Mike, you've already had a couple of cautions about doing this and I'd
like to add my own. I'm sure that when you were a kid you used a
magnifying glass or some other sort of lens to focus the image of the
sun on a piece of paper and set it on fire. Well, the sun can do the
same thing to your camera's shutter curtain (if the mirror is up) or
your retina should you decide to stick your eye in the light path.
Setting your retina on fire is not likely but even momentary exposure to
the focused image of the sun can "burn" a blind spot into your retina.
Then you have a permanent little black spot in your field of vision.
Make no mistake, solar imaging can be dangerous unless during a total
eclipse. Partial eclipses don't do very much at all to cut the
intensity of the light.
Another warning. Always put the filter ahead of the lens. This is
clearly what you'd do for photography but telescope users may try to put
a small filter near the focal plane rather than a large filter over the
objective lens. Unfortunately, the small filter will have to absorb a
tremendous amount of heat and may well crack and/or shatter in use.
In short, don't do this without some serious research. The filtration
required is far beyond any combination of NDX filters that you might
have around. Be safe.
Chuck Norcutt
Woburn, Massachusetts, USA
> I'd like to take some shots of tomorrows
> solar eclipse. Having never done so
> any recommendations as to film, techniques
> etc would be greatly appreciated.
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