Solar Eclipse

City-Exile

A partial Solar Eclipse should be visible in Ireland tomorrow morning.
It's very dangerous to point your camera at the sun, as focusing on the sun for any period would cause damage to your sensor & I think I read somewhere that it can damage the coating on some lenses.

Now that we've got that out of the way, what is the best way to photograph it?
Has anyone managed to do it before?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

conkeroo

Never photographed one before but I read somewhere that you should use a UV filter and some ND's. Don't take my word for it though. Don't want to get an invoice for the repairs! :pac:

melekalikimaka

melekalikimaka

When viewing or photographing the partial phases of any solar eclipse, you must always use a solar filter. A solar filter is also needed for observing all phases of an annular eclipse, when the disk of the Moon does not block the entire face of the Sun. Even if 99% of the Sun is covered, the remaining crescent or ring is dangerously bright. It is like looking at a welder's torch; it will painlessly burn your eyes. Failure to use a solar filter can result in serious eye damage or permanent blindness. Do not look directly at the Sun without proper eye protection!

During totality, however, when the disk (photosphere) of the Sun is fully covered by the Moon, it is completely safe to look at this phase of the eclipse without any solar filter. In fact, you must remove the solar filter during totality or you will not be able to see or photograph the exquisite solar prominences and corona.

Solar filters for telescopes and cameras are usually made of metal-coated glass to provide the highest resolution, although aluminized Mylar can also be used. These filters vary in the wavelength (color) of light they transmit. Aluminized Mylar filters show a blue-gray Sun, while the more expensive metal-coated glass filters transmit a more realistic orange Sun. Materials and techniques that should not be used for solar filters include exposed color film, stacked neutral density filters, smoked glass, and crossed polaroid filters.

There are three types of solar filters: eyepiece, off-axis, and full-aperture. Eyepiece filters, furnished with some small telescopes, are not safe and should never be used for viewing the Sun. The tremendous heat generated at the eyepiece can easily shatter or crack the filter, allowing the full intensity of the Sun's light to be magnified and focused on your retina. Throw eyepiece filters away.

The only safe solar filters for telescopes and cameras are full-aperture and off-axis filters, both of which fit over the objective (front end) of the telescope or camera lens. A full-aperture solar filter is a cap with a solar filter mounted across its entire top. An off-axis solar filter is a cap with a hole off to one side into which the solar filter is mounted. Off-axis filters are cheaper than full-aperture filters.

If you use an off-axis solar filter with any catadioptric telephoto lens, the focus of the Sun will change significantly when you remove the filter to photograph totality. You must refocus. The optical field of a catadioptric system is not flat, and focusing with only the edge of the mirror is quite different from focusing with the whole mirror. In a full-aperture solar filter, the filter occupies the entire top of the cap and thus the focus is averaged over the entire surface of the mirror. No refocusing is needed when the filter is removed at the beginning of totality or when the filter is replaced at the end of totality. Full-aperture solar filters are preferred.[4]

If your telescope has a finder scope, be sure to place a small Mylar solar filter over its objective lens to protect your eyes and to keep the finder cross-hairs from burning. If you don't have any Mylar, keep the lens cover on the finder scope.

from here

http://www.mreclipse.com/SEphoto/SEphoto.html

Thoie

http://www.mreclipse.com/SEphoto/SEphoto.html looks interesting.

Um, snap! Mod, do you want to delete this?

City-Exile

Ok, I'm not buying anything just to photograph this.
I was wondering if anyone had used another technique, such as reflecting it onto another surface & photographing that.

SOL

I watched the last solar eclipse by pointing a 2 inch telescope at the sun WITHOUT LOOKING THROUGH IT, and then you can project the image on a wall, this can be done at any time to observe sunspots etc. but it is very important NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN THROUGH A TELESCOPE WITHOUT A PROPER SOLAR PROTECTOR. so you have to set it up by trial and error and slow adjustment... but it is quite easy

magicbastarder

one cheap way of looking at a solar eclipse is to tear open a floppy disk and lok through the magnetic disk.

City-Exile

magicbastarder wrote: »

one cheap way of looking at a solar eclipse is to tear open a floppy disk and lok through the magnetic disk.

That's right up there with looking at the sun through a CD.
It's no safer than looking through sunglasses.
Seriously dangerous rays can pass through them.
Crazy to do stuff like that!

