Great American Eclipse 2017 – Upstate South Carolina

Composite shot of the photos leading up to and during totality

I watched the 2017 Eclipse from within the path of totality in South Carolina. I woke up early, grabbed my camera and telescope my parents kept from when I went to astronomy camp then headed down to Greer, SC.

Greer laid within the path of totality which meant being able to see the total eclipse for 85 seconds. 45 seconds less than neighboring Greenville but totality none the less.

Leading up to totality I took photos using my Sony camera with the eclipse glasses over the lens as a filter.

August 2017 Total Eclipse Progression — Composite shot of photos leading up to and during totality

I also took a video of the eclipse approaching totality:

the 10 minutes leading up to totality compressed into 10 seconds #Eclipse2017 pic.twitter.com/jpFigEMqWv

— Joseph Schindel (@JoeSchindel) August 22, 2017

Telescope in back lined up ready for totality. Jeff and I watching the sun disappear

Getting creative while my glasses were on my camera as a filter to shoot

Shooting Totality With a Telescope

The telescope from my childhood proved to be the a fantastic way to view the eclipse. With a 900mm length and 25mm eyepiece we were able to see things 36x magnified! The one precaution was to only look during totality. While setting up I put the glasses over the eyepiece to try and take a picture and it burned right through! Thats why you should never point a telescope at the sun!

Damage from aiming the telescope at the sun while the sun was still out!

As totality began I took my glasses off and stared into the scope. I was blown away by the beauty. The rays of light dancing around the edges of the moon were spectacular . I aimed my camera down the eyepiece and snapped a few photos before going back to staring.

Unedited photos – Shot on Sony RX 100 Mark III – 1/500 or 1/620 – f/ 3.5 – focal length 14.3 mm. Through a Orion 10014 SkyQuest XT4.5 Telescope with a 25mm eyepiece.

I shoot the images RAW so I was able to go into Lightroom and adjust the photos to expose the brillance of the eclipse. In my favorite shot you can see solar flares! The flares are coming off the sun’s surface and loop for millions of miles into space. They can only be seen from the ground during a solar eclipse.