Shooting a Partial Eclipse in Kauai

As good fortune would have it, Tuesday March 8th, while we're in Kauai, there will be a partial (75%) solar eclipse visible.

http://staging.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/usa/lihue

Never being there before, I thought I'd ask if anyone who has been there has any recommendations where to view/photograph it from?

It will be at max eclipse at 5:30PM (sunset is about 7pm). It will be 15 degrees off the horizon in the west (obviously - but hey...). I'll only be using a 105mm lens so I know it won't be huge in the shot, but somewhere with some beautiful foreground/scenery might make an extremely rare, unique shot out of a typically photographed spot.

Unless someone knows of any photography tips, I was planning on not using any filters (maybe the CP in a few to see what, if anything, it does - doubtful) - but if you know that a partial ND or something that might add to the effect - I'd love to hear about it.

I'll have time to ask around before hand - but I'm so excited I just had to share. Hopefully someone might know of an oft overlooked place they don't mind sharing.

Thanks.

After reading your post, my first thought was I hope he doesn't look at the sun thru the view finder.

My second thought was I bet you can fry a camera sensor (not to mention an eye) without a special filter.

My third thought was to Google how to.

I'm sure it can be done safely, but I have no desire to try it. I will just enjoy the fine work of others.

Tuesday March 8th, while we're in Kauai, there will be a partial (75%) solar eclipse visible.

Scooter:

It will be total eclipse in Honolulu - fly over!

Article http://www.mreclipse.com is helpful. You will need a specialized filter for your camera.

l

I'm checking with a couple of sources locally to see where it will be best place for you to photograph And pray for cloudless skies and no rain!

I appreciate the invite. But after a 7 hour flight, just sitting on a mountain ridge somewhere watching the (eclipsed) sun go down will be plenty good enough for me! Thanks for checking on places though.

Last eclipse I did well with a stack of ND filters. With a 105mm lens, the sun will still be quite small in the frame. I'm envisioning a sunset-esque scene looking west southwest, possibly with a distant island on the horizon. Someone posted a spectacular sunset pic of just such an image while at Waimea Canyon.

Shootr: a couple of years ago, we were booked on a westbound TA. We knew in advance that a partial solar eclipse would be taking place on one of our sea days when we were pretty much in the middle of the Atlantic. I did what others suggested above -- read up on photographing an eclipse.

Having done so, I ordered a solar filter for my Nikon 18-200mm lens (I was shooting with a Nikon D7000 at the time) so that I'd be able to take shots of the sun itself without damaging the sensor or harming my eyes. It was quite an interesting experience.

This was from Phoenix in May 2012:

I had one camera shooting the eclipse through a stack of 3 ND filters, and another getting a properly exposed scene. Then composited them all together to create the final image.

I have a set of Cokin filters coming - I'm curious to see how using three gradual ND's stacked will look - dark sky with eclipse and the shoreline/mountainside/island in the distance. I'm just going to throw a bunch of different ideas at it and see what works.

Thanks for sharing this.

Keith

What ND filters are you using? They come in different powers. I have ND 3.0-1000x, ND 1.8-64x and ND 0.6-0.4x. An ND 3.0-1000x is a 10 stop filter and should be plenty. It's a VERY dark filter. Also close your apurature as far as possible. Last year here in Denver for the partial eclipse I didn't have the ND filters and tried using a glass insert from a welding helmet, I even bought a brand new welders glass as there pretty cheap from Home Depot. Held the glass in front of the lens but it distorted and kind of blurred the images plus turned them green. But we did get some high thin clouds during the eclipse and I was able to just set my aperture at F29 and get this shot through the clouds.

Yes those black spots on the sun are sun spots. Taken with a Nikon D5200 with a 55-300mm lens

Very nice, thanks for posting.

What ND filters are you using? They come in different powers. I have ND 3.0-1000x, ND 1.8-64x and ND 0.6-0.4x. An ND 3.0-1000x is a 10 stop filter and should be plenty. It's a VERY dark filter. Also close your apurature as far as possible. Last year here in Denver for the partial eclipse I didn't have the ND filters and tried using a glass insert from a welding helmet, I even bought a brand new welders glass as there pretty cheap from Home Depot. Held the glass in front of the lens but it distorted and kind of blurred the images plus turned them green. But we did get some high thin clouds during the eclipse and I was able to just set my aperture at F29 and get this shot through the clouds.

 

 

Yes those black spots on the sun are sun spots. Taken with a Nikon D5200 with a 55-300mm lens

That is great! If I ever got sunspots too I think I'd have kittens!

For the above shot I had a 2,4, and 8 stacked upon one another - it was pitch black but the sun coming through. I have never hurt my eyes or a sensor, but wasn't going to take a chance. Can't remember the shutter settings. This time I will try your suggestion and start with the single darkest and see how it looks. I picked up some gradual ones to play with as well.

I hope I'm not jinxing myself with all this planning - it's not the end of the world if it's cloudy - I mean I'll still be in Hawaii, right! :D

But someone sent me some great data on how to determine where the sun will be, etc. With it setting at approx. 255 degrees, and if I'm around the SW coast of Kauai, it should set right behind the small island of Ni'ihau. I've seen some really impressive sunset photographs of this scene and it could really add some nice interest to the overall shot.

Anywho, all I know right now is it's exactly one week until we leave and I'm PUMPED!

As good fortune would have it, Tuesday March 8th, while we're in Kauai, there will be a partial (75%) solar eclipse visible.

 

Shooter:

Hope you have your filter = and no rain clouds in the sky!

This article was in today's newspaper (Honolulu StarAdvertiser)

http://www.staradvertiser.com/hawaii-news/partial-eclipse-to-take-bite-from-sun-over-isles-march-8/

I dropped a line to a friend of mine in our camera club and also to the astronomy club on Kauai but no reply yet.

Thanks for posting that - tight now the extended weather is forecasting clouds and rain around sunset so might all be a mute point.

Oh well, still rather be on an island in the rain than in the desert working!

For safety, you should not look at, or photograph the Sun without a proper filter. You need to block over 99% of the Suns light before safely looking at the Sun. Check out either Thousand Oaks or get some baader solar film to get the appropriate filter, or get 14 welder glass.

If you want to get an interesting picture without a filter, take a colander along. Hold it up, toward the Sun, and adjust the angle. Each hole in the colander acts as a pinhole camera, projecting an image of the Sun on the ground, so you will get hundreds of images of the partially eclipsed Sun.

If you want for info on safely observing an eclipse, just google nasa eclipse eye safety.