Solar panning camera build and eclipse shenanigans

Building a camera platform with a long lens on it to follow the sun and make a timelapse of the eclipse. Some interesting shots captured with it, and talking about light levels during the eclipse

[@george_thebean]

Bloody hell, Matthias ... woodworking, optics, astronomy, engineering, photography and electronics in one single video! Well done

[@friedaspyder8485]

And family interaction to boot. Great video, and concept. I picked the wrong live stream, and was disappointed when there was no totality. He was a bit outside the path. Still cool though.

[@rootvalue]

No idea why this isn’t a main channel video. Your build is great and the results are phenomenal.

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

Its more tech oriented, so it belongs here more. Just because the main channel has 9x the subs doesn't mean it will get more views there.

[@tvspace1237]

@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 there are very very few creators who can inspire ordinary folks to learn unknown subjects and definitely you are that rare teacher / creator

[@somethingorother5782]

@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 It has gears, woodworking, and outside-the-box thinking. Totally belongs on the main channel.

[@jasonharrison25]

Why not both? Increase the odds of being viewed

[@asailijhijr]

​@@jasonharrison25 if the side channel makes good videos that get good engagement, the side channel will gain followers organically.

[@joethompson11]

This is the only eclipse coverage I've seen so far, came from the best source. Thanks Matthias!

[@friedaspyder8485]

The NASA capture by jet airplane is interesting. Added a couple of minutes to a normal ground based eclipse.

[@cameronspears1386]

“Harmonics of the chopstick” is something I’ve never heard before

[@PatrickKQ4HBD]

I learned from a hobby machinist's channel, "Everything is a spring, no matter how strong you think it is."

[@jamescollier3]

Builds wooden telescope in two days

[@super8hell]

They're not that complicated if you know what you are doing.

[@BadgerBishop]

With parts laying around the house.

[@jameslang6767]

@@super8hell nothing is complicated if you know what your are doing, daaaa

[@JobbityGifford]

Yeah, FFS NASA, get your act together!

[@FDog16]

@@super8hell Mirrors is most complicated part

[@Makedeth]

Your mirror/diopter projector of the eclipse was amazing, too. That has never occurred to me, to do it that way.

[@billyjbryant]

This was just shy of a master class in DIY sun photography. Great job and amazing results!

[@dege13]

I just smiled when I saw you making a lens adapter out of wood. My braid had gone to 3d printing one, and I almost forgot your specialty was wood.

[@geoffreygriffiths1487]

Thank you so much for this video. I have been looking into astro-trackers called barn-door trackers, and have often wondered why there are so few builds based on stepper-drivers. Now I know, the purpose of them is to be simple to build. The jarring movement of the steps would be a challenge to most home builders to overcome, whereas cheap DC motors are easy to come by and control. Well done.

[@edcramer6475]

I love it when old projects can become new projects. Videos like this are good reminders that skills (and parts!) accumulate over time. I ignored the eclipse because "it's just a shadow, whatever" but you treated it as a 4-day engineering challenge and learned new things that will undoubtedly feed some other project. Time to go make more future parts!

[@JonnyDIY]

Why aren't you working for like NASA or something Matthias 😆💕👍 Thanks for sharing, loved the shots with red geysers. My Dad, a professional photographer loved your setup too 👍

[@Ed_Stuckey]

My son noticed the red eruption from the bottom and pointed it out to me asking what it was. I told him it was a coronal mass ejection but soon realized solar prominence was more fitting. Either way, it was amazing to see. Lots of work on your part but the capture you made was as good as any I've seen. Great work! 👍

[@Wordsnwood]

That mechanism was fascinating. I was adjusting my solar viewer manually and it was amazing how fast the image of the sun moved

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

It would probably have moved as fast as my image of the sun on the wall did. The sun moves its width about every two minutes.

[@Wordsnwood]

@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 Most likely. still, it was an amazing experience and I am keen to find another one to view!

