As the fateful day draws closer, the United States will host a celestial event that comes once in three generations. I plan to witness this first hand at the exact center of greatest eclipse.
In the planning of this, I have immersed myself in the work of Eddington back in 1919, confirming Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity (and its explanations for gravity) was right.
I personally, could not just stand-by and just look at this event and not do something more. Knowing that failure, due to weather, equipment, and or other forces are stacked against me, I have to make an attempt because a chance like this will never present itself again in my lifetime.
My goal in coming here today is simple, I need some advice from someone who knows telescopes and cameras.
a 150 mm Celestron 6SE with an automatic GOTO mount, and an equatorial wedge.
The camera will be a Sony A 6000, with an adapter.
TThe field of view is large because of the 1500 mm focal of the telescope. I chose device because of a trade-off that has to be made, Eddington used a 100 mm refractor scope when conducting his experiment. With any shift in the apparent position of the stars behind the sun as Einstein predicted, the 150 mm telescope should, in theory, coupled with a camera that has a 24-megapixel sensor, have the necessary resolution to image this shift like Eddington's image. If any shift to the stars is to be captured, they will appear within close proximity surrounding the eclipse.
My problem is as follows, the telescope I will be using, will be the lens, and now the lens has only one f-stop. At f/10 and only having the ISO and shutter speed to work with, what exposure would I use ?
Knowing that a long exposure would only manage to capture the outer corona, and possibly engulfing and obscuring any stars that shift. Likewise, a shorter exposure would capture the inner corona and thus not image any stars at all.
I do however plan to bracket 5 stops (shutter speeds) to better my odd of catching any shift.
Would anyone have any other useful tips trick to further better my odds in my endeavor?
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