Viewing location and equipment setup for the Total Eclipse of the Sun (Don314)

Viewing location and equipment setup for the Total Eclipse of the Sun

The location is the 440 Ranch, Shoshoni, Wyoming . Clear and solar binoculars are on the table, with solar eyeglasses and solar glass filter. The telescope is the SVQ100 (f/5.8) on a Celestron AVX mount. The mount was polar aligned the night before the eclipse. The computer (in the cardboard box) is controlling the Nikon D800 mounted on the SVQ100. Used this setup with a Baader solar filter for pre and post total photos, and bracketed exposures during total (with the filter off) to capture corona using BackYard Nikon (as Eclipse Orchestrator failed to fire the camera shutter that morning , forcing me to the backup plan of using Backyard Nikon) .

To the left is the AstroTrac mounted on a heavy duty photo tripod. I use a Manfrotto 410 Junior Geared Head between the tripod and the AstroTrac to polar align the AstroTrac the night before the eclipse. A second Manfrotto 410 was used between the AstroTrac and the camera to point the camera. The lens is a Sigma 150-600mm Sport zoom, used at 600mm (f/6.3), the camera is a second Nikon D800. I drove three 12” stakes into the ground, and used heavy duty bungee cords to stabilize the tripod. I used the D800 interval timer ( set at 1 second apart) in the D800 to take bracketed exposures (-1EV ,0, +1EV) at ISO 100 during the eclipse (shutter speeds were 1/6400, 1/3200, 1/1600 second). These values were recommended by Fred Espenak to capture the Baily’s beads, chromosphere, and prominences, but the 2 faster shutter speed s resulted in underexposed images. I programmed the interval timer to start automatically 2 minutes before total, and stopped it after total.

All I had to do was pop both filters off just before total, enjoy total without touching or looking at any of the equipment, then pop the filters back on just after total. It worked out very well!

	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
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	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

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