[@Llamarama100]

I love these random tangents you go off on, they're always so fascinating and often include things I'm interested in! Also, we have the same SLR camera!

[@MegaVoltMeister]

I love these interesting projects too.

[@harlanbarnhart4656]

That plasma eruption shot is amazing.

[@clark7117]

Great capture. I appreciate your inclination to utilize simple resources at hand. Your friend is so notorious for leaning against the railing, the last time he did it during an eclipse, even the sun and the moon complained about the view getting distorted!

[@StopAndGo1]

I'm always blown away with not only the amount of detail and insight you explain about your projects but the amount of work you do to document the project as you go along as well as the amount of time you (or whoever) must spend to put it together at the end. I'm tired after just watching this ;-) .... I think I'll go and take a nap.

[@StefanoBorini]

Nothing in astronomy is more satisfying than getting the pictures of something yourself. I was superexcited when I got the M42 nebula, because I had to come up with a hacked up parallel mount to take a picture while using my telescope as a manual tracker.

[@tolkienfan1972]

M42 is one of my favorites

[@phs125]

When I first got my DSLR, I was so happy taking moon photos. I've seen plenty of moon photos in my life, they all look the same. But still the one I took would be a lot more exciting... Later on I took a photo of Jupiter and some of its moons, nobody would understand why I was so happy about it...

[@quilleymemory]

This has to be one of your best ever videos. I love what you did and think the results are incredible. Thank you!

[@deanwellerassociates]

I loved that, doing what you can with what you've already got. Hope the kids enjoyed the experience. 🌅

[@PedroCoelho98]

He's like McGyver back in the day! Only instead of exploding something Matthias gives us this amazing videos!

[@aaroncameron1494]

and getting better pictures than I did with a professional setup

[@Sharpless2]

@@aaroncameron1494 What gear do you have? If its "professional" like you said, you probably dont know how to use it correctly.

[@spelunkerd]

Gotta love the work you put into doing this. Another option would be to recognize how much detail modern sensors allow, enough to crop images significantly. This would allow one to leave the camera rock steady pointing at one lower magnification spot, to fully encompass all of the movement you'd see over a short time span. Cropping video later in Premier Pro or FCPx can be rock steady, without the complexity of a moving camera mount.

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

Most of the unsteadiness came from the atmosphere. Also, sensor is just 12 megapixels, and to have a lens super sharp edge to edge is another challenge. I also would have needed a much bigger filter. So your idea gets complicated fast.

[@richardschuff8447]

I don't know why I had tears running down my set face as I watch this but you are the epitome of human ingenuity thank you

[@BethKjos]

Thank you for capturing the picture of the plasma eruption! Most photos don't (perhaps can't?) do it justice. To my eyes it was a bright ruby-red dot in a corner of the black sun.

[@truckguy6666]

Fabulous! Main channel worthy. And then some.

[@oliver9089]

Kids are getting big!! Thanks for the share. Neat project

[@wm005]

I just wanted to say how much I really appreciate all of the amazing work you do with your brilliant mind. You truly are an exceptional individual and I love tuning in to watch your videos.

[@amwtm]

I love that you made your adapter out of plywood.

[@honeyforce996]

I don't relate to all of the videos on this channel, but it's times like this that make me really appreciate it. Thanks for sharing the process, as always. Glad you and the family got to experience it together

[@TheCaphits]

I built some filters using some wood disks and solar filter film. Used some rubber bands to hold them to binoculars. It was absolutely incredible. You could easily see sunspots and other features. It felt like you could touch it.

[@Sharpless2]

this is the correct way to do it. Solar filters dont just dim the sun, they also block all harmful wavelengths that you cant see.

[@bw1532]

Mattias is a freaking goat. Amazing work (play) man. Love the content.

[@bob-the-Millwright]

This is why I watch your channel! You are crazy smart and you put it to real world use in a way we all understand and love watching. Thank you.

[@ro_yo_mi]

Thank you for sharing, this was very interesting.

