Equipment for a Panoramic Sunset Solar Eclipse

As you know if you watched my solar eclipse episode, watch it below! I took the decision to do a more panoramic view of the solar eclipse instead of a magnified shot. This was mostly because having the landscape gave me the opportunity to show the progression of the solar eclipse in the context of it's surroundings rather than just a magnified view of the sun.

To start with though I needed solar eclipse glasses I wouldn't always be using the camera to view the eclipse and would want to view it with my own eyes! So to do this I chose the EclipSmart glasses from Celestron. When viewing the sun I never want to take chances. Needless to say never view the sun directly without proper protection and that's not sunglasses!!

Before using any solar films (which are in the EclipSmart glasses) I always hold it up to a bright light to ensure the film hasn't been perforated.

I was especially concerned because my children were viewing the eclipse with me and unfortunately there are unscrupulous manufacturers that don't follow all the safety measures, but I know a brand like Celestron could be trusted.

Next as the plan was to lock the camera in place on a tripod, I of course needed a sturdy tripod that wouldn't move. 

As it was going to be a panoramic view I chose a 50mm lens for my DSLR camera.

I actually made my own solar filter out of a 48mm-52mm empty camera ring and a sheet of solar filter film. I then cut a stencil in cardboard out of the camera ring and used that to cut the matching circle out of the film. Afterwards I super glued the film to the ring.

Once I had the perfect location, I locked the camera in place and set it to take a photo every 5 minutes, with the solar filter on. After the eclipse had completed, another image of the landscape was taken, without moving the camera. This was then combined together in GIMP with the landscape image making the base image and the phases of the eclipse being added as image layers in screen mode.

To create the amazing image you see in the video below!

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