Eclipse News

Up here in Redding, CA area everyone is revving up for the anular eclipse tomorrow.  http://www.shastaastronomyclub.com/eclipse.html
Yes this should have been a Friday blog entry, but jet lag from the short trip to Munich still drags on the body and the brain. However, there's enough chutspa to take the long drive north for the best view of tomorrow's event.
 http://earthsky.org/tonight/annular-eclipse-of-the-sun-china-to-texas-on-may-20-or-may-21
The moon's first contact with the sun will be at around 5:11pm, so eat dinner early, get out those true eclipse shades, and relax on your patio lounger for the event. That is, unless you will be managing a camera. The camera also will need a solar filter so you don't fry your eyes while looking through the eyepiece. Here's the equipment you'll need.

for the slr camera lens

This was a purchased filter that blocks out all damaging uv and infrared rays. As stated in a previous blog entry sunglasses won't be enough, not even polarized ones. Homemade ones are produced from fully exposed and developed black and white film. The result will be a picture of the sun in a black field, because all the light but the sun's light will be blacked out as in the photo here:

taken with 55-200 mm lens

Be careful when producing your own solar filter. It must be the old fashioned black and white film that has no touch of color in its emulsions.  Many newer films do not fit this criteria.

 Safer than any homemade filters is the use of the projection method as described by http://www.mreclipse.com/Totality2/TotalityCh11.html#Pinhole

The Pinhole Projection Method

One safe way of enjoying the Sun during a partial eclipse--or anytime--is a "pinhole camera," which allows you to view a projected image of the Sun. There are fancy pinhole cameras you can make out of cardboard boxes, but a perfectly adequate (and portable) version can be made out of two thin but stiff pieces of white cardboard. Punch a small clean pinhole in one piece of cardboard and let the sunlight fall through that hole onto the second piece of cardboard, which serves as a screen, held below it. An inverted image of the Sun is formed. To make the image larger, move the screen farther from the pinhole. To make the image brighter, move the screen closer to the pinhole. Do not make the pinhole wide or you will only have a shaft of sunlight rather than an image of the crescent Sun. Remember, this instrument is used with your back to the Sun. The sunlight passes over your shoulder, through the pinhole, and forms an image on the cardboard screen beneath it. Do not look through the pinhole at the Sun. 

Any serious astrophotography can be done best with the help of knowledgeable astronomers from your local astronomy club. They often have the filters and telescopes needed for grand photos of eclipses. An ordinary camera mounted on a tripod for stability and covered with eclipse shades can still produce a good photo.