[@adamathypernerd7728]

Of course he made a plywood lens mount on a lathe... Amazing work! I love this channel. How'd he get the focal length correct??

[@jojojorisjhjosef]

No doubt eyeballing it.

[@burgir]

On a metal lathe

[@9peppe]

lathe sounds like a recent addition

[@nixlarfs1002]

@@9peppe A few months, he has some videos tinkering with it on this channel or the other one.

[@graymouser1]

@@nixlarfs1002 tbf, wood/metal might be equally accurate on that lathe. ;P It was clearly purchased just to bang things out.

[@howder1951]

Well done M with your usual attention to the various details of the task. Enjoyed very much, as we were in the 30% zone and it was cloudy to boot! cheers!

[@ZenWithKen]

We had complete cloud cover here. Thanks for sharing!

[@69dblcab]

shenanigans approved!!! Thank you Matthias.

[@AllanKobelansky]

Nice project. Educational as well.

[@MCsCreations]

Fantastic work, Matthias! 😃 Really fun project!!! Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[@JohnMGibby]

Amazing work and intelligence to do what you did with what you had.

[@cowcar87]

Great job. Thank you for sharing these awesome images.

[@ggbirdymill1618]

This was very interesting. Thank you for taking us with you on this adventure.

[@cradd00]

Thanks for sharing! You have the best footage I've seen so far. You're one smart cookie to figure all of this stuff out.

[@alskjflaksjdflakjdf]

Wow. Just wow. Thank you for building your setup and sharing it with us. Like you, I love the photo of the plasma eruption! I believe I live too far north to be in the path of totality, but I do remember my dad giving me some welding glass when I was a kid to watch the eclipse.

[@eikmethner3343]

I Just smiled all the time. Very well done Matthias and so much fun to watch.

[@ClanMcCormick]

Thank you for capturing and sharing this! I have been telling everyone that looking at the totality was like looking at a TV with a broken pixel in it. Your pic at the end is what I was seeing.

[@EeekiE]

Fun and interesting project and video 👍🏻

[@joe-edward]

You should make a third channel just for your optics experiments, since that is something you are obviously super passionate about, and it is also interesting for us nerds out here.

[@KSCPMark6742]

always a good experience to watch you work!

[@MazeFrame]

Damn! Impressive work!

[@maidbloke]

There's nothing like an immovable deadline to focus the mind. 😂 Great video and brilliant end result.

[@JoseSilveira-newhandleforYT]

Excellent work, Matthias! Well worth the effort!

[@gorak9000]

You knocked it out of the park again! I did see those geysers, but only on the official NASA Tv feed where they were using nice cameras on telescopes at every location they showed the eclipse from. Very impressive images you got considering you just started putting stuff together 4 days beforehand, and only using stuff you had on hand! It was very interesting to see the difference in lens clarity at various apertures - I've always known that shooting around f/8 gives sharper images, but I've never looked at images captured at various apertures and compared them myself!

[@jaycullen9901]

In word, impressive!

I was looking forward to your summary, hoping that you got a clear day. Great timing contraption! It is pretty special to experience a total eclipse from your own backyard.

[@shawngrosser]

This was a great video. Can I suggest a shorter version of just the eclipse photos to share with friends?

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

the eclipse photos i took are nothing special, others no doubt made better ones with better gear

[@shawngrosser]

@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 yes but your picture actually look authentic and the story is cool. I would share that video, but not this one because my family and friends aren’t interested in the level of detail you provided. I should note that I was interested in that level of detail.

[@Mrelectric423]

I really enjoyed this video!

[@kizbo]

Thanks for all your work producing this very cool video!

[@nealcalvert1153]

I watched that on autoplay. Then opened the video just to leave you a like. Amazing as always.

[@pdxRetired]

Excellent! Good pictures, and fun process of building the apparatus.

[@DF-vo8ce]

Very cool stuff!!

