Why

I’m never going to produce an eclipse photo comparable to the work of Miloslav Druckmüller—so why bother with photography at all?

Photography is my hobby, and what’s a hobby without a challenge? Sure, the siren song of cool gear is part of it—I do love gear—but it also takes planning, hacking, and editing skills to create a great picture.

I got to spend time rooting around inside libgphoto2, breaking out the soldering iron to jury-rig a custom ESP32-based release cable, and practicing every move I’ll make on eclipse day. For me, this is fun.

Your mileage may vary.

Gear

Here is my gear checklist for this year:

Imaging:

1. Sony A7rIII
2. Sony 100–400mm f4.5–5.6 GM telephoto lens
3. Sony FE1.4× teleconverter

The lens and teleconverter give me an effective focal length of 560mm. The 1.4µm pixel pitch of the A7rIII means I’ll cover 1.7 arc-seconds per pixel at my focal length—right in the sweet spot (below two, above one).

Here’s what a cropped image of the solar disk looks like on this setup:

You can compare this photo to an image taken yesterday by the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft—both show sunspots AR3617 and AR3619. I’m gratified that a picture from my backyard shows the same details as one from outer space.

Other essentials

1. M5StickC ESP32-PICO – I’m using this as an intervalometer. I’ve programmed it with the Alpha Fairy firmware and will control it using pyserial. I soldered together a release cable that I’ll use to control the shutter.
2. iOptron SkyGuider Pro – This is an tracking mount. It cancels out the motion of the Earth so the sun appears in the same spot in the frame (if I polar align right).
3. Thousand Oaks 77mm threaded RF-film solar filter – for use pre-totality. I bought this for the 2017 eclipse. This prevents the sun from destroying my lens and camera.
4. Manfrotto XUME 77mm lens adapter – secures the solar filter to my lens via a magnet, letting me pull it off instantly rather than fiddling with unscrewing a filter.

Software

• Planning – PhotoPills helped me plan where to be and where to look.
• Polar alignment – I’ll use SkEye for daytime polar alignment, pointing my tracking mount downwards towards σ-Octantis, which will align my tracker with the motion of the Earth.
• Weather/Clouds – VentuSky shows real-time GOES satellite imagery and lets you browse weather prediction models. SkippySky shows real-time total cloud cover, seeing, and transparency (and also shows the eclipse path). Clear Dark Sky is the classic astronomer’s forecast tool.

My plan

I’m pegging all my images to f/8, ISO 100, and only adjusting shutter speed.

I’ll be bracketing five photos, each three stops of light away from each other (±3EV). I’ll adjust my base shutter speed twice.

Pre-totality, I’ll do 1/100 second shutter speed. This should cover me for full-disk images, right up through Baily’s beads:

• 1/100”
• 1/800”
• 1/13”
• 1/6400”
• 0.6”

After totality, I’ll move the shutter speed to 1/15 of a second. Fast enough to ensure I get at least one clear shot and slow enough to get earthshine if all goes to plan with my polar alignment:

• 1/15”
• 1/125”
• 1/2”
• 1/1000”
• 4”

If it all falls apart? Well. I’ll be in Austin—a great place to while away the time longing for clear skies.