Preparing for the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse, Pt. 4 (Star Tracker Tips incl. Daytime Polar Alignment)
Summary
TLDRIn this video, Nico Carver discusses preparing for the April 8th, 2024 total solar eclipse, focusing on the use of a star tracker to keep the sun centered in the frame for the duration of the event. He explains the advantages of using a tracker, such as capturing rare phenomena like earthshine and longer exposures without blurring. Nico also covers the importance of practicing with the equipment, polar alignment techniques, and handling battery life. Additionally, he touches on the possibility of photographing the comet 12P/Pons-Brooks during the eclipse, providing tips on how to incorporate it into the shot using Stellarium for planning.
Takeaways
- 🌟 The video is part of a series preparing for photographing the April 8th, 2024 total solar eclipse, focusing on using a tracker or star tracker for capturing the event.
- 🔭 A star tracker helps keep the sun centered in the field of view throughout the eclipse, eliminating the need for manual repositioning due to Earth's rotation.
- 📸 Long exposures are possible with a tracker, capturing rare phenomena like earthshine during totality without blurring from the Earth's rotation.
- 💡 Earthshine is the reflection of light off the Earth and back onto the lunar surface, which requires long exposure to capture, potentially at the expense of overexposing the corona.
- 🌠 The total solar eclipse on April 8th, 2024 offers a chance to photograph a potentially bright comet, 12P/Pon-Brooks, which will be about 25° away from the eclipsed Sun.
- 🎥 Using a smartphone app for daytime polar alignment is recommended for accurate tracking of the sun, provided that the phone's case with a magnet is removed to avoid interference.
- 🔧 It's crucial to ensure that the tracker remains stable and undisturbed once polar alignment is achieved to maintain accurate tracking during the eclipse.
- 🌞 For using a go-to mount like the Star Adventure GTI, it's necessary to bypass the sun safety feature and manually find the sun with a solar finder before enabling solar tracking.
- 🚫 The GTI's auto Meridian flip feature should be managed carefully to avoid disrupting the tracking during totality; options include flipping before or after totality depending on the location.
- 📷 Shooting in RAW format and processing with Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop provides more flexibility in adjusting exposure, which is beneficial for fine-tuning the eclipse photos.
- 🔋 It's essential to bring spare batteries for any digital equipment used during the eclipse to avoid power loss during the event.
Q & A
What is the main topic of Nico's video series?
-The main topic of Nico's video series is preparing for photographing the April 8th, 2024 total solar eclipse.
What is the significance of using a tracker for photographing the eclipse?
-A tracker, also known as a star tracker, is significant for keeping the sun centered in the field of view throughout the eclipse, compensating for the Earth's rotation, and allowing for longer exposures without blurring due to the Earth's movement.
What phenomenon can be captured with longer exposures using a tracker during the eclipse?
-With longer exposures, one can capture rarer phenomena such as earthshine, which is the bit of light reflected off the Earth and back onto the lunar surface during totality.
How does Nico suggest calibrating the phone's compass for daytime polar alignment?
-Nico suggests calibrating the phone's compass by moving the phone in a figure 8 pattern through the air with the compass app open.
What is the purpose of the 'observe Sun' feature on the GTI and how is it bypassed?
-The 'observe Sun' feature on the GTI is a sun safety feature that requires users to confirm they have a proper solar filter on before pointing the telescope at the sun. It can be bypassed in the settings under advanced features by turning on 'observe Sun' and answering a math question for confirmation.
What is the issue with the GTI's auto Meridian flip during totality?
-The auto Meridian flip on the GTI could potentially move the telescope to the other side during totality, which could result in missing most of the event. Nico suggests either flipping before totality or planning to slew to the other side after totality based on the location.
What is the significance of the comet 12P/Pons-Brooks in relation to the 2024 total solar eclipse?
-The comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, which has a 70-year orbital period, will be about 25° away from the eclipsed Sun during the 2024 total solar eclipse. This presents a unique opportunity to potentially capture the comet, the eclipse, and other celestial bodies like Jupiter and Venus in the same frame.
How does Nico suggest using Stellarium to plan for photographing the comet during the eclipse?
-Nico suggests using Stellarium to visualize the sky during the eclipse, adding the comet to Stellarium's database, and experimenting with different lenses to find a field of view that includes both the eclipse and the comet.
What advantages does shooting in Raw offer for photographing the eclipse?
-Shooting in Raw offers more flexibility in post-processing, allowing for adjustments to exposure if the images are slightly overexposed or underexposed. This provides more latitude to achieve the perfect exposure with the particular lens, solar filter, and camera setup used for the eclipse.
