Preparing for the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse, Pt. 2 (Equipment and Making Custom Solar Filters)

📷 Total Solar Eclipse Kits 📷

==Resources Mentioned / Shown==

❤️ Patreon ❤️

==Contents==
0:00 Welcome and Overview
1:45 Eye Safety
3:53 Solar Eclipse Timer App
5:36 Overview of kits and who they are for
7:56 Everyone should bring these things
8:45 Kit 1 (Basic) Breakdown
12:45 Kit 2 (+ Small Tracker) Breakdown
15:37 Kit 3 (Advanced) Breakdown
17:08 Squarespace
18:14 How to make custom solar filters for any lens or telescope
27:45 Patreon AND special offer: Astrospheric Pro !

==Disclosures==
This video is sponsored by Squarespace.

[paoandrecm]

Using a downspout clip as a solar finder is genius! Thanks for sharing your knowledge <3

[jimmurray]

Hi Nico, Great eclipse prep video...thanks! May I please suggest to also attach a string, about 10 or so inches long, to you DIY Solar Filter and tie a loop in the other end to go over the camera lens barrel. Invariably, with all of the ensuing excitement, when C3 comes around you can easily find the thing hanging there! I did this in 2017 and it worked well for me. Clear skies, Jim in Oregon

[jasonpatterson]

This is awesome, thanks. You said it several times, and I 100% agree, that anyone who wants to photograph this event be massively prepared and be sure to include time in that minute or two of totality to just look and wonder. If you've never seen totality, it's quite a moving thing and honestly best seen with your eyes and enjoyed with loved ones.

[vanessakauffmann]

Such generous sharing of your knowledge and experience. Thanks!

[Lukionest]

Hey Nico. I appreciate your work on this series. One thing I’ve made for my eclipse setup is a reflective camera shade - basically a very thin, lightweight sheet of 7” x 9.5” hardboard with silver foil tape on the sun side and a hole cut in it that fits loosely onto the camera lens against the camera body. This will keep my camera cooler than it would be if left facing the direct sunlight for the entire duration and it gives me a shaded space when looking at my viewfinder. A few strips of foam tape around the hole secure the shade onto a portion of the lens that does not need to move for focusing or zooming.

[davewilton]

One tip you should mention in the next video in the series is to use the October 2023 annular/partial eclipse as practice. If you're anywhere in the partial eclipse path (which is most of the US and Canada) you can practice everything except your actions during totality (you need to keep the Baader filter on at all times).

[KaraMiaSantaLucia]

I was in Makanda, Illinois ‘17 Eclipse. Drove downstate 6 hours to see it! I only had my iPhone on hand to take pics, I ending up putting a cheap pair of eclipse glasses over the lens. Surprisingly, I was able to get some awesome shots.
I’m going back to Makanda in April and this time I want to be prepared! Thanks for sharing tutorials for this amazing event. This time I’m bringing my Nikon Z7II. I’m so excited!

[davidg]

I used to make my solar filters using embroidery hoops.
These days, I 3D print them instead. The observing results are the same, but the filter itself looks nicer.

[wtua]

I just 3D printed a filter assembly a few days ago. It allows the solar film to lay perfectly flat with no bumps or wrinkles.

[EdwinQuail-lw]

Don't forget to take a white cloth or white plastic or even shiny foil to put over the camera between pictures outside of totality - the sun can really fry your equipment if it's standing out there for a while!

[sonicbrush]

Just before totality in the 2017 eclipse in Wyoming, someone in the campground yelled "Hey everybody, look at the ground". There seemed like waves of light photons, spectrum colors subdued opacity almost like giving out tiny little flashes. The lines of light looked about 1/8 of an inch thick and about a foot and 1/2 long, in a grid-like pattern wiggling individually like twisted rubber bands on the ground and wrapping around trees and rocks and boulders and cars and people in the campground. I have video footage of the campground as it happened but not pointing down on the ground. The light grid was just too faint for the video camera to pick up, although you could here the guy yell, to tell us about it. Most people left after totality and only a few stayed who were doing a timelapse sequence as I was. The lights never came up in the conversations after. Has anyone seen the phenomenon we witnessed? If it happens often is there a name for it? I googled but found nothing. Are we just projections? Please everyone, if you see this phenomenon this coming total eclipse, please report it, to anybody, news organizations, radio tv, to Nico in these pages. I was waiting for it during the annular eclipse last month but never saw it. I would guess this phenomenon only happens in full total eclipse. So let's be vigilant this coming eclipse and see if we can spot it.

[koenpijpersphotography]

Amazing series ! Planning for this allready your tutorials help a lot.

[robertstuck]

Great info. Thanks Nico. I am super excited about April.

[southernexposure]

You're absolutely right to "belabor" eye safety. Years ago I met a young man who told be he got severe eye damaged because he looked during a partial eclipse.

[martinmckee]

I'm intending to image both the annular in October and the total in April (2024). This series is helpful for all the reminders it provides.

[wall]

Thanks for this, particularly part 2 -- I had my plans set for location for a long time, but the discussion of how to photograph with basic equipment in the second half of this video is an excellent integration.

[davestephen]

Great tips! You were way ahead of me on polar aligning during the day. I look forward to a how-to on polar aligning and eclipse software for using with an EQ mount.

[niknak]

Keep up the good work! Im watching from Canada and I love how you tell historical stories associated with these places.

[ianlauerastro]

Great video and super informative dude - can't wait for next year's eclipse!!!

[erewhon]

Very helpful series for both the first time total solar eclipse viewer, and someone who has seen a few. This won't be my first eclipse, but I wasn't fully satisfied with the images I got last time. These equipment lists will be useful. And the special offer will be _really_ useful. That was my biggest issue the last two eclipses: my Plan A site ended up cloudy on the day of the eclipse, which caused me to have to drive a lot further.