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Showing posts from August, 2017

2017: A SOLAR ECLIPSE ODYSSEY

(Formerly, Used Home-made Solar Filter for Sale: Only Used Once!) In the Pacific Northwest, I’ve become accustomed to spending many a meteor shower shivering in the dark beneath opaque cloud covers. So there are clouds. Then, as the media began hyping a once in a lifetime opportunity, the prospect of a million or so extra commuters on the road to Salem made a 99% solar eclipse sound pretty good. So there’s traffic. But Mr. and Mrs. P began helping me chip away at these objections until all that was left was the question of equipment. I had access to two possible camera choices. A Panasonic point-and-shoot with a lens boasting a 600mm focal length (35mm equivalent) or a Canon digital DSLR /Sigma 70-300mm zoom lens combo. Because the Canon’s APS-C sensor has a crop factor of 1.6 the 35mm equivalent is approximately 480mm.  Neither of these  choices has enough ‘reach’ to create images in which the sun fills the frame, so I started giving extra credence to artic