(orchestral music)

Hey guys, I'm Brent Rose,

writer, and sun snuggling up behind your moon.

On August 21, 2017 there will be a total eclipse of the sun.

It will stretch all the way from the west coast

to the east coast of the United States.

It'll be the fullest eclipse the country

has experienced in a hundred years,

and you should get out and enjoy it,

but you can just stare up at the sky

like a monkey from 2001 A Space Odyssey

and expect to return home with your eyeballs in tact.

That's why today we're going over some tips

to view and photograph the eclipse and do it safely.

First a quick primer.

A solar eclipse is where the moon passes between

the earth and the sun blocking the sun's light

and casting a shadow onto the earth in

the middle of the day.

Like playing planetary pool, everything has

to be lined up just right.

That means not everybody on earth will get

to see the sun completely blocked out.

That will only happen for people in the path of totality,

which coincidentally is the name

of my forthcoming solo album.

(auto-tuned rock)

The totality covers a band

roughly 70 miles wide from north to south.

It will first hit the Oregon coast

and drop south as it heads east,

eventually finishing in South Carolina.

If you want to know where and when you can see it,

go to eclipse2017.nasa.gov.

If you're in the path of totality, the sky will go dark,

and you'll actually be able to see stars come out.

Now that will only last for two minutes and 47 seconds

at best, so let's talk about how to maximize that time.

Tip number one.

While the full blackout will only last a couple of minutes,

there will be a couple hours with

the moon slowly encroaching on the sun

and then leaving it afterwards,

and this is amazing to see too, but here's the thing.

It's only safe to look with your bare eyes when

the sun is 100% obscured.

The rest of the time you're going

to need specialized solar glasses.

Deal with it.

Warning.

Stacking multiple pairs of sunglasses will not cut it,

so if you're thinking about triple-bagging your face

it's time for a new plan.

Fortunately true solar glasses are not expensive.

They come in a bunch of different varieties,

and you can pick them up online for just a few bucks.

However, there's an important caveat.

There are several sellers online selling these things

that are not up to safety standards.

Yes those people will burn in hell,

but not before you burn your retinas.

NASA has advised that any solar glasses,

filters, or viewers you use meet the following criteria.

They must have certification information with

this designated ISO number,

have the manufacturer's name

and address printed somewhere on the product,

and not be used if they are older

than three years or have scratched or wrinkled lenses.

If you're looking for a reliable company,

NASA and it's partners have verified the products from

these five companies meet international safety standards.

Only buy from these guys.

Glasses from those five companies

are already selling out online,

but if you go to your local science museum or planetarium,

they may have some in their gift shop.

We've also heard that some local libraries have them.

Tip number two.

NASA has advised that you don't use any kind

of homemade lens as a solar filter.

The one exception is you can use welder's glass number 14.

Now it has to be number 14 at the very least.

Most welder's goggles use glass number four or five,

and that's not nearly enough protection.

It's got to be number 14.

Tip number three.

You know how we said you can't look directly at

the sun with the naked eye?

Well multiply that advise times a 1,000 if you're using

a telescope, binoculars, or an SLR camera.

Have you ever seen somebody fry something using

a magnifying glass and sunlight?

That's basically what you'd be doing to your eyeballs.

Now some companies make specialized solar filters that

you can screw directly onto

your telescope's or camera's lens.

We're talking ND100,000.

If you can find one at your local camera shop, good for you,

but unfortunately these are sold out almost everywhere,

so here's our DIY solution.

Use some thick black construction paper

and wrap it around the outer tube of your lens.

Mark where the ends overlap and tap it there.

Cut it so it fits the barrel,

but doesn't obstruct the focus or aperture ring.

Apply some thick gel-style superglue to the rim of

the cylinder and then smoosh it down gently onto a sheet

of solar filter from one of the five companies

we mentioned earlier, or onto a flat piece

of number 14 welder's glass.

You can cut away the extra film.

These filters should over the whole lens,

but not obstruct the shot at all.

Leave it on until the sun has completely disappeared.

Once the last bit of sunlight has vanished,

it's safe to remove the filter for the duration

of the totality, but make sure you put it back on before

the sun starts to creep out again.

For many of us, this will be a once in a lifetime event,

so it makes sense that you'd want to take a photo of it.

There are far more exhaustive tutorials out there,

but here are some quick tips.

if you're using a DSLR, it is not safe

to look through the viewfinder.

This is because the camera's lens will amplify the light.

You can only use the live view mode on

the larger LCD screen.

That's why I've chosen to use Sony's A7R2 which is

a full frame mirror-less camera.

The viewfinder is actually just a high resolution screen,

so I can look through it all I want

and my eyes will be safe.

It can also shoot images at a whopping 42 megapixels.

So I'll be able to do some cropping

and still make a poster-size photo of the eclipse.

Tip number four.

Because of the earth's rotation,

the sun will appear to be moving across the sky.

It will travel the distance of

it's own diameter roughly every two minutes.

If you're using a long lens that will make

it very difficult to keep track of.

One trick to finding it again is looking at

the shadow you're camera makes on the ground.

Adjust it so that the lens completely disappears from

the shadow and you should be pointed in the right direction.

An ideal and much higher tech solution is

using something like the Cube Pro 8200 from Ioptron.

This mount has a database of more

than 150,000 celestial objects including the sun.

It can lock onto it's position and automatically track it

as it moves across the sky,

so you never even have to think about reframing your shot.

For lens selection, there's a lot of ways you can go.

Personally I'm going with a 400 millimeter with

a 2x tele converter, giving me an 800 millimeter equivalent.

This should give me plenty of detail of the sun,

but still provide lots of the sun's corona.

No if you don't have a long lens, don't despair.

Capturing the setting of where you are in

the foreground is a way to preserve a unique image of

the eclipse and it'll stand out from all

the other close-up sun porn out there,

and lastly, some general tips.

You're going to want to find

the native ISO of your camera and use that.

For most cameras, that's 100 or 200.

While the sun is still visible and you've got

your solar filter on you're going

to want to use a fast shutter speed.

If you're in the path of the totality

and it's fully disappeared you can remove the filter,

and you're going want to use a longer exposure,

but know that there will be huge variations within

the brightness of the corona.

So you're going to want to try a bunch

of different shutter speeds.

Everything from 1/1,000th of a second all the way up

to a full four seconds.

Tip number five.

Final tip, don't get lost in the technology.

Make sure you're taking the time to really enjoy

this unique once in a lifetime experience,

but what do you think?

Let us know in the comments below and subscribe

to Wired if you haven't already,

and with all that being said,

there's really only one thing left to do.

Go see the eclipse, and buy my debut solo album.

(guitar music)