Especially if this will be your first total eclipse, my advice is to go light on cameras and optics and focus on just experiencing the event. There’s a lot more to see and feel during totality than just the occlusion of the sun.

I’m planning on bringing a tripod (it gets dark!) and wide angle lens to capture the overall environment. But I’m leaving the “portable solar observatory” stuff to the astronomers.

@mattblaze I don't agree. This picture, showing a couple of prominences, is one of my favorite memories from 2017, and I did *not* see them in real-time. Admittedly, I have a very long lens anyway, for my bird pictures. (I did try setting up another camera on a small tripod to capture crowd video, but I ran into technical problems and did not succeed. Weather permitting, I'll try again this time with both cameras.)

@SteveBellovin @mattblaze May the predicted clouds disperse for you!