[@ikocheratcr]

Very nice project, with a hard deadline and barely time for testing. Good it came out very good. I live nowhere near the the totallity path, so I watched NASA stream, the commented one. They mentioned the plasma eruptions in there, and also the diamond ring, and bunch of other things.

[@1pcfred]

I wasn't near the path either. We got 83% here. But with eclipse glasses on I still saw the Moon transiting in front of the sun. Without the glasses I couldn't notice a thing. At one point the sun did look like a crescent Moon. I guess it was 83% covered. In an eclipse the light doesn't really change until the sun is just a sliver. So somewhere north of 99%

[@oasntet]

That shot of the sun geyser is awesome. Worth all of the effort, imo.

[@sidelinerbeekeeper]

If only I was half as smart as this guy. Very cool video, the best I've seen. Thanks.

[@hpda44]

I love this stuff! There’s something to be said for using science for every day stuff. Keep them coming

[@kylewollman2239]

I've been looking forward to this video since you mentioned that you were going to do it. Did not disappoint!

[@dorvinion]

Better pics than I got - my camera died 10m before totality (and then magically worked again 10hrs later - I guess it overheated) My tracking system worked at least (EQ-1 mount, 3d print shaft adapter, and a stepper) so I will at least now be able to do some long exposures that I've wanted to do for years.

[@RNMSC]

One of the things that doesn't get talked about much is that you can drive a stepper motor with an analog signal. Preferably two equal sine waves 90 degrees out of phase, Applied Science demonstrated this a few years back. The real problem is finding a DAC that you can use to generate a sine wave at the frequency needed to drive one phase. The other phase could be handled by a phase shifter made out of some OpAmps, but while I know that works for music, I'm not so sure it will work at the low frequencies needed here. That said if you have a DAC that can generate the frequency needed, it's likely that you can get a second one, and set it up to start a new sine wave at 0 as the first sine wave peaks, and you will have the right phase separation. Then run those two signals through a pair of voltage control gates off of a power supply that provides the voltage you're comfortable driving your stepper motors at, and you get the desired movement out of the steppers. (With the caveat that if the stepper is rotating in the wrong direction, you simply flip the wires on either pair of coils. The bad part is I don't expect to be around to test this the next time North America sees a total solar eclipse. It should work for astro-photography though.

[@andydelarue9344]

Fantastic, another way early astronomers cut down lights into there lenses was by a slot cut in a board in front of the lens and then that was segmented, this increases sharpness too. Love your work.

[@dakotamax2]

One of your top 10 concepts for sure.

[@AnthonyVandergugten]

This is classic Matthias and it is what makes every video awesome.

[@RobsWorldWV]

A very nice homebrew RA Dec Mount...

[@Sharpless2]

yup. Tho his method of polar alignment (the piece of wood) is flawed. Enough for low focal lengths tho.

[@macedindu829]

I can't believe the weather we got for this eclipse, and even more amazing, I got the same sort of weather for the 2017 eclipse. The craziest thing for me in both cases is how the sun is completely too bright until the last second. Like, if you didn't know about eclipses, you'd have about 5 seconds between when the sun basically looked normal, until it looked like a blackhole sun, and it suddenly became dark (though, of course, the light cast around you looks weird for like 20 minutes beforehand). These two eclipses are major highlights of my life, and I may well never see one again. I'll never tire of eclipse content, and I suspect that's true of anyone who's ever witnessed one.

[@Gersberms]

Way more interesting than anything else I've seen on this eclipse!

[@Brian-uh6dq]

Loved this

[@noneofabove5586]

Well done !

[@d64d64]

Have to say this was one of my favorites.

[@AbdicateDotNet]

Great job!!!

[@BrettRebman]

I was more excited about your inevitable eclipse experiment videos than I was for the eclipse itself 😂 very nicely done!

[@trevorburford-reade8685]

Astounding.

[@Wes12940]

This should've been posted on the main channel! Awesome, Matthias!

