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Solar eclipse in continental USA August 21, 2017
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Old 04-27-2016, 05:22 PM   #1
Rich Z
Solar eclipse in continental USA August 21, 2017

Mark your calendar! This sort of thing doesn't happen every day!

http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/maps.htm
 
Old 08-18-2017, 07:15 PM   #2
Rich Z
Copied from another thread since this kind of drifted off topic there...

Speaking of the eclipse, Connie called me from South Carolina this morning and she said there are signs all over route 95 warning of heavy traffic congestion in the area on Monday. Apparently this eclipse is now a huge media circus. I'm sure there will be vendors all along the path selling T-shirts showing the eclipse, which, of course, CAN'T be of THIS eclipse.

Connie is feeling pretty bad, but just wants to be back home. Just as well that we didn't make any reservations to be at Daytona or somewhere along the path of the eclipse as she said it was highly unlikely that she was even going to get out of bed the entire weekend. Way back when I first heard about the eclipse, I had figured staying in Santee, SC would have been perfect. The abandoned bridge across the lake there would have been a perfect spot to set up the camera. Of course, probably a zillion people had the same idea, so I'm sure it would have been so crowded there that we wouldn't be able to even move without bumping into three other people. Ah well, I'll just watch the eclipse on YouTube. Not sure how much we will be able to see of it from north Florida, but maybe a sliver of the moon will cross the sun. The is unless the clouds obscure the sun here at that time.

Addendum....

It's supposed to be mostly cloudy with a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms here on Monday. So probably not much chance I'm going to see it.
 
Old 08-19-2017, 08:55 AM   #3
DollysMom
We are going to Nashville to see it. The weather forecast is promising right now, but the time we will spend with family is most the most important thing. We've been planning this trip since last Christmas. The media hype is driving me crazy, too. Hope Connie gets through the day without too much difficulty.
 
Old 08-19-2017, 03:06 PM   #4
Rich Z
Connie got home last night safe and sound. If not a bit worn out from the trip and the bug she has been fighting with. She said she is REAL glad we hadn't committed to going to Expo this weekend. She seemed to get a good night's sleep last night, and is trying to relax today. She does sound better than she did the last couple of days when I talked to her on the phone. With any luck she isn't still contagious.

The weather forecast for this area has dropped to only a 30 percent chance of rain and thunderstorms, mostly after 2pm. Maybe I should go outside and do a practice run of videoing the sun through those dark filters I have to make sure I have the manual focus down pat. I'm not going to get a second chance at this. Of course, I have no idea if when the sun is mostly obscured by the moon how this will affect the exposure during the video. It might then be TOO dark.
 
Old 08-19-2017, 04:12 PM   #5
Rich Z
Got the tripod getup ready and mounted the camera on it. I've got two different filters, so I tried both of them. I took video with both, so maybe I will slice and dice them and show the difference. In short, one allows more light in than the other. The actual solar filter reduces the light enough where features like sunspots are plainly visible, whereas the other filter whites out entirely the entire sun. I'm really not sure which one is going to be best for the eclipse (clouds permitting). Have to think on it a bit. But one good thing I did this is that I noticed that the battery charge dropped pretty rapidly, so I'm going to have to use the AC adapter. I wouldn't want to have the battery go dead right in the middle of the eclipse. Actually I still have to worry about the camera going into thermal shut down, because this August sun is pretty darn hot, and the camera sitting out in direct sunlight before the eclipse reduces the light and head is going to get quite hot.





 
Old 08-19-2017, 05:17 PM   #6
DollysMom
Glad Connie got home alright. Just a quick post as we wait for my son at the hotel. Uneventful 55 min flight to Nashville. Looks like you are ready, weather permitting, Rich.
 
Old 08-19-2017, 05:20 PM   #7
DollysMom
P.S. You can look at it with the naked eye at totality, but if you are in FL you will have a partial and need the filter the whole time.
 
Old 08-19-2017, 06:40 PM   #8
Rich Z
Nope, not going to try that. I've already got some problems with my eyes that I need to get checked out. Don't want to make matters worse by getting burns by staring at the sun. I can just look at it through the viewfinder, and then watch whatever video I can get. I've been looking at the test videos I took, and I can see I'm still going to have some problems with focus. Even trying to focus on something 93 million miles away, the depth of field is still pretty narrow, surprisingly. Can't just run it out to the "infinity" setting, as evidently Nikon believes that infinity is even further away than the sun.

I'll upload the test video to YouTube shortly. Using the real solar filter, I can see sunspots pretty clearly. When I am focused properly, anyway. But there are some BIG ones pointing right at us right now. Hope we don't get a huge CME to knock us all out.
 
Old 08-19-2017, 06:53 PM   #9
Rich Z
Using my Nikon P900 on the Skywatcher Allview motorized head and tripod. I've got two dark filters I wanted to experiment with to see which one I want to try for the solar eclipse on 08-21-2017. Weather permitting, of course. This time of year, afternoon thunderstorms and showers are a pretty common event here in north Florida. So deep cloud cover will pretty much kill this idea of even seeing the eclipse.

This setup is pretty stable when I only have to move the camera's position via the Allview platform. Movement if very smooth and controllable, even at high magnifications. However, touching the camera itself to adjust focus or zoom is another matter entirely. Unfortunately Nikon doesn't offer, as far as I know, and remote that can do these functions.

Anyway, note the prominent sunspots pointing right in our direction. That's all we would need is to have a humongous CME to knock us back into the stone age.

Still can't make up my mind which of the two filters I should use. And I will only have time and opportunity to use only one of the two.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTQjm1SjnOw
 
Old 08-19-2017, 08:11 PM   #10
DollysMom
I'd use the Seymour. Much nicer picture IMHO. Best wishes whichever you use.
 

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