Total Solar Eclipse 2008 - Russia

I decided I wanted to try and take some images of the upcoming eclipse and so started taking some test images this evening to figure out the focal length of lens I want to use. Anway, below is a test image. No processing done at all, just re-sized down as it's only a test image. It's taken with 400d and Canon 100-400mm L IS USM lens at 400mm. I'm hoping to use this in Russia to capture the corona. Will the corona fit in completely at this focal length or should I perhaps use the lens at 300mm instead?



One thing I noticed that the UV filter causes an internal reflection so this MUST be taken off when using taking images with camera lenses for astronomical purposes involving bright targets such as the moon, and probably the sun and brighter planets too. On this image it's taken off, but on other images, there was a distinct ghost image.

Hi Michael,

I plan to use my Tak FSQ at its native focal length of 530 mm which means your 400 mm should be fine. I would not pursue anything at 300 mm since you will be losing detail with the excessively large field of view.

If you check around the 'net, you will find that the FSQ was used for many extended corona shots which sets both of us at ease.

Michael,
400mm is fine.
I will use a Nikon D70s and a Sigma 70-200 f2.8 APO lens, WITH a 2X converter, so I get 400.

Cool. Thanks Lads.

Its all about practice Michael, thats how I knew what exposures to take at Turkey. Thats shows a good image scale, great for the outer corona.
I'm going to give the 6" mak a go at the moon to see what kind of image scale I get. It it works, then its going to Russia with me.

I'm reconsidering what to do for the eclipse.This is a unprocessed image from Turkey,


Note that this image scale, this is with the canon and a 500mm focal length scope, its pretty good for the corona, a longer exposure would have given a nicer corona, one thing to think about this time around and its so damn obvious I don't know how I missed it last time is that it would be seriously advantages to rotate the camera in such a manner as to have the poles of the Sun pointing to the top and bottom of the frame, this way the corona doesn't get clipped by the edge of the frame.

For this eclispe, I'll once again bring the 4" refractor + canon (the intes is just too big!), I also hope to piggyback mount a camcorder and 2 more cameras with high power telephoto lenses onto the top of the scope, all going well.

I'm considering a 2x or 1.5 barlow for the scope combination as I think a higher power would be fantastic for catching those prominences and let the other 2 cameras catch the corona. One has a 200mm lens, the second one I might use a 300x lens, we'll see.