Total Solar Eclipse 2008 - Russia

I will be on the top of the hotel roof having the last laugh

There is a flat top roof with access now ya?

I can see Anthony hanging out of the eves and roof top aerials of the hotel. :lol:

As for the car (ford focus), we'll have it from Thursday night when we arrive until Saturday afternoon when we leave, the cost is approx 225e, divided by 4 is 56e each, this is with unlimited miles and full crash and theft cover.
Hopefully we wont be pushing the unlimited miles too much, although we could end up in Mongolia yet ?
Anyone got the Russian rules of the road handy. :lol:

Well, I took some trial exposures this evening.
1/100 to 1/200 sec exposures with the Baader film worked out quite well with my lens.

As for how long an exposure you can have at 400mm focal length without tracking, I reckon around 1.5 secs is the max. You could go 2 secs if you are willing to accept slight trailing. I came to this conclusion after some test exposures on the Moon and Jupiter this evening.

I can see Anthony hanging out of the eves and roof top aerials of the hotel. :lol:

I have done worse. :lol:

As for the car (ford focus), we'll have it from Thursday night when we arrive until Saturday afternoon when we leave, the cost is approx 225e, divided by 4 is 56e each, this is with unlimited miles and full crash and theft cover.
Hopefully we wont be pushing the unlimited miles too much, although we could end up in Mongolia yet ?
Anyone got the Russian rules of the road handy. :lol:

If you stick around the hotel, I will rent the car battery from you!

By the way, somewhat surprised you are into Novo on Thrusday and not earlier. You are leaving everything to the last minute (ie. previous night) which is a little dangerous for a variety of reasons.

Yes, I agree, buts its just the way it turned out.,
I intend doing a recon. of the site on Thursday night to see what we're up against and to find the escape routes out of the city should we need them.

Well, I took some trial exposures this evening.
1/100 to 1/200 sec exposures with the Baader film worked out quite well with my lens.

This is NOT encouraging at all since it translates to even longer necessary exposures for the diamond ring and totality. If you have a way to bump up your baseline exposure, do try it!

As for how long an exposure you can have at 400mm focal length without tracking, I reckon around 1.5 secs is the max. You could go 2 secs if you are willing to accept slight trailing. I came to this conclusion after some test exposures on the Moon and Jupiter this evening.

This seems about right on the basis of my work involving the rising moon against archaeological monuments.

As for the "slight trailing", NO, NO, NO or you just killed the fine detail in the corona and especially away from the immediate area of the disk.

We had some VERY serious haze today (all day) and I could not proceed with my proposed testing. Fingers crossed that I can do something tomorrow.

Today's haze also killed my planned capture of the HST transiting against the moon. What can you do but wait till the next such opportunity. :evil: