Partial Solar Eclipse

Today there was a partial solar eclipse across Northern Colorado. We got a 96% solar eclipse, where states further North and East of us got a full eclipse. I was at work when it happened (the peak was at 11:46 am), so I went outside with my tripod and sat in the parking lot for nearly 2 and a half hours. I started about 20 minutes late (which is why the photos don't start out with the sun being full) because I had to take care of some work that I needed to get done before I could take a long lunch break without worrying about what work needed to be finished.

I was able to achieve these photos using some pretty cheap equipment and my camera. I had a piece of shade 9 weld glass and a custom, 3D printed frame that attached the weld glass to my camera lens. As I was sitting in the parking lot taking photos, I would adjust the exposure just a little every 10-20 seconds since I didn't know the optimal exposure for taking photos of the sun. I took a little over 1,400 photos in the 2 and a half hours I was out there. I was shooting f/22-f/40, ISO100, and a shutter speed between 1/2000 and 1/4000 because anything less was too much light on the sensor. All the images you see below were photos when the settings were set at f40, ISO100, and 1/4000. The photos are taken about 5 minutes apart from each other.

My Equipment

My equipment for this solar eclipse was pretty simple... I bought a piece of shade 9 weld glass from a local hardware store and I 3D printed a lense mount so the lens would stay tight against the camera lens and not let light in. I didn't make this filter specifically for the solar eclipse, I made it to take daytime time-lapse photos (check out this album).

Without the Glass

This is what the frame looks like without the weld glass on one of my other lenses.

From the Top

Again, this is my weld glass holder for my camera. It took great photos of the solar eclipse!