and my set-up ready while things are still fresh in my mind. I'm a notorious procrastinator trying to avoid my normal tendencies.

Here's a great video, by Rick Wilking, photojournalist for Reuters and Sony a9 user. He tell the story of planning and shooting the eclipse for Reuters. He talks about his Sony a bunch, but also the job of documenting the event. He ends up getting a shot of an airliner passing the sun/moon at totality:

How a photojournalist shot the eclipse photo of a lifetime with the Sony a9

I was on Canada's extreme east coast, Newfoundland, and was shooting the city of St. John's when someone nearby casually said, 'isn't today supposed to be the eclipse?'. I don't recall the light even changing there, although it may have at some point. At any rate, it was a total non-event for me this year.

I did manage to watch one many years ago, though, through a reflector telescope I bought as a young teenager. It came equipped with a cone-shaped eye piece that screwed on and looked very much like an inverted Gemini space capsule. The large diameter end had a white screen and when aimed and focused the sun's image was projected onto it from beneath. It was designed to view the sun and its flares, regardless of eclipses. That telescope always drew a huge crowd to our driveway and I have never stopped gazing skyward on clear nights, often spending hours on my back on our deck in the wee hours.