What is the importance of having spare batteries for using a tracker during the eclipse?
-Having spare batteries is crucial to avoid losing power during the eclipse, which could disrupt the tracking process and potentially result in missing important moments of the event.
How does Nico suggest handling exposure settings for photographing the eclipse?
-Nico suggests using the same exposure calculator as in the previous video, adjusting the shutter speed as needed based on the specific lens, solar filter, and camera used, and starting with fresh batteries to ensure a stable power supply during the event.
Outlines
🌟 Introducing the Star Tracker for Solar Eclipse Photography
The paragraph introduces the concept of using a star tracker, also known as a solar tracker, for photographing the total solar eclipse on April 8th, 2024. The speaker, Nico, explains that the tracker will help keep the sun centered in the field of view throughout the eclipse. He emphasizes the advantages of using a tracker, such as not needing to manually reposition the sun in the frame and the ability to capture longer exposures without blurring due to Earth's rotation. This allows for the capture of rare phenomena like earthshine. Nico also mentions the possibility of photographing a bright comet during the eclipse and the use of HDR techniques to combine earthshine photos with others. He advises viewers to practice with their equipment and to ensure they have spare batteries for their devices.
📌 Polar Alignment and Daytime Calibration
In this paragraph, Nico discusses the importance of polar alignment for accurate solar tracking. He suggests using a polar scope for the most accurate alignment and provides an alternative method using a smartphone app for daytime polar alignment. Nico explains the process of calibrating the phone's compass and attaching it securely to the tracker. He also covers the steps to find the sun with the tracker, center it, and activate solar tracking. Additionally, Nico addresses the specifics of using a go-to mount like the Star Adventure GTI, including bypassing sun safety features and handling the auto Meridian flip during the eclipse. He advises being prepared for the sun's meridian crossing and having a plan to avoid issues during totality.
🚀 Preparing for the Comet Photo Opportunity
Nico concludes the video script by discussing the possibility of capturing the comet 12P/Pons-Brooks during the total solar eclipse. He provides details on the comet's orbital period and its visibility during the eclipse. The speaker explains the unpredictability of comets and the challenge of photographing them. He suggests using Stellarium to plan the shot, including adding the comet to Stellarium's database and visualizing the field of view for the photograph. Nico shares his plan to capture a wide-angle shot that includes the eclipse, the comet, and other celestial bodies like Venus and Jupiter. He ends with a note on his personal website, where he might feature a successful image, and acknowledges the video's sponsor, Squarespace, for its ease of use in creating a portfolio website.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Total Solar Eclipse
💡Star Tracker
💡Polar Alignment
💡Earthshine
💡HDR (High Dynamic Range)
💡Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks
💡Stellarium
💡Squarespace
💡Photography Equipment
💡Exposure Settings
Highlights
The video is part of a series on preparing for photographing the April 8th, 2024 total solar eclipse.
This video introduces the use of a tracker, also known as a star tracker, for solar eclipse photography.
Trackers have a built-in solar tracking rate which keeps the sun centered in the field of view throughout the eclipse.
Using a tracker allows for longer exposures without blurring due to Earth's rotation, capturing rare phenomena like earthshine.
Earthshine is the reflection of light off the Earth onto the lunar surface, requiring long exposure to capture.
High Dynamic Range (HDR) techniques can be used to combine earthshine photos with corona photos.
During totality, tracking can help capture visible stars and the chance to photograph a bright comet.
The video emphasizes the importance of practicing with the tracker before the eclipse.
Shooting in RAW format provides more flexibility in post-processing for exposure adjustments.
The necessity of having spare batteries and proper battery management for digital equipment during the eclipse is discussed.
Polar alignment of the tracker is crucial for accurate solar tracking, with both nighttime and daytime methods explained.
The video provides a detailed guide on using a smartphone for daytime polar alignment.
The process of finding and centering the sun with the tracker is outlined, including the use of a solar filter for safety.
The Star Adventure GTI tracker and its sun safety feature are introduced, with instructions on how to bypass it for solar photography.
The video discusses the auto Meridian flip feature of the GTI and how to plan for it during totality.
The possibility of capturing the 12P/Pons-Brooks comet during the total solar eclipse is explored.
Stellarium software is used to visualize the positioning of the comet relative to the eclipse and plan the shot.
The video concludes with a mention of the sponsor, Squarespace, and its benefits for creating a personal portfolio website.
