Since I got so much experience shooting the sun the last week or so, I decided to have another go at it, but this time to use the 8" Meade LX200 scope. Much different setup and experience, but I did manage to get a tight focus and some pics. I like watching the evolution of the sun spots over the surface...

Watch the total solar eclipse from the farmlands of Idaho! Including time lapse videos of the actual eclipse, and also from a stationary camera that captures the landscape and environment during the eclipse, this video shows some of what it was like. Of course, as the saying goes, you had to be there. No video can truly capture the magic of that event.

This is a composite photo. It was taken on August 20, 2017 - the night before the total solar eclipse of 2017.

The Milky Way was captured using a Canon 60D at f2.8 with a 10mm lens, ISO 1600 for 30 seconds, unguided.  The foreground is a family member's front yard in Ucon, Idaho. There is a field across the street and stacked bales of hay can be seen in the distance.

The skies in Idaho are truly magical!

This was captured at the end of totality, during the 08/21/17 total solar eclipse. Shot with a handheld Canon 60D with a 150mm lens. I am still processing photos but am posting them as I work through them. :)

This is my daughters shot through my solar scope, notice the sunspots. Gig Harbor WA

More will be posted in the coming days, including video! Let's see your shots, too!

FWIW: Ucon, Idaho, is only two or three miles south of what ABC News referred to as "the remote Idaho town of Rigby."  We were so thrilled that Rigby made the national news! This was an AWESOME place to view the eclipse!

Equipment is all set up: AstroTech AT72ED, Canon T3i, Celestron AVX, Backyard EOS. Everything will be automated, but I will take manual control during totality. :)

Canon T3i (modified) with Thousand Oaks filter. Prime focus on a AstroTech AT72ED, ISO 800, 1/1000. Celestron AVX.

NGC 6946 (also tentatively known as the Fireworks Galaxy) is an intermediate spiral galaxy about 22 million light-years away,[3] in the constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus. It was discovered by William Herschel on 9 September 1798. NGC 6946 is highly obscured by interstellar matter of the Milky Way galaxy, as it is quite close to the galactic plane. It's apparent magnitude is -9.6 making it a faint object, but not out of reach of mid- to large-aperture scopes.

Always a favorite target, the Dumbbell Nebula (M27) is climbing high into the northeastern sky after dark. The Dumbbell Nebula is a planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula, at a distance of about 1,360 light-years. This object was the first planetary nebula to be discovered; by Charles Messier in 1764. The nebula is 1,360 light years from Earth.

Image was acquired with an 8" Meade LX200 with a Canon 60D at prime focus (ISO 1600, 13x60sec subs). Stacked with Maxim DSLR.