does having a telescope make better the experience of viewing an eclipse?i will be seeing the total eclipse this summer in spain, from the top of a high mountain and this might be a good excuse to buy itany discussion on telescopes or eclipses would be welcome
get yourself a hefty neutral density filter and an h-alpha
>>16882679Depends on what you want to see. Binoculars may be more generally convenient for your purposes. I highly recommend binoculars for such viewing, since they are so easy to move around compared to a telescope, while you may not really benefit from the levels of magnification a telescope can grant.
>>16882970i thought using just binoculars could leave you blind, like just looking at it without those special eclipse glasses
>>16882679maybe, but dont make the mistake of spending more time looking through a lens than just taking in the spectacle with your own two eyes.
>>16882679With a powerful enough telescope, you can see the curvature of spacetime induced by the sun. Unless it's cloudy.Good luck!
>>16883315i mean, yeah, it's nice taking it in with your own eyes... but if he's looking at the one in spain this year he's only gonna have like sixty seconds of totality. that's enough time to smell the roses for a couple seconds, but if he wants to see any detail he's gonna want some filtered binocs at least.
>>16883319oh i know anon, i understand. we were right in the center of totality for the 2024 solar eclipse and my wife, being really into photography, took a bunch of photos but barely spent a moment taking in the whole thing in itself. she regrets that. i didn't do anything but take in the whole thing and i'll always remember it. saw some very nice prominences too, unaided. just wouldnt want the anon to miss out thats all, but of course it all depends what he's after.
My 2024 experience suggests take it all in with your senses, snap a photo or two during totality provided you have a good camera/lens but mostly just look, and dont forget to look around you too, weird things happen across the landscape, should be awesome from a mountainThe partial phases are extended enough to play with filters, scopes and toys but during totality just look, 60 seconds is fast lol I had 4 minutesSomeone else will share photos, and phones really cant capture shit so dont have the goddamn phone out
>>16883372>spend $$$ to chase a shadow>know my scopes and light and lenses>but my eyes and my mind only get these 4 minutes>...>it has a chill...>...>and a sound too!?!>...>buy a $20 framed print for the wallDude, you rock.
>>16883372>ont forget to look around you too, weird things happen across the landscape, should be awesome from a mountainthis 100%
>>16883262Not during totality. Or with filters.
>>16883372you'd be able to see the shadow approaching and departing. that would be very cool
>>16882679I used my Newtonian to project an image onto a sheet of paper back in 2017. I didn't know what to expect, but being able to see the corona was really spectacular.
>>16883866i did that with a piece of aluminum foil taped into a little cardboard frame. projected a nice disk onto a sheet of paper for the kids to see. was a really great time - perfect clear sky, early spring temps, quiet, just watching the spectacle right outside my house in the woods. very special. its made me want to travel to see other soalr eclipses.
>>16884073>>16883866is pic related what you are talking about?
>>16884621yeah. i just made a little cardboard frame maybe 10x10cm and tape a square of foil across it. cheap easy way to keep an eye on how its progressing. also had some welding goggles for direct viewing.
>>16884073>>16884621Pinhole projectors are cool, I remember building one as a kid. A colander works just as well though, it works on the same principle. Really, if you just want to watch the moon transit across the disk of the Sun, that's all you need. With my telescope, I wasn't using any lenses to blow up the image, so I really didn't get any better results on that front. I was fortunate enough to live smack-dab in the middle of totality though, and when you're in a total eclipse, the extra light you can capture with a telescope pays off and you can get some some fantastic images of the corona. OP's pic is about what I could see through those solar-eclipse glasses, while the projection from my 5-inch Newtonian was more like pic related. Big feathery streamers extending far away from the Sun.
>>16884668yeah thats nice. felt like i was seeing that in the 2024 eclipse even with eyes only.