Transcripts
This video is sponsored by Squarespace. Hey welcome back, I'm Nico and this is part four
in my series on preparing for photographing the April 8th 2024 total solar eclipse. This video is
going to build on the last part, part three, but we're going to add an additional wrinkle here,
which is a tracker also known as a star tracker. Although uh in this case of course we're going to
be tracking our local star, the sun. And it does, most trackers have, some kind of um built-in solar
tracking rate which this one does, and another one I'll show you in a second. You either you have one
or maybe you can buy one quickly you really need to start practicing now with this. And there are a
few advantages to using a tracker over just having the camera and lens on a tripod. Basically this
is going to keep the sun roughly centered in your field of view for the whole eclipse. If you're not
tracking then you have to manually keep moving the sun back into your camera's screen here uh
because it's the Sun is going to of course keep moving moving due to the Earth's rotation so we
just have to keep reentering it the exception to that is if you're using a very wide angle lens
where the whole Eclipse event fits into the field of view um but assuming you want a more zoomed in
view with a telephoto lens like this one uh that's the big advantage to a star tracker is not having
to manually keep the sun centered uh because this device does it for you a smaller Advantage
but it may be important to you is you can take much longer exposures with a Tracker without
any blurring from the Earth's rotation and this allows for the capture of some rarer phenomenon
during totality like earthshine and earthshine is the little bit of light reflected off the
Earth and back onto the lunar surface and uh to capture it you're going to need a long exposure
so long that you'll completely blow out the corona as you can see here but I think it's pretty cool
even uh though it's noisy due to the being so little light actually uh hitting the moon from
the reflected light on off from the earth uh an advanced topic I'll get into later in a later
video maybe is that you can use HDR High dynamic range techniques to combine your Earth shine photo
with your other Corona photos to get something like this image another reason for long exposures
during totality where you might want uh tracking is to capture the stars that are visible during
totality and this year we also have the chance to capture a fairly bright Comet during totality or
we think it might be bright P12/Pon-Brooks which will be about 25° away from the eclipsed Sun and
I'll talk more about the comet towards the end of the video and show how to plan for it if you're
interested okay so let's get into it I'm going to skip over calculating exposure lengths and things
like that since I just talked about that in the last one very recently so you can go watch part
three to see that you'd be using the same exposure calculator for a setup with a Tracker one thing
that I should have mentioned in the last part that I forgot is that I shoot Raw on my DSLR or
mirrorless camera and I process all my photos with Adobe camera raw and Adobe Photoshop and shooting
raw and processing them that way gives you plenty of latitude when it comes to exposure if you're a
little bit Overexposed or underexposed for example with raw processing it's really not a big deal you
can just bring the exposure slider one way or the other and it's going to look great uh you
can shoot jpeg only and try to get everything perfect in camera without any editing but it
just requires a little bit more work and testing to make sure that the suggested exposure lengths
from the online calculator are accurate uh to get a a good exposure with your particular lens and
solar filter and camera and so you might have to adjust that shutter speed up or down a little bit
to make sure that you write you have the The Perfect Exposure and one more thing I forgot
to say in the last part is that and this is even more relevant here now that we have the tracker
is that if you're using anything that uses batteries which you will be if you're using
anything digital you need to bring spare batteries and I'd suggest starting with fresh batteries and
then also of course just be cognizant of your battery level change out the batteries well
ahead of time because the last thing you need is to try changing a battery last minute right
before totality starts or even worse to lose lose power during totality because the battery dies um
many trackers have two ways to power them either internal doublea's or uh connecting an external
battery if yours is like that then I'd suggest having both options available just in case maybe
start with the external battery and then it can also it can always fall over uh to the internal
batteries okay so that's that and we can now get on with the procedure with a Tracker and
the first thing we're going to have to do with a Tracker like this is polar align it now if you can
get to your desired Eclipse location the night you know on the path of totality the night before and
leave your Tracker out overnight safely the most accurate way to Polar line is going to be with the
polar scope right here um the polar scope built into the tracker and using the star Polaris at
night and uh you just put the star in the right spot on the reticule on your polar scope and uh
many of you have done this before if you're night Master photographers but I'm sure many of you are
also not going to be able to get to the spot you're shooting from the night before so our
next best option is daytime polar alignment um and daytime polar alignment is definitely good
enough for solar tracking for this purpose in 2017 I went pretty old school with my daytime
polar alignment and just used Shadows string and a compass um and some information on the
magnetic declination for that particular location nowadays since most of us are carrying smart devic
deves a smartphone I'd suggest a smartphone based method for this and it's available on both iPhone
