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General Chit-Chat Forum Discussion about general topics that are really off topic concerning corn snakes, or just about any old chit at all.

Solar eclipse in continental USA August 21, 2017
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Old 08-19-2017, 08:17 PM   #11
Rich Z
Quote:
Originally Posted by DollysMom View Post
I'd use the Seymour. Much nicer picture IMHO. Best wishes whichever you use.
Yeah, I agree, generally nicer color and detail. But what happens when the moon obscures close to 90 percent of the Sun? Will there be enough light for the video to continue?

I'm also wondering if the depth of field will be enough for both the edge of the moon and the sun to both be in focus. I don't get enough practice in taking video of solar eclipses, I guess....
 
Old 08-20-2017, 08:22 AM   #12
DollysMom
I hear you. This is the only rehearsal you get. 5 years ago I saw an annular (ring of fire) eclipse in Nevada north of Reno with an astronomer. Sadly I'm no longer in touch with her to ask. Those are the people who could tell you. I'm pretty sure she used something like your Seymour Solar. I know I could see sunspots. If I recall we had about 90% coverage.
 
Old 08-20-2017, 11:55 AM   #13
Rich Z
Well, there is another wrinkle. Evidently SLR style cameras with video capability are limited to 30 minutes of continuous video. Don't ask me why. I don't know why manufacturers do silly crap like this.

Anyway, the eclipse here is supposed to start at 1:09pm and end at 4:07pm. So IF the camera can sit out in the sun for that long without overheating, I will still have to babysit it the entire time and I guess reset the video every 29 minutes or so. I think the 64gb card in the camera will hold 3 hours worth of 1080p video.

So I'm going to have to be manually adjusting the Allview to try to keep the Sun and Moon in the frame and also keep track of the runtime so I can reset the video at 29 minutes. For 3 hours..... I guess I had better put a lawn chair and some drinks out there.

Well, maybe it will rain and all the above won't matter. The weather people raised the ante by now saying there is a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms on Monday. They will probably change that forecast at least three more times.
 
Old 08-20-2017, 03:23 PM   #14
DollysMom
I wish you good weather. It's supposed to be mostly sunny with a few clouds in Gallatin TN where I'll be.

It is crazy and crowded for the eclipse here in Nashville, but we did get to see the Johnny Cash Museum this morning and are going to the Grand Ole Opry tonight.

I long ago decided to not try to take photos of it. Sounds challenging. I hope your video turns out great.
 
Old 08-20-2017, 05:22 PM   #15
Karl_Mcknight
I have been experimenting with sheets of Mylar and took several photos of the sun the other day just practicing. 2 sheets rubber banded to my lens worked well for the low early morning sun, and I'm thinking I may have to add a 3rd sheet as the sun will be high overhead and bright when it starts here. I'm also setting up a solar projector to project the image onto the ground so other people can gather around and watch it. I'm not going to try to video, rather I think I'll just snap a pic here and there to capture the different phases. Once it enters "Totality" I'll have about 2 minutes (in my area) where I can rip off the mylar sheets and take actual unprotected images of the corona. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for no clouds.
 
Old 08-20-2017, 09:24 PM   #16
Rich Z
Well they did modify the forecast for tomorrow a bit.

Quote:
A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm.
And I see storms rolling in from the east right now. I can feel Murphy's Law kicking in to high gear....... Wasn't enough that he plagued me unmercifully during hatching season when I had the critters.
 
Old 08-21-2017, 09:53 AM   #17
DollysMom
Rich and Karl I don't know about you, but I'm finding myself a bit more into excited than I expected. The campus here at Volunteer State in Gallatin, TN is a beautiful setting. It's a family crowd who are interested in the science and educational events that are planned. We are in the auditorium waiting for the talks to start. Then we will go outside for viewing. It will be partly cloudy, and I'm still glad we made the effort to come here.

I hope you guys have fun and get great pictures! If you don't get pictures I still hope you have fun.
 
Old 08-21-2017, 11:49 AM   #18
Rich Z
Well, the weather MIGHT be OK. We had a thunderstorm pass through in the early AM hours, so maybe that was the morning rain they were talking about in one of their forecasts. Here is the forecast now for today:

Quote:
A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 3pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 92. Heat index values as high as 101.
But hot it will be..... But a hazy sky might not be too bad. Might play hell with me trying to get the sun focused properly, however.

I'm going to try to figure out some sort of sun block shield for the camera body. As hot as it is going to be, and with the sun shining directly on the camera body for a good three hours, the camera might go into thermal shutdown on me.

Of course, with ME sitting out in the sun for three hours having to manually adjust the position of the camera to track the sun, I just might go into thermal shutdown myself.

Well, guess I had better get cracking if I am going to figure out that camera body sun block thingy.

Here goes nothing...
 
Old 08-21-2017, 05:22 PM   #19
Rich Z
Well, this actually worked out. When I went out to set up the camera gear on the garage apron around 12:45, things didn't look so hot. Clouds had rolled in, and the way it looked, I thought that was going to be the story for the entire day. The first hint of the eclipse was supposed to be visible at 1:09, and at 1:10 the cloud bank stretched from one horizon to the other. I was almost going to just pack up the gear and call it a day, but decided that there really was no harm in just sitting in the lawn chair I had out with me and just wait a while. Sure enough, the skies cleared up and I rushed to get the sun centered on the camera, focused (I hope!), and video running. There were a few patches of clouds that did obscure the sun here and there. And right at 2:30 it actually started to rain. The weird thing was that the rain was coming out of nowhere. Wasn't really any clouds at all around me, so I really don't know where the raid was coming from. Probably just Murphy messing with me. But it wasn't hard and didn't last more than 10 minutes or so. I just sat it out and kept the video running.

Then around 3:30 or so, my camera died. I thought the sunlight had killed it, but fortunately it was just the battery. Apparently the Nikon P900 doesn't actually run off of the AC adapter. The adapter just applies a charge to the battery, and evidently taking video depletes the battery faster than the charger can keep a charge in the battery. I didn't remember to take out a spare battery with me, so I lost time running to the house to get a spare and load it up in the camera.

Honestly, someone walking outside around here when the moon had obscured the sun as much as it was going to would likely have never even noticed the eclipse. The sunlight did get reduced in intensity quite a bit, but no more than a high cloud might do.

BTW, when I got finished and came back into the house, I checked the weather radar and it appears that luck was really with me concerning the weather. Heavy clouds and rain to the east and west of me. And DARN lucky we didn't decide to run up to Santee, SC to try to catch the total eclipse. From what I can see of the weather radar up there, it looked like it would have been a complete waste of our time going there.

Anyway, hopefully I'll process the video real soon. I won't be able to do any timelapse, since I had to manually adjust the position of the camera with the camera mount, and timelapse would just have the sun/moon swinging all over the video. Probably enough to make people actually ill to watch it. It wasn't until the eclipse was mostly over with that I discovered what seemed to be the best way to use that Allview mount to track the sun. Oh well. Maybe in my next life I'll remember this. I don't think there are any more solar eclipses in store for me in this life.

Oh I did a screen capture of the weather radar to show how fortunate I actually turned out being today for this eclipse.
 
Old 08-21-2017, 05:32 PM   #20
DollysMom
I'm so glad you got your video!

Basing my expectations on the weather forecast and the building clouds I was thinking we wouldn't see it. Then the clouds that were there dissipated. We had a clear view the entire time. We saw the corona, Jupiter and Venus and the crickets started to chirp as if at night. I hope Karl had the same view because it was amazing.
 

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