Need help fine-tuning sun shots for Aug. 21

[Peeb]

Went out at Noon and shot a couple with my solar filter on. 500mm x 1.4=700mm effective.

I was expecting (hoping) to see some sun spots. Was it unrealistic to expect while hand-holding that much glass? Here is first one:

And another, with 3.5 steps added in post, and cropped:

It it an exposure error, a focus error, or just a temporary lack of visible spots?

Thanks to all who might know...

 

[Peeb]

OK, did see a spot in lower left when I mercilessly cropped- does that look right?
Practicing for Solar Eclipse by Peeb, on Flickr

 

[snowbear]

Looks fine to me. I'll probably try to grab a reflected shot or something -- no filters and my arc welding helmet is in storage.

 

[Peeb]

Looks fine to me. I'll probably try to grab a reflected shot or something -- no filters and my arc welding helmet is in storage.

I sprung $25.00 for a disposable solar filter for my big lens. It's cardboard and should last until the end of the month, but not beyond. Flimsy!

Here's what will be creeping in front of old sol (taken tonite just for grins)
moon 8-2-17 by Peeb, on Flickr

 

[snowbear]

Very nice. My longest lens is 200mm so it's quite a bit shy for any real lunar or solar shots.

 

[Peeb]

Very nice. My longest lens is 200mm so it's quite a bit shy for any real lunar or solar shots.

Yeah, it takes a silly-big lens the fill the frame with the sun- even tho it's the biggest thing in our solar system!

 

[snowbear]

The moon, as seen by your eye, can be covered by a dime held at arm's length - That's not very big. Of course, it is about 260,000 miles away.

 

[BadRad]

Good start. I tried it too, and picked up a 'spot' at 7 pm - too small to ID. Might be a calm day for sun spots (My Kp index is way down.) I've also read that even less intensity might help. I have both 1000x and 400x VND filters which seem fine, but research points to 100,000 stops (??) to avoid burning your retina or camera sensor. More study. Whatever, it's damn bright, even in partial coverage. Be careful.


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[mbsamos]

Hi I'm new. I'm trying to figure out my settings for the eclipse.

If I may, it's not 100,000 stops, ND100,000 is equal to a 16 stop reduction. from what I have read, that's the recommended. But I have also seen anywhere from 14 to 16 stop reduction.

I could not find an ND100000 for my camera, so the shop I went to said I could use two ND1000 filters stacked. My question is, is that too much of a reduction? That's 20 stops.

I'm using a Canon EOS Rebel T3 with a 75-300mm telephoto lens.