and Android they're very similar they just use different apps now no matter what kind of phone
you have if you use a case with a magnet on it you need to remove that case the reason I
have this case with a magnet on it is it's it's easy to stick on my little adapter when driving
um but I want to remove this case I'm planning on maybe getting an alternate case right before
the eclipse but for now just for demonstration I'll just go caseless with my phones and and be
careful and the reason is this magnet will totally mess up your phone's internal Compass uh which is
what we need to be accurate for this method of daytime alignment to work okay so the next step
is we want to calibrate that Compass which you do on any phone just by moving your phone in a
figure 8 pattern through the air with the compass app open and that calibrates the compass and then
next we need to attach the phone securely um or semi securely in such a way that this part of
the phone the top of the phone is pointing North and what I suggest for this is to make something
out of wood like this just scrap wood is fine and attach it to the tracker or Mount and then
rubber band the phone to the wood on iPhone we're going to buy the PS Align Pro app for
$3 and follow its daytime polar alignment routine which is quite detailed on Android we're going to
buy Polar aligner Pro app for 350 and follow its beta daytime alignment routine which when it comes
down to it is very similar these are by different developers so they have a different look but it's
really the exact same concept which is just to use your phone's compass and um you then use the
altitude and azimuth knobs on your uh wedge here to get the mount polar aligned by putting this
little dot right in the center of the crosshairs I just tried this with uh both phones and they
agreed perfectly so I think this is going to be a really good method uh for tracking the sun um and
thanks for everyone who who has mentioned it to me because it's a lot easier I think for most people
than the string and Shadow method okay so once your polar aligned with your tracker uh you want
to be very sure not to bump your mount on a on a tripod like this it's very easy to just bump into
the tripod and then you're out of polar alignment have to redo the whole thing it has to stay uh
stable the next thing we have to do is find the Sun Point our lens at it and with the filter on of
course and turn on solar tracking on the mount if you're using a normal star tracker like this the
star Adventure 2i uh you would do this completely manually by just you know loosening the clutches
here and turning uh the camera until it's pointed at the sun you can use a solar finder of course
and then once you found the sun you just tighten back up the clutches and then once you've centered
the sun on screen like that you then just turn this little dial on the side to the sun symbol
and that will turn on solar tracking and now the sun should stay centered if it doesn't stay
centered if it starts to drift you might just have to uh fine-tune your polar alignment a little bit
and you just fine-tune it until the sun does stay centered so it's a good idea if it's a nice clear
day on Eclipse day to start doing this well well ahead of time way before C1 before the
partial eclipse starts okay I've switched out to a go-to mount here to make some points about go-to
mounts and the GTI specifically this is the star Adventure GTI there's a little bit more complexity
here to think about the first thing is that the GTI with the sins scan Pro app has a sun safety
feature built in you're going to have to bypass that to even go to the sun uh it's here the bypass
is here under the settings uh to Advanced feature and you just have to turn on observe Sun it does
make you answer a math question to turn it on the point of all this is that they want to make
sure that you know to put a proper solar filter on before pointing your telescope at the sun we know
that so we're good to go we can turn on observe Sun now just because this has go-to doesn't mean
that it's going to put the sun right on screen it will get it close but you will probably still need
a solar finder to fine-tune it because uh in the night time we can calibrate the go-to system on
the GTI here with star alignment we can't do that during the daytime unless we get there the night
before and do it okay so anyways you're going to have to use a solar finder you find the sun you
turn on solar tracking here in the app and then it's very similar to the other tracker the 2i but
with one important exception which is by default the GTI will do an auto Meridian flip 5° past the
meridian and guess what at my location that would mean uh it would Auto flip from one side to the
other during totality which which would be a dis a complete disaster right you would probably miss
most of totality if that happened so we have two options and the better option will depend on where
you are along the path for me the best option is to flip before totality um and the reason for this
is I have about 12 minutes to just manually go to the sun uh before totality and it will flip
to the other side right and then so I'll re-center the sun I'll get everything set up and then I'll
still have a few minutes before totality starts at other locations the timing may be different and it
might make more sense to to uh slew to the other side uh after totality um or you know just turn
off the autof flip entirely and just let it track a little bit past the Meridian now the GTI will
only track so far past the Meridian before it has a hard stop I think it's about 15° it looks like
um so you will have to flip at that point um you you can turn off the Meridian flip with most go-to
apps you know if you're using uh sin scan app and not all mounts is it really even necessary
to flip right with the GTI like I mentioned at 15° there's a hard stop but other mounts can just keep
going and as long as your camera isn't hitting anything on the tripod you might be good to go
do you just keep tracking past the Meridian all throughout the eclipse it will just look sort of
