Three stages of the Eclipse, beginning, peak and near the end, as seen from Phoenix, AZ.
This solar eclipse was special to us here in the US because this was the only country that was able to view it. I’m in Phoenix so I didn’t see the total eclipse. Here we saw about 62% eclipse. I had my viewing glasses with an ISO rating of 12312 so I knew my eyes were protected. You can’t see a thing with them on except for the sun so I had to take them off to work my camera.
My Canon 5D Mk II was set to ISO 160 with a shutter speed of 1/100 – 1/250 at F 8. I used a filter with the equivalent of 16 stops! You cannot stack a few ND filters and get to 3 or 5 stops darker. You will burn out your sensor. I did not view the sun through the viewfinder. I set the camera for live view. Blew the image up to check focus on the sun and used a lens at about 240 mm.
The photos above show the change in exposure during the partial eclipse. The exposure was the same for both images.
The next blog on this topic for the Solar Eclipse, August 21, 2017, will be Aril 8, 2024. See you then!