Realistically, I had two options. Firstly, I could retain my current setup and hope that I get the Orion into a reasonable focus during the partial phases. If I do a good enough job, the corona should be sharp. The only problem is that I'd have no real way of knowing whether I got it into focus or not prior to removing the solar filter, and even then, the internal reflection may remain.
Then, there's the safer, albeit, much more expensive option: gut the setup and invest in a high quality telephoto lens. Considering how much planning I've done and the investments I've made (for example, my hotel in Dallas has been booked since June 2023), I didn't mind forking over the extra money if it means that my totality photos will be tack-sharp. Additionally, I've always wanted to get into wildlife and landscape photography, so a telephoto seemed like a good investment in general.
Next, there's the software component. As far as I can tell, I have Solar Eclipse Maestro working properly. This presents a suite of further research to conduct - for example, how many photos should I take for promineces, exactly? How much time should I dedicate to the corona? While 4 minutes of totality will be significantly longer than the 2017 eclipse, still, time runs fast and those extra two minutes will be rapidly depleting. Solar Ecipse Maestro can automatically fill the totality time with corona exposures, so there's some help in that aspect. Really, it comes down to this: how many photos do I think I need? How many extra should I factor in for potential sources of bluriness?
One of the issues I need to debug (rather quickly) is that my camera's shutter becomes congested due to the quick commands given by Maestro, and the shutter will often fail to fire properly. The solution, I believe, will be to space each exposure effectively. There is a risk that the shutter will become jammed and wait an entire extra exposure before actually closing. Given the required precision for phenomena like Baily's Beads and the 'Diamond Ring,' this could be a potentially catastrophic failure. I'm going to play around with these settings over the course of the next two weeks, and by the time of the big day, hopefully something will be worked out. Ideally, the uncertainty of the eclipse should lie solely with the cooperation of the weather, and nothing else.
Speaking of weather cooperation, this specific image proved to be rather difficult to take due to the terrible clarity of Florida weather. It is seldom clear down there, and I found myself battling clouds yet again. I've all but abandoned the thought of bringing any of my deep-sky setups down to the sunshine state since it is anything but sunny. Almost every time I do, I'm setting up and taking down the entire rig due to the intermittent clouds. Moon photography, however, is quick and easy, so long as there's a window of clarity around the moon. Even then, there's no guarantee. I managed to take a picture of a 4% waxing crescent earlier in the week, but it was impossible to discern any surface detail due to the evening haze over central Florida.
It's always a losing battle, I have found. The silver lining in all of this is that I've found some bugs with my setup that need to be squashed posthaste. Additionally, I did manage to get a nice HDR moon image out of it. In fact, this is the type of HDR moon that I've been seeking for some time now. My picture from October had its issues, as outlined in the previous article. Admittedly, the HDR Full moon I took last month is a little strange - it definitely doesn't look super realistic. I think this month's photo corrects those issues and presents a much better photo. It's also a crescent, which I have been seeking for some time now. My only issue with it is that it is a bit too waxed for my liking - primarily a result of the uncooperative weather - but it is still very, very close to the HDR moon that I've been after for some time now.
Hopefully things go off without a hitch in a few weeks. Admittedly, I've been stressing myself out a great deal over this. I've even had nightmares about messing up my setup and missing the eclipse altogether as a result. I really hope that this doesn't become a reality, and you best believe that I'm doing everything I can to prevent it. Either way, I should be able to get a photo of the corona. From what I've read, these photos aren't terribly difficult to execute - really, it's getting to a spot on the path with cooperative weather that is the challenge.
This is the second-to-last crescent moon before the total solar eclipse. The time is remaining is draining. These last issues aside, I should be fully prepared for this, and I'm starting to gain some confidence in terms of actually photographing this thing. In case I haven't made it clear previously, I plan to make a full HDR solar eclipse image. My main goal is to attain enough clairty and sharpness to clearly discern the magnetic field lines of the solar corona. Getting prominences, earthshine, the Diamond Ring, and Baily's Beads are optional, of course, but I am also going to attempt to pick those up. It all comes down to my performance on eclipse day, though. You can practice all you want, but nothing can fully prepare you for the moment.
Lastly, about my new telephoto. It's a Tamron A011, for my Canon 200D. It provides a variable focal length of 150 - 600 mm. Previosuly, all of my moon shots have been done at 400mm, so I plan to retain this for the eclipse since, in my opinion, it offers the best framing to pick everything up during the eclipse. My only complaint with it is that there is no focus lock, which might prove to be irritating during the total eclipse. Either way, I'll test it with a solar filter soon.
This will very likely be my final photo prior to the total eclipse. Yes, we're that close to it now. I'll be in Waco for the eclipse, which should provide a nice spot for getting these photos. They provide a few benefits to astronomers that provide an extra scope for the public to look through, so I'm bringing an extra - it'll be a nice chance to do some outreach while also accomplishing this mission I formulated nearly seven years ago.
