Astro Photography 

Photographing a Solar Eclipse

updated: 2026-08-21

Important: Never look directly at the sun with your unprotected eyes or camera equipment, even if the sun is 99% hidden behind the moon, as this will damage your eyes or camera sensors. Smartphone cameras can also be damaged by repeatedly taking photos of direct sunlight; this is especially true for the time-lapse feature. 
Only during the limited time period of totality, when only the outer corona of the sun is visible, it is possible to observe the corona with the naked eye or unprotected camera equipment.

Camera settings (during partial eclipse) with mounted solar filter:

  • Solar Filters: Do not use plain aluminum foil or similar makeshift solutions; these are neither safe nor do they improve image quality. Instead, use either professional foil (e.g., from Baader) or specially mounted solar filters; see here. 
  • Focal length: The focal length depends on what you plan to photograph during the solar eclipse (the entire landscape with the sun above the horizon during morning or evening eclipses, or details of the sun's surface). If you want to capture details of the sun's surface, you'll need a focal length of over 600 mm (depending on the sensor size).
  • Focus: Manually set the focus to infinity, or better yet: find an object as far away as possible (e.g., the top of a church tower) and focus on it. If the camera has a Live mode, it can also be used later to focus on the edge of the sun
  • Format: RAW
  • Exposure: 1/3200s
  • ISO: 100 or less
  • F-Stop: > 9
  • Number of exposures: Especially on hot days, strong atmospheric disturbances cause blurry images. Astronomers call this “bad seeing.” That's why it's important to take as many images as possible (100–200)
  • Tracking: When taking pictures with a telephoto lens or telescope, automatic tracking (see mounts) is absolutely necessary.

Camera settings during totality without any solar filter

  • It's best to set a timer that will alert you in advance of both the start and the end of the total solar eclipse.
  • Only shortly after the total solar eclipse begins (about 10 seconds later) should the solar filter be removed from the telescope or telephoto lens to allow for images of the solar corona.
  • Use the 'bracketing' photography technique — taking a series of shots with different exposures of the diamond ring and corona — to maximize your chances of achieving optimum results. This feature allows changes the exposure by up to ±3 f/stops in 1/3-stop increments over three successive shots, which can then be combined later into an HDR image.
  • Focal Length:  400–600 mm for APS-C formats
  • Focus: Manually set the focus to infinity, or better yet: find an object as far away as possible (e.g., the top of a church tower) and focus on it. If the camera has a Live mode, it can also be used later to focus on the edge of the sun
  • Format: RAW
  • Exposure: as fast as possible, depending on the ISO and F-Stop. 
  • ISO: 100 or less
  • F-Stop: depends on your telescope (typical f/6 or less) 
  • Number of exposures: Use the camera's bracketing function as described above and take as many photos as possible during totality, preferably using a remote control or remote shutter release.
  • Make sure you put the solar filter back on the telescope or telephoto lens just before the end of the total eclipse.
  • Tracking: When taking pictures with a telephoto lens or telescope, automatic tracking (see mounts) is recommended.
  • Tips for Photographing a Total Solar Eclipse - Sky & Telescope

Time-lapse footage of the solar eclipse

  • use the same settings as above
  • Interval Settings: Solar eclipses can last for a long period of time (e.g., 2 hours) from the start of the eclipse to its end. Therefore, you should carefully consider in advance how long the video clip, compressed from the time-lapse images during post-processing, should be. As a general rule, 30 images result in 1 second of footage. So, if you want to condense the 2 hours of a solar eclipse into 1 minute, that works out to 1 frame every 4 seconds, or 15 frames per minute times 120 minutes = 1,800 frames (or 900 frames for a 30s clip).
  • If you're using an ASIAIR guider plus ZWO camera, use Autorun mode. In the Shooting Schedule, set the First Delay to at least 1 second; set the interval as described above. Reason: There appears to be a bug in the software that causes it to take all shots immediately without any pauses if the First Delay is set to 0.
  • Required Storage Capacity: If individual frames are captured in RAW format, a great deal of storage space is required. Roughly speaking: a recording duration of 1 hour, with a playback duration of 1 second for the video clip, requires 1,800 individual frames. At, say, 45 MB per frame, that requires 81 GB of storage space!!!
    Formula: Record Duration [s] * Clip Speed [frames/s] => Number of exposures * storage requirement / frame => total required storage capacity.



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