Learn how to Photograph the Annular Eclipse | DSLR, Telephoto Lens, Star Tracker Tutorial

The next Annular Eclipse will take place on the morning of October 14th, 2023. It will mainly be visible from the Southwestern United States (as well as Central and South America). If you'd like to photograph this unique event, you'll need a few important components.

My preferred setup includes a DSLR, telephoto lens, and star tracker. This will simplify the shooting process and keep things portable for the long journey to the totality zone.

Regardless of the gear you are using, you will need a legit solar filter to safely view the eclipse. After spending ~$300 on a variety of filters, I can now recommend the products from Thousand Oaks Optical. They have two options in particular that will work well. First is the Threaded Filter, which will securely attach to your telephoto lens. You can find them here:

If you'll be using a telescope, or just don't want to deal with threaded filters, then Thousand Oaks also makes a SolarLite filter. This is my favorite option, as it will fit over the end of your telescope / lens securely, but is also easy to remove when needed. You can find those filters here:

You'll also need to protect your eyes with a proper pair of eclipse glasses. I recommend the Eclipser HD glasses, they are much more comfortable than the standard cardboard glasses, and will last multiple eclipse events.

With your gear and eyes protected, we can now talk about camera settings. Pretty simple here, start on Manual Mode, ISO 100, f/8, 1/100s. This should get you in the ballpark. However, depending on the filter you purchase you may need to adjust your Shutter Speed. For example, when I was using the cheap filters my Shutter Speed was around 1/500s. When I swapped to the Threaded Filter though, my Shutter Speed dropped to 1/40s! Since this was a bit too slow for 600mm, and risked image blur, I increase my ISO a few stops. This allowed me to have a properly exposed image around 1/320s, which should be fast enough to negate any motion blur from shooting at 600mm.

Finally, if you want to make the entire process easier, consider using a Star Tracker. This will keep the sun centered in your field of view for the duration of the eclipse (assuming you did a good polar alignment). Without a star tracker you'll be readjusting your ballhead every 2-5 minutes to re-center the sun.

00:00 - Intro
00:30 - Solar Eclipse Glasses
01:49 - Solar Filters
02:12 - Cardboard Filters
03:12 - Threaded Filters
04:31 - SolarLite Filters
05:46 - Camera Settings
09:52 - Photograph the Eclipse
12:53 - Star Trackers
13:55 - Daytime Polar Alignment
16:47 - Photograph Eclipse with Star Tracker
19:08 - Outro

[rgreeneish]

Here is a little trick I did for the last eclipse. Buy some of the Thousand Oaks Mylar solar film, and a cheap UV filter. Maybe $20 total for both. Unscrew the retaining ring on the filter and pop the glass out. Use that glass to trace a circle on the mylar film. Cut it out and put the glass and the film back in the filter and reinstall the ring that holds it all into place. You get a nice home made solar filter for very little money.

[keithhanssen]

I took a photo of a compass aimed north and laying flat on top of my polar aligned mount at home, then at my chosen field site for the total eclipse in 2017, I set up the mount, leveled it, then re-created the compass alignment in my photo. I barely touched my mount for about 3 hours it was so well polar aligned 👍🏻

[solareclipsetimer]

Peter has made a very nice video about imaging the annular eclipse. As a veteran of imaging five total solar eclipses, I wanted to add some additional details (with Peter's permission).
1. Exposing the full solar disk image has an end-point exposure goal. You want a relatively bright center of the Sun that does not "wash out" any visible sunspots, and the limb of the Sun should be slightly darker. The limb of the Sun is naturally darker as it curves around as a sphere, and you need to preserve this with the shutter speed you choose and that then is a properly exposed full solar disk.
2. I don't use Thousand Oaks SolarLite film because I have found there is light bleed or a glow around the disk at the proper full disk image exposure. It's not a clean cut-off. Glass solar filters perform much better, and there is another reason I recommend glass for a total eclipse, which I will explain below (#10).
3. We are entering a solar maximum, and there will likely be sunspots in 2023 and 2024. You should focus on these, not the limb of the Sun. As I said above, the Sun is a massive sphere with the limb moving away from you, so it does not really have a good edge to focus on. If there are no sunspots, you will need to use the limb, but as soon as there is a sharp corner of a broad crescent showing, zoom in on the sharp corner and focus on it.
4. When you practice exposures before the eclipse, you should practice at the time of day when you will be photographing the eclipse. Closer to the horizon versus high in the sky can affect the exposure. This is not as crucial for 2023 and 2024 because the Sun will be relatively high in the sky along the path in the US for both eclipses, but for completeness, this needed to be stated.
5. If you practice with clear skies and the day of the eclipse, there are fine high cirrus clouds, your "practiced" shutter speeds will no longer be valid; you will need to slow 1/3 stop or more to compensate.
6. On a very deep annular eclipse you may not want to use the exact same shutter speed through the entire eclipse. You may want to include taking an image with a decreased shutter speed by 1/3 stop for the last deep crescent/annulus and the full annulus. These may emit slightly less light.
7. Having a remote camera release is not an option for eclipse photography. Get one. Use it for 2023 and use it again in 2024.
8. If your camera does not have an articulated LCD screen invest in a right-angle viewfinder and learn how to focus with it. For the purpose of this video, Peter is using his tripod fully extended at eye level. But during an eclipse, you should have your tripod low to the ground to lessen vibration and work sitting on a low stool or kneeling. It is challenging to work with a straight-through eyepiece or a flat LCD screen when the eclipse is occurring 50 to 60 degrees in altitude.
9. If you want a perfectly symmetrical annulus, you need to be located precisely on the centerline and take a shot exactly at max eclipse.
10. Back to glass solar filters and my recommendation for total eclipse photography. The light transmission of glass is such that I can tell you that the exposure you use for a properly exposed full solar disk (step 1 above) will be the setting that will expose for inner corona when the solar filter is off. This tells you a lot about your gear, and I also teach how this information then leads you to choose a shutter speed for the diamond ring and Baily's bead.
I hope these additional points help. I have written the most comprehensive eclipse preparation book available, which discusses everything about "eclipse day" and photography in easy terms. Look for information about it and my eclipse timing app on my website Solar Eclipse Timer. Thank, s Peter!

