The Sun

August 21st there will be a total eclipse of the Sun. The eclipse will traverse the continental US from Washington State to South Carolina. I will see it , weather permitting. I won’t really care if I don’t get a perfect shot or great documentation. I just want to witness a rare full eclipse. That being said, it doesn’t hurt to give it a shot. Time to gear up.

I’ve never owned a telescope, never mind a full blown solar telescope. What’s a cheapskate newbie astrological photographer to do? Improvise: I’ve got an old DSLR Pentax K-x. The first purchase was a telephoto lens. I picked up this cheap 500mm telephoto lens, It lacks some clarity and sharpness, but it’s cheap and gives me a good baseline. The next purchase was a filter to actually take pictures of the full sun (This isn’t needed for the full eclipse but helps for all other sun shots). Looking around the internet I found http://www.seymoursolar.com/. They had the correct size filer for my lens , and fixed a shipping error promptly and courteously!

My first picture, without a remote shutter and on a lightweight tripod. It’s not sharp, but gives me a baseline to improve.