Paulw

Should I be the one to mention that the sky is covered in cloud and it's raining? So, you can't even make out an outline of a sun in this weather.

I do have a ND10 filter, so that might be useful.

magicbastarder

City-Exile wrote: »

That's right up there with looking at the sun through a CD.
It's no safer than looking through sunglasses.
Seriously dangerous rays can pass through them.
Crazy to do stuff like that!

a floppy disk is a hell of a lot darker than sunglasses. if anything, it darkens the image too much.

nilhg

I've heard of a number 14 welders glass being used but would personally only chance it for a very short period of time.

Probably the safest way to observe it is using the pinhole camera effect using a piece of card and a pin, proper photographers should know the rest....:D

City-Exile

magicbastarder wrote: »

a floppy disk is a hell of a lot darker than sunglasses. if anything, it darkens the image too much.

You go ahead & blind yourself, mate.
I couldn't care less!
I fulfilled my moral obligation to inform you of the dangers.

Paulw, you're such a pessimist!
The sun will be out tomorrow morning.

Paulw

City-Exile wrote: »

Paulw, you're such a pessimist!
The sun will be out tomorrow morning.

Nah, a realist, and someone fed up of the rain.

From Met Eireann -

Tomorrow Friday will be a mostly cloudy day with only brief sunny spells. Showers will occur widely, some heavy and prolonged

Orion

melekalikimaka wrote: »

During totality, however, when the disk (photosphere) of the Sun is fully covered by the Moon, it is completely safe to look at this phase of the eclipse without any solar filter. In fact, you must remove the solar filter during totality or you will not be able to see or photograph the exquisite solar prominences and corona.

Absolutely not - it's almost as dangerous to look at the sun during a total eclipse. Totality doesn't last long and as soon as the earth starts coming out of the shadow you are in danger of blindness.

Regardless of that - tomorrow's eclipse is only partial in Ireland.

SOL

yeah, ND10 might help your camera since the rest of the glass will help mop up the UV but if you look at it yourself through that you may end up blind

CabanSail

I think the safest way to look at is on the 6pm News

chat2joe

It's looking very cloudy this morning :mad:

paulusdu

i see blue, so we might get lucky :-)

Ricky91t

i have sun!*digs out crappy old compact*

Eirebear

I thought it was only partial?
The sun is completely obscured where i am, cant see a bit of it! :P

chat2joe

For Sale: Lots of Clouds
Location: Galway
Price: Free for quick sale.

Tip tip - smear factor 50 on your lens for protection from those rays.

mike65

Apparently its underway. Hard to tell.

Mike.

magicbastarder

City-Exile wrote: »

You go ahead & blind yourself, mate.
I couldn't care less!
I fulfilled my moral obligation to inform you of the dangers.

the sun doesn't emit death rays, you know. well, not once you're within the atmosphere and magnetosphere.
i'd liken the brightness of the sun through this (well, the disk i used, which was a bog standard one) to looking at a 30W bulb from about one hundred feet away.

sunny2004

magicbastarder wrote: »

the sun doesn't emit death rays, you know. well, not once you're within the atmosphere and magnetosphere.
i'd liken the brightness of the sun through this (well, the disk i used, which was a bog standard one) to looking at a 30W bulb from about one hundred feet away.

I would not try this

If you want to view the sun you need
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Solar-Eclipse-Glasses-CE-Filter-Viewer-Pack-5-Viewers_W0QQitemZ130239719587QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item130239719587&_trksid=p3286.m14.l1318

If you want to photograph it you need to read this..


http://www.mreclipse.com/Special/filters.html


If you screw up there is no going back with this..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A357013

mike65

Typically it cleared up at it ened here. I was only going to photograph the reflection on sheet of paper.

Mike.

City-Exile

magicbastarder wrote: »

the sun doesn't emit death rays, you know. well, not once you're within the atmosphere and magnetosphere.

Like I said, I couldn't care less about you, but on the off chance than others are foolish enough to believe your flawed information, I'm going to post this.

