Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Thoughts about total solar eclipse

Having read several articles about total solar eclipse, I conclude that photography is second, visual observation is the absolute first.

Therefore, I've the following rough plan and more thoughts and considerations should be taken place:-

1. Setup a H-alpha scope, for me basically my Borg 45ED II, and shot with my DMK 31AF03 before totality, a video camera should be placed along, on the same small GEM, like my TG-SP II

2. Once totality is near, attention should be shifted to visual observation, take off the DMK and the H-alpha filters from the Borg, place a diagonal there and leave it alone.

3. When totality begins, insert an eyepiece with around 40-50x magnifications, have some visual view; at the same time, take some snapshots with a DSLR if I will ever buy one (200mm is a good star with suitable, don't go too high), attention should be paid to visual observation alone

4. When totality is about to end, cover the Borg

So, after the event, I will have a video taken automatically by the video camera, I should have a couple of snapshots of the eclipse, and I should have great visual impression.

I shall attempt to do:-

1. To merge a white light shot with H-alpha shot just before/after the eclipse
2. To capture totality together with some background stars
3. To stack some totality images to make out the corona

I still have more than one year to plan and to think. :-)

No comments: