Total Solar Eclipse 2008 - Russia

Under 700 Euro sounds good!
I hope it's the same if not better from Ireland.
As for acomodation,
I'm sure any of you lot wishing to post up images of the eclipse
asap will need broadband as a priority.

I'd like to try and both experience the eclipse and photograph it
without compromising on either.

In 1999 I was on a boat off the French coast and I didn't even have
binoculars, just a pair of eclipse glasses!
It was great to be able to take the whole event in without having to worry
or concentrate on equipment etc...

I did take one or two though...
(With a 35mm film instamatic :roll:.)
One was of the shadow just before it hit the boat which was cool.
the other was during totality..
I grabbed my (now wife) and turned our backs to the eclipse and
took a 'self portrait' kinda shot and that turned out awesome.
Our two cheesy heads together and a 'black hole' with a ring of light
around it just above us.


So I'm hoping to approach this eclipse in the sort of same manner.
(not by grabbing people and saying 'cheese' but..)
Just trying to get interesting wide field shots that give a feel for the moment.
There is a lot of emotion packed into just a few moments and
it'd be interesting to see can this be captured on film.

I'd like to try and both experience the eclipse and photograph it without compromising on either.

Frank,

With 2.5 minutes totality, I suspect it would be difficult to capture totality in all its grandeur with a series of exposures and also at the same time enjoy it. I base this on my experience from last March.

However, with around 7 minutes totality in 2009, things there do seem much more reasonable and doable.

Anthony,
With abit of preparation and the right equipment and plan, you can image it and see it at the same time. I used a 2" flip mirror for this, without it, it would not have been possible.

I don't plan on taking any 'detailed' shots thru a scope.
I just plan to get some 'arty farty' ones

We'll lets be honest about this here, I don't think I'll discover the meaning of life or derive the grand unified theory using any eclipse images I'll ever take, :lol: but I do think you need to plan it out and know/practice what you're going to do.
I knew for certain what exposure settings I needed to have before and after totality as I had experimented at home in the previous weeks on the Sun, I made educated guesses for totality itself, I also made sure the mount would carry the scope with and without the filter (the filter weight can shift the scope, so you'd better know about it before hand).

You only have a few minutes (2-3 in Russian case) to get it right, if you don't prepare, you'll get blurred,cropped over/underexposed images which will be no use to anyone, or maybe only a small few good ones, much less then you bargained for given the effort in getting the equipment to site.
I know you said you're not going to use a scope, I would still do abit of practice on clear skies just after sunset to try and get a mimic of an eclipsed skies brightness. I would leave nothing like that to chance.

Unfortunately these hotels do not have any electronic means to contact them and it is both surprising and frustrating.

they do, mostly. But in russian . Look there - www.novosib.ru/hotel/ , they all have emails, but i think the best way is to call them.


Barberskum, most hotels here don't have brodband, but it isn't a problem, because in city centre there are plenty of wifi zones.