Hi Joan, You absolutely need a solar filter for viewing a partial eclipse. It's only safe to look at a solar eclipse during totality. I suppose you could take an extremely fast photo of the partial without a solar filter, without harming the camera, but it would be hard to take a picture without looking through the viewfinder or looking at the sun's vicinity while holding the camera up to it. I'd get solar filters for viewing and photography. Best wishes, Joe ________________________________ From: J E CARMAN <jcarman6@q.com> To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Sent: Saturday, September 10, 2011 11:54 PM Subject: [Utah-astronomy] 2012 Annular Eclipse - photographing it I’ve “snagged” a map of the center line from the NASA website. It shows the center line crossing US Highway 91 just south of Kanarraville. There is a specific longitude and latitude . Then a “pop-up” widow appeared, showing the duration and event times. Much to my dismay, the event times show the date 2012/05/21. The time was listed in UT, so I’m thinking the “date” is based on UT and not local time. But I don’t recall how much of a difference there is between UT and MST. The UT for maximum eclipse was 01:33:48 0. Is there that much difference between UT and MST? I guess it really is only about 7 hours. Also, someone mentioned that the coverage would be 92%. That still leaves a lot of sun around the edges, although substantially reduced. Do I need a solar filter for the camera? I don’t think so, but I am posing the question. Also, if the eclipse is taking place at about 10 or 11 degrees – that’s above the horizon, right? Even if there are mountains to the west in the distance, won’t that affect what we see if we are just outside of Kanarraville. Don’t we want to be higher – i.e, in the mountains to the east of Kanarraville (not sure that is even possible) I was thinking Cedar Breaks has a pull out (10,000 feet, clean low western horizon, but not near the centerline) Easy to drive to. If you are there – probably slightly north of Cedar City, how much is the eclipse impacted? Would you still get the ring of fire (centered)? As the moon is passing in front of the sun, even if you are at Cedar City, won’t you still get a reasonably centered ring of fire? Opinions please Joan . _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php