"Home made shields (for example, CDs, smoked glass, crisp / chip packets, exposed colour or chromogenic B/W film etc) - these appear to reduce the intensity of the Sun to a comfortable level but transmit dangerous amounts of invisible infra-red or ultra-violet radiation that can cause retinal burns. May be suitable for photographic use in the absence of a proper filter, but you must not look through the viewfinder with any of these attached."

smash

I didn't see a thing

magicbastarder

i've been meaning to buy a H-alpha filter for my telescope for years, but never got round to it, and i've never been able to stump up or justify the money involved in going to see a full eclipse - partial ones have little to hold the attention.

and yes, diskettes were not built with the purpose of watching solar eclipses. though the swedish and norwegian governments advised schoolchildren to look at a solar eclipse in the late 90s through diskettes; i don't think there were any reports of casualties.
of course they're going to vastly overstate the risks of looking at an eclipse, regardless of equipment used, but an old professor of mine said he found it bemusing that there was so much hooha over damage to your eyes during a solar eclipse, yet people were willing to go out in the snow/on sand, etc. on sunny days without glasses. he wondered why some people only seem to care about their eyes when the light from the sun was attenuated...

sunny2004

steve06 wrote: »

I didn't see a thing

Are you blind ????

jackdaw

I have photgraphed sunsets in the past , this didn't seem to damage my sensor , I used high f numbers fast shutter speeds etc...

now im paranoid ..

sunny2004

jackdaw wrote: »

I have photgraphed sunsets in the past , this didn't seem to damage my sensor , I used high f numbers fast shutter speeds etc...

now im paranoid ..

My understanding of this is that sunsets and sunrises are positioned that the sun is weaker as its cutting through much more atmosphere...

I think it would be a good idea to ask the guys in astronomy...

*edit... Done...

jackdaw

sunny2004 wrote: »

My understanding of this is that sunsets and sunrises are positioned that the sun is weaker as its cutting through much more atmosphere...

I think it would be a good idea to ask the guys in astronomy...

maybe this could damage the sensor

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3110/2694685389_89eebb8932_b.jpg


f/9 1/4000

sunny2004

jackdaw wrote: »

maybe this could damage the sensor

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3110/2694685389_89eebb8932_b.jpg


f/9 1/4000

you just showed an image that has an over-exposed area!
Are you saying that any over exposed image can damage the sensor ?
If I point my camera at a bulb on bulb setting for an hour will I damage the sensor ? I am not claiming to know the answer here, it just doesnt make sense..

jackdaw

sunny2004 wrote: »

you just showed an image that has an over-exposed area!
Are you saying that any over exposed image can damage the sensor ?
If I point my camera at a bulb on bulb setting for an hour will I damage the sensor ? I am not claiming to know the answer here, it just doesnt make sense..

Ok thanks .. thats it just a bit of over exposure .. but when i was taking others i was carefull ...

sunny2004

I think the issue (and I am open to correction) the issue is accumulative,
IE, our folks over a lifetime of not wearing sunglasses have degraded their eyesight over time... more than what happens naturally..

Looking at the sun will speed this up, looking at the sun during a eclipse will blind you pretty quick

I wear sunglasses most days regardless of weather conditions and always while driving... in case I look out the open window

chat2joe

So anyone get a shot of the eclipse?! I was clouded out of it.

thebaz

City-Exile wrote: »

It's very dangerous to point your camera at the sun, as focusing on the sun for any period would cause damage to your sensor & I think I read somewhere that it can damage the coating on some lenses.

can photographing sunsets or sunrises damage the sensor , or is only when sun is fully up?
I would think a UV filter would protect camera in these instances.

CabanSail

I seem to remember that the danger with looking at a Solar Eclipse with the naked eye is the UV Damage that can occur. It's the UV that causes sunburn & it can also burn the retina. If you were to look at the Sun normally the iris shuts right down & lets little light in. During an eclipse the visible light is reduced, so the iris opens up, but the UV is still present & so can cause burns.

That was the explanation I recall from many years ago & it may not be 100% accurate.

SOL

you are much more likely to damage the auxillary sensors, since your main sensor is so briefly exposed, so you may wreck your meter, but I think you would have to do some seriously stupid things to do that, and if you aren't blind after taking the phot then I doubt your camera will be either...

Flukey

Another idea is to photograph a projected image of the Sun. I used this approach to photograph the Venus transit of the Sun in 2004. See my site here for the results: Flukey's Astronomy Page. I was hoping to do something similar last Friday, but the clouds didn't co-operate.:(

challengemaster

So...anyone got pics of it then?

whyulittle

Just noticed that there is a partial lunar eclipse visible from Ireland tonight, weather permitting.

challengemaster

Right now the weather is permitting nothing but f*cking rain and more flooding. I saw a street in Naas today, looked like a canal..:eek:

Burnt

Recent eclipse from APOD