funny cuz your counterweight will be up uh above your telescope but the important thing with any
of this is be very aware of it be aware when uh the Sun is going to cross the Meridian for your
location and have a game plan so that you're not going to get into the situation where it's your
Mount is auto flipping the telescope or lens or whatever you have uh right during totality or
right before totality okay and then as promised here at the end I'll comment a bit about the
possibility of capturing a comet during totality specifically the comet 12P/Pons- Brooks and it's
going to be about 25° away from the eclipse Sun 12P/Pons-Brooks has an orbital period of 70 years
so it's been seen before observed before in 1884 and 1954 and now we have it again in 20124 um I've
already been able to get a quick snapshot of it it looked like this at 350 mm focal length and I'll
be trying to capture a better shot of it uh during the new moon period in March but it's a little
bit tricky because it's one of those comets that's only visible right now at Dusk and Dawn and pretty
low uh in the sky close to the Horizon at least at my location except of course during the eclipse it
will actually be high in the sky right up by the sun um and the big question is will the comet be
bright enough to see or to get a good photograph of it during totality and the truth is no one
knows for sure comets are unpredictable in their brightness but if you want to try to photograph it
I think the coolest shot would be fairly wide to get both totality the eclipse the eclipse itself
and the comet in the same shot now that comes with some risk because there's it's a wide shot so the
comet might not be big and bright enough to be visible in a wide angle shot but if you want to
try uh let's look at stellarium to get some ideas of where it will be in the sky and what field of
view would work okay here we are in Stellarium this is a free program you can download for this
kind of thing the first thing we have to do is actually add the comet to Stellarium's database
uh because it's not in there by default this is a little convoluted but uh should be fairly easy
to follow me here you're going to go over here to the left hand side click on configuration
window uh click on plugins on the left hand side of plugins find solar system editor then click
configure then click uh solar system here solar system tab then down here click on import orbital
elements then choose comets and then where it says select bookmark uh click the little down arrow
here and choose Gideon van buin comets and click get orbit elements okay then it's going to come
up with this really long list of comets uh luckily this is searchable so I'm going to type in 12p and
there's our comment right there 12P/Pon-Brooks we can check it and click add objects and now uh you
might have to restart stellarium but it should be searchable now if we open the search window
and search you should be able to now uh search for it and it will have its orbital elements for any
day any location on Earth so now let's get us to Eclipse time so you want to put in your location
where close to where you're going to be then open the date time window and let's go to April 8th at
40 there's the eclipse right and here's the meridian line there's Jupiter and Venus and
what we want to do is we want to visualize well what kind of lens would work to get both the
eclipse and the comet in the same shot I mean you don't have to do this you could also just
go after the comet you have its uh ra and deck right here so you could just put those in uh to
your telescope Mount and and slew to the comet during totality and try to take a picture of it
more up close that might be fun but I'm going to try this wide angle shot idea it might not
work but I think it's worth a shot so to visualize that what you can do is go up here to what is this
called the ocular plugin um and choose an image sensor so I'm using a fullframe camera here and
if you don't if you're not using one of these photo lens 24 mm 35 mm um you can also put in
your own so I looked at 35 and 50 and thought you know what I think I really want to go with
40 and I have this really nice Sigma art uh 40 mm lens and then I can just try to frame up here
and you could see that if I get this framed up correctly I'll be able to get Venus the eclipse
the comet and Jupiter all in the same frame and I think that might look pretty neat and if I do
get a good image I would feature it on my personal website which brings us to today's sponsor which
is Squarespace I use Squarespace for my personal portfolio at nioc carver.com because Squarespace
makes it truly easy due to their website builder and their professional templates to really allow
my portfolio to shine there's a template for any kind of website you'd want to make but
then of course you can customize your website and Squarespace has a fluid engine so these
designs look great on mobile devices as well as desktops I've also found Squarespace takes the
hassle out of managing a website there's no more fiddling with CSS for hours just to get
something to look right and there are a huge amount of included features with Squarespace
like if you need an online store that's built right in so if you're looking for any kind of
website whether it be a portfolio of your photographs or a site for your business I
think you're going to love Squarespace you can get a free trial today at squarespace.com and
when you're ready to launch use squarespace.com nebula photos for 10% off your first purchase
of a website or domain this has been Nico Carver at Nebula photos clear skies everyone
関連する他のビデオを見る
It's coming! April 8, 2024, Do this before the day of the solar eclipse✨Dolores Cannon
Everyone Was Excited About The Eclipse, Until They Heard This Prophecy
Smaltatura ceramica ad immersione, come smaltare la terracotta e la ceramica
🎨 Tutorial Pittura ad Olio: Pennelli per Effetti Magici nei Paesaggi! 🌳🌼🌊 #ArtePaesaggistica
C_64 Strings in C- part 3 | printf and puts function in C
How to study for exams - The Retrospective Revision Timetable
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)