[@canoetipper019]

great project and still good photos compared to many others. I must say that as you were explaining the build process I must say my mind shut down a little...lol. we had the solar lights in our garden come on as the eclipse started and I got a couple quick pictures with my phone...but more of the surroundings...like the star/planet just above the horizon etc. Cheers

[@txkflier]

Very interesting. I knew you'd figure out a way to do it without breaking the bank. We were just inside the path of totality. What we noticed the most (besides it getting quite dark for a couple of minutes) was the change in radiant energy. It made me think of your experiments with radiant heaters. The experience also made me wonder if global warming could be due to changes in the sun.

[@BoyceBailey]

What a Star!

[@haydensutton6289]

Very fascinating

[@first_namelast_name4923]

Matthias - you are a true engineer.

[@zeroy]

nice one Matthias!!

[@jcKobeh]

Hey, please keep uploading these sort of videos sharing whatever it is you like doing. I've got similar interests and watching this was superbly exciting and fun. The showing of chromatic aberrations vs diffraction limits had me excitedly wondering which you were going to choose. The filter removal during totality changes the focus, of course. I've only processed my own totality pictures so I don't know if my sharpness decreased during totality, but also, I don't even know how much sharpness I could've gotten given it was incredibly windy and we had some cloud cover. Anyway, before getting eclipse glasses I went for the welding shade 14 option, and yes the eclipse ones are very orange but the welding are very green. Eclipse for myself and welding for the camera it was.

[@jacobdavidcunningham1440]

really cool, fun to chase something

[@InssiAjaton]

Fantastic! I live in an area where the maximum was reportedly something around 88% coverage. Started fair, but got cloudier and cloudier and by the time of the maximum the cloud was totally blurring the image. A few miles South or North there appeared to be good clear sky. Are we talking about Murphy’s law? As far as my camera, I had to set the ISO down to 100 and the exposure to 1/400 with aperture 22. I had two commercial photo gray filters stacked on the front, one fixed and one adjustable (Tiffen), set to maximum - except between the manual shots it tended to shift, as also did my focus. For the 2017 eclipse I had bought an automatic tracker and a very sturdy matching tripod. Then I got a number of great shots and a video. My main problem that time was my return drive, when the interstate road was jam packed for at least 80 miles. Now I found that I had lost the tracker to tripod mounting screw - Damn! And apparently I was a few miles in a wrong location due to the cloud - double curse!

[@albertobelfast]

Matthias, you are a star! Better than the sun!

[@ne8r]

I remarked at the red jet near the bottom of the Sun while watching - truely amazing event. I was in Indiana for a 4 minute, 1 second totality.

[@sachiperez]

so much more fun than just buying stuff!

[@jatag100]

So interesting thank you

[@zweg1321]

Very cool thank you

[@josephkrug8579]

Very cool, and you could see the sunspots before the moon did its thing, so you could always use this setup to show the kids the sunspots on the sun.

[@MrMeheheh]

I used an 800mm mirror Lens on crop sensor DSLR and just getting the sun in frame was super hard. I wish I had tried it earlier and made some sort of aiming device. I did design a nice filter holder I printed to slide on the front of the lens and I could have included an aiming element if I had done it sooner. It was super fun to see the totality.

[@luckenbachmachineworks7000]

Very cool!

[@tanmanhnguyen5932]

When you wanted to test for jerkiness of the rotation, you could have used a lazer pointer taped to the main disk (that what you avoid the resonance all together, as well as the large inertia of such a long/big rod)

[@d.i.l.l.i.g.a.f]

2 Bucks, bugger the expense lol, What an amazing rig you managed to build, and pretty accurate in only a few days, Really was fascinating to see your problem solving process and thinking, along with your programming skills all at work. You need to run some kind of workshop teaching people these things, know i would consider it, as long as it was not too exorbitant, as you explain things so well, and in terms people can understand. I understand a bit of geek speak, but no where near enough to follow a lot of tutorials on here, Thanks for sharing Matthias

[@solanuskc4303]

Only mid way thru the vid and this is awesome