Solar

[CharlesH]

There is a solar eclipse in North America tomorrow. it will be a full eclipse from parts of Mexico up through Eastern Canada. But here in California it will just be a bite. Nevertheless I'm trying to figure out how to get a shot of that. Does anyone have experience with solar eclipse shots?

I took some practice shots of the full sun today to see what's possible. This is hand held with the 70-300mm lens at 300mm, and a stack of three 0.9 ND filters, at 1/8000 second and f/22. I can just get the sun so it isn't over exposed. There are some sun spots but that's about it. This is cropped to 1239 x 1234 pixels. If I get anything worthwhile of the eclipse I'll post it tomorrow.

 

[Oíche]

Congratulations you have photographed sunspots, I think Galileo supposedly first seen these, if you want to learn more about them go to spaceweather.com. They are more interesting than the partial eclipse you will try and photograph in which there be 500 million photos appearing soon. It may be worth it to just view it instead and a partial eclipse is not spectacular either way, I did this in 1999.

Here in this part of Ireland we get a 28% solar eclipse tomorrow at 20:10.GMT. I could go up the mountain tomorrow evening and try and photograph it as an exposure bracketed landscape photo close to the horizon but the weather forecast is rain and I'm only slightly interested. The sun by itself with a bit covered... I don't know if it's a bucket list thing or because everyone else is doing it but I don't see the point, and others with pro astronomy gear will do a far better job.

We'll be sick listening to it all in 24 hours time

 

[CharlesH]

Congratulations you have photographed sunspots, I think Galileo supposedly first seen these, if you want to learn more about them go to spaceweather.com

Ha ha, I just want to see what the S5II and the 100-300mm can do.

Yes, real space scientists would probably laugh. The closest I get, I'm an advisor to the University of Colorado department of aerospace sciences, where 20 of our graduates are former or current astronauts, and where you can get an advanced degree in space weather.

There is an outstanding sun telescope in Science City at the top of Mt. Haleakala on the island of Maui, Hawaii. This is at 10,000 feet (3048 meters), with clear Pacific sky . This is the Inouye Solar Telescope - scientists there study the sun's surface in great detail. I, on the other hand, go to Maui quite a bit and then to Science City late at night to shoot the Milky Way. I expect the real space scientists laugh.

 

[CharlesH]

Here is the partial eclipse from California today, over Cupertino.

 

[CharlesH]

And here it is from my California backyard with the 5SII and the 70-300mm, at the maximum 49% area.

• Panasonic - DC-S5M2
• LUMIX S 70-300/F4.5-5.6
• 300.0 mm
• ƒ/22
• 1/8000 sec
• Pattern
• Manual exposure
• ISO 100