Hello all. I am new to this so I hope I speak the proper astro terms. I am planning to travel to South Carolina in August to view (and photograph) the total solar eclipse. This would be my first one. I have a 10 inch LX90 mounted on a wedge. I also have a Nikon D5100 DSLR with 18-55 kit lens and a Nikkor 55-300 mm lens with solar filter. I also have a DMK 21AU04.AS USB monochrome camera. I have 2 questions:
1. When I looked at the sun thru my telescope, the sun's disk did not fit in the DSLR camera screen, too much magnification. no problem focusing. SO I install a Meade 4000 f6.3 focal reducer and the image got smaller obviously but I could never get good focus. I kept getting a black circle in the center of the image and I moved the focus from one end to another. Does anyone know the reason for that?
2. What do you recommend for photographing the solar eclipse? This is once in a lifetime opportunity and I don't want to miss it or screw it up. Do you think I have the equipment to do it or shold I invest in a refractor to put in front of my DSLR? Please keep in mind that traveling with my scope is not something I'm looking forward to do doing especially with wife and 3 kids and an SUV.
3. I was reading about telephoto lenses and ran into the 500 mm catadioptric lenses that are MUCH cheaper than traditional telephoto lenses. Are these any good for solar photography?
Thank you all for your help.
1. When I looked at the sun thru my telescope, the sun's disk did not fit in the DSLR camera screen, too much magnification. no problem focusing. SO I install a Meade 4000 f6.3 focal reducer and the image got smaller obviously but I could never get good focus. I kept getting a black circle in the center of the image and I moved the focus from one end to another. Does anyone know the reason for that?
2. What do you recommend for photographing the solar eclipse? This is once in a lifetime opportunity and I don't want to miss it or screw it up. Do you think I have the equipment to do it or shold I invest in a refractor to put in front of my DSLR? Please keep in mind that traveling with my scope is not something I'm looking forward to do doing especially with wife and 3 kids and an SUV.
3. I was reading about telephoto lenses and ran into the 500 mm catadioptric lenses that are MUCH cheaper than traditional telephoto lenses. Are these any good for solar photography?
Thank you all for your help.
