USA Totality Eclipse 2024

In 2017 we were living in Corvallis, Oregon (now in Albany) right under the path of the totality, so I just walked out my front door, and I don't think the wife even bothered with that. Cool, but I had seen one as a kid also, so I kinda knew what to expect. Feeling the temps drop a good 10*-20* was something I didn't expect, though I should have, and it was interesting to see the pall cast over the the whole valley. I was looking through my old welding goggles, so I got to check it out.
 
There's some motorcyclists in one of the groups I'm in who are planning a ride up to the Burlington VT area; if the weather is going to be nice w/ clear skies I might consider it.
 
MikeInOr said:
In 2017 my daughter was 12. We took the day off and photographed the eclipse from our driveway. We had a great time.
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Great photos you took!

What did you use for a filter for your camera? I have some old Kodak neutral density wratten filters I once used to view the eclipse, but I did not try to take photos. Maybe this time if there are clear skies in Pittsburgh. Not a full eclipse in Pgh., but it would still be cool.
 
B2 said:
Great photos you took!

What did you use for a filter for your camera? I have some old Kodak neutral density wratten filters I once used to view the eclipse, but I did not try to take photos. Maybe this time if there are clear skies in Pittsburgh. Not a full eclipse in Pgh., but it would still be cool.
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I used a welding filter, a strong ND filter and this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DS7SSEW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8

The one I linked to from Amazon worked the best. It is a thin, cheap, silver mylar filter made for solar viewing. We had 3 cameras hence the 3 different filters. We spent several hours a few days before taking pictures of the sun getting our technique down. Focusing on the sun is much harder than expected. Just setting the lenses to infinity did NOT work! When you can resolve sun spots you know you have good focus. I had setup some 24" computer monitors that we used to make it easier to discern critical focus. (We were in our driveway).

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This is a MUCH better photo than the first in my previous post. Sun spots are clearly visible (if you click on the photo and zoom in).

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We didn't have any clock drives so centering 3 cameras while the sun (earth) is moving was quite a challenge!
 
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Great shots! I am impressed with your prep.

Thanks.

Given we only get about 90% eclipse in Pittsburgh and it is highly probable that it will be cloudy I am not for sure I would go to this much effort. I might just try my ND Wratten Filters in front of my Nikon or even my phone!

It is interesting that the filter on Amazon says it is Silver Black and it comes in sheets. I believe that it is just the black in the photo graphic black and white film..... Silver particles that have been grown out in long tiny wires in the development process. The Amazon add says it is multi-coating just as does the Kodak Wratten advertisement. I think the Wratten filters are based on the photo graphic film technology and were coated in gelatin. I still have some of the Wratten filters in large sheets.

I guess I never thought too much about trying to track the movement. The sun is fixed in position but the earth is both turning and rotating about the sun while the moon is rotating around the earth. I guess the earth's rotation is the most rapidly changing.

Dave L.
 
I’ll try to remember to go out and look at it. It is on my daughter’s birthday, so that should help jog my memory. I’m sure I’m not in the total eclipse path.

Brings back memories of back around ‘81-83? We had a partial eclipse and was in school. We made some papers with small holes to view the eclipse thru the shadow projection onto another piece of paper, if I remember right.


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I have some in-laws coming into town, we are in the path of totality for something like 3-4 minutes IIRC. Just hoping for a clear sky. Signs are starting to go up around the town for $50 "Eclipse parking".
 
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