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Solar Eclipse on August 21

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Hello, I live in Tennessee very near the spot where the maximum period of total eclipse will occur at 1:32 p.m. on Monday, August 21, 2017. We will have just over 2 minutes and 35 seconds of total darkness. I am a police officer and I am a license pilot. I am responsible for our departmental drone (an Inspire I.2). I live on a mountain top about 2 miles from the City of Cookeville, Tennessee and have no neighbors. I have permission to fly the drone on that date. My plan is to film the scene from about 350 feet above my home and I have some questions. I want to film the moon shadow move across the landscape. We have lights on the drone and have wavers to fly at night when training and on other occasions. I assume this occasion will not be illegal. I have mountains and trees in all directions. The longer period of darkness is to my south. What direction would you film if I keep the camera set in one direction for the full exposure from the time the eclipse starts and as long as the battery (TB48) will allow me to stay up? I have the basic camera. Any other tips you would give for this once-in-a-life-time opportunity?
 
Hello, I live in Tennessee very near the spot where the maximum period of total eclipse will occur at 1:32 p.m. on Monday, August 21, 2017. We will have just over 2 minutes and 35 seconds of total darkness. I am a police officer and I am a license pilot. I am responsible for our departmental drone (an Inspire I.2). I live on a mountain top about 2 miles from the City of Cookeville, Tennessee and have no neighbors. I have permission to fly the drone on that date. My plan is to film the scene from about 350 feet above my home and I have some questions. I want to film the moon shadow move across the landscape. We have lights on the drone and have wavers to fly at night when training and on other occasions. I assume this occasion will not be illegal. I have mountains and trees in all directions. The longer period of darkness is to my south. What direction would you film if I keep the camera set in one direction for the full exposure from the time the eclipse starts and as long as the battery (TB48) will allow me to stay up? I have the basic camera. Any other tips you would give for this once-in-a-life-time opportunity?
Hi Jon,

I too live in the area of totality and actually, only about 15 miles from you in Granville. I too plan to fly the eclipse. Given the time of day it will occur, the sun will be nearly directly over head at it's apex and will be almost impossible to video using our DJI designed equipment. Now, a Matrice 200 with a top mounted camera, different story. I have 7 UAVs and I will most likely have my P4P up for the eclipse because of a much longer battery life and better camera than my Inspire 1. My plan will be to show the entirety of the eclipse and it's impact on the surrounding landscape and hopefully, get some stars in the sky during the transition into totality.
 
Thank you for your reply. I am an astronomer so I will have my LX-200, 12 inch telescope pointed a the sun to film the full eclipse and another GoPro camera pointed at the crowd's reaction. The drone will be up at 350 feet pointed west and film the moons shadow coming at us at Mach 2. After totality I will swing the drone around to see the shadow move away from us at the same speed. Afterward I plan to put the three images together to have a full package of the experience. I do not think there is an advantage of filming the eclipse from the air. Just my thoughts. I want to spend my time looking at totality with my bare eyes and to enjoy the experience with minimal involvement with any equipment. Thank you for the comment above about the lighting. I have them but I do not want to use them to take away from the effect of the darkness.
 
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Hello, I live in Tennessee very near the spot where the maximum period of total eclipse will occur at 1:32 p.m. on Monday, August 21, 2017. We will have just over 2 minutes and 35 seconds of total darkness. I am a police officer and I am a license pilot. I am responsible for our departmental drone (an Inspire I.2). I live on a mountain top about 2 miles from the City of Cookeville, Tennessee and have no neighbors. I have permission to fly the drone on that date. My plan is to film the scene from about 350 feet above my home and I have some questions. I want to film the moon shadow move across the landscape. We have lights on the drone and have wavers to fly at night when training and on other occasions. I assume this occasion will not be illegal. I have mountains and trees in all directions. The longer period of darkness is to my south. What direction would you film if I keep the camera set in one direction for the full exposure from the time the eclipse starts and as long as the battery (TB48) will allow me to stay up? I have the basic camera. Any other tips you would give for this once-in-a-life-time opportunity?

With lenses available for I 1and 2, I thing it is waste of time and effort . Sit down and enjoy two min. of eclips.
 
You are likely correct. But I have the full day off and if I set every thing up early that day it should take five seconds to turn the drone around in mid totality. Every thing else is on automatic and takes no effort. I will be practicing for the next totality in seven years in Arkansas. I already have the place reserved at Mt. Nebo at a friends house. It will last for seven minutes. My major problem is clouds that day. I have over a 50% chance of having a partly cloudy day or worse.
 
Any issues with EMF, Magnetic interference, Solar Storm, etc. that could affect the drones electronics? I know that solar storms can cause EMF that can affect them, but wasn't sure about an eclipse.
 
I believe that EMF, magnetic inteference, Solar Storm, etc will not be changed be changed by an eclipse. They are there as usual and the process of the moon crossing in front of the sun should not make any difference. There is no prediction of these events on Monday. I am set to go and in my area there is no rain predicted. We are set for mostly sunny sky. I hope to film the moon's shadow coming and going at my site at mach 2. We will see what that is like.

John Averitt
 

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