[davewilton]

Great video! Another neat trick to get center the sun in the viewfinder is to use the shadow of the camera. When the camera is pointing at the sun, the shadow should just be of the rectangular back of the camera. If you can see the shadow of the sides of the camera or the lens, then you're not pointing at the sun. It's not perfectly accurate, but it will usually get the sun in the viewfinder, or very close, and you can center it from there.

[chasingghostsphotography]

Thanks Peter! I am also using the ioptron this time because the sun moves so fast during eclipse, you end up fiddling way too much. This tutorial was super helpful.

[taylormcclelland]

Just wanted to THANK YOU SO MUCH for making this video. I set the ISO at 1600 and from there it was pretty smooth sailing. Took photos in San Antonio, TX and captured the RING OF FIRE 2023😀

[dretwav]

Thanks for this. Did a practice run today. I have a large lens 150-400 m 4/3 equivalent to 300-800 FF. I wasn't really sure how well a star tracker would handle that. Did a 100 minute run and the sun barely moved in the frame. So, as long as I remember to charge the tracker and my camera I should be able to just sit back and enjoy.

[HeroineOfTwilight]

The annular solar eclipse is on a special day for me this year so I’ve been looking forward to taking a good picture of it all year. This video is the best guide I’ve found, as I’m a beginner and this is something with a lot of information. I do want to be double careful with my camera and equipment, as of right now it’s only a week or two old. I’m working on ordering my tripod/solar filter/telephoto lens/the works by the end of the week so I can start practicing.

[astrosertao]

That's a perfect tutorial, thank you very much! I'm going to watch from Brazil, where I live. I'd like to add that you can use the Sun to do an initial horizontal alignment of the mount, provided it has a declination ruler and you already figured out latitude adjustment. You can pick Sun's declination on that day on any app and fix that dec on the mount, then rotate your mount and the R.A. movement to get the Sun in the center. I do this with my telescope mount when it's full moon or a day before and I want to point the telescope to where it will rise before it rises and I have no other stars (other than the Sun) in the sky to use. I don't know if all star trackers have a dec ruler. Anyway, I hope this idea will be useful to you and others who are watching.

[jmfoty]

To get the best focus on the sun, I focus on sunspots. Getting perfect focus on sunspots will guaranteed focus on the sun.

[bakerfx]

Love that you put this out early enough for us to have time to buy the filters! Thanks!

[davidmatney]

Great video, thank you! I bought the slip-on SolarLite from Thousand Oaks (and misc gear) and I'm "ready to rock"! Thanks again.

[DickHoskins]

I hope everyone is super careful with eye safety. Just looking up at the sun briefly can cause irreparable damage. Great video. Thanks for putting this together.
N

[jabruzek]

I like to use the camera's self timer instead of a cable release. On my Nikon, it allows for a relatively long delay before the first shot to minimize shake, and it can be programmed for a sequence of exposures if bracketing is being used (with a separate programmable delay between shots for shake reduction).

[chrisalmanza]

Another thing you can do to try to minimize impacts of a poor polar alignment is "drift alignment". It can be pretty complicated, but it will really help with polar alignment during the day or night!

[TalkingJesus]

Like the way you give simple instruction. It is very easy to understand. Thanks. Know you used to live in Kanab. I stayed at Red Canyon Cabins in Kanab last year and visited Bryce, Zion, and many more sites in Kanab, and then my sister and I drove to Moab where we visited Arches National Park. I am seriously considering going back to Kanab this coming year. Might go to Cottonwood Canyon Road at night to take some Milkyway images, if I do go.

[mguerramd]

I started with live view mode on my EOS 7D so I could look at the back screen. All my shots came out terrible. So I switched to regular viewfinder mode and all came out perfect! Using a 70-200 L lens and a 16.5 stop ND filter, manual focus. And a perfectly balanced set up on a Wimberley gimbal made it easy to track the sun’s motion manually.

[vrlon]

Wolverine and Freewell both make magnetic options. You can use either 'base' which screws onto your filter ring. As far as I know, only Wolverine makes an 'adaptor' which you can screw onto any filter and then just attach magnetically to your base.

[CapricornGirl]

Thanks Peter! I’ll be out at Capital Reef for the eclipse, I am super excited.

[gomanastro]

Nice job on this talk Peter, great job.