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When today’ssolar eclipse passes over North America , your first reaction may be to mop up out your telephone set to capture the spectacular good deal . But is it safe to immortalise thesolar eclipsewith your earpiece ? And if so , what ’s the best and safest direction to do it ?

Some organisation discourage people from using their smartphones during the eclipse . " Watching asolar eclipseon your smartphone camera can put you at risk of accidentally look at the sun when prove to run along up your camera,“Prevent Blindness , a Tennessean optic health and safety organisation dedicated to fighting blindness and saving slew , suppose on its website . " It could possibly also damage your smartphone camera . Do n’t take the hazard . "

Amos Yew, right, uses a lens on an iPhone to record video in the first stages of the total solar eclipse Monday August 21, 2017 in Madras, Oregon

Take care when photographing the eclipse with a smartphone, and be sure to wear protective solar glasses when lining up your shots.

This advice hold only to the eclipse ’s partial phase , which North Americans outside the 115 - mile - foresightful ( 185 kilometers)path of totalitywill see today . Besides , if you luff your smartphone at a fond solar eclipse , you wo n’t get a honest image . That ’s because whatever remains of the uneclipsed sun , even if it ’s just a shaving , will overwhelm your smartphone photographic camera ’s sensor and overexpose your photo .

The only means to take an image of the partial solar occultation is to use the same filters found insolar eclipse glass . you may foreshorten your glasses in half and tape one eyepiece over your smartphone photographic camera lens , according toDr . Ralph Chou , a prof emeritus of optometry and visual sensation science at the University of Waterloo , who has spent a lifetime eclipse chasing , the American Academy of Ophthalmology remark .

Related:7 safe path to view the partial phases of the total solar eclipse

Asha Moore uses solar eclipse glasses and her iphone to show a friend from Canada on the phone the view of the partial solar eclipse from Beckman Lawn at Caltech in Pasadena, California on August 21, 2017.

Using a solar filter (or solar glasses) for your phone will dramatically improve your photos and videos of the partial phase of the eclipse.

you’re able to also buy quick - made smartphone solar filters , like theVisiSolar Smartphone Photo Filterand theSolar Snap Eclipse App Kit . The latter comes with an excellent app that take a crap it well-off to shoot the partially eclipsed sun — with impressive results . A clip - on zoom electron lens for smartphones designed to provide optical magnification will also work well . These issue forth in a mixed bag of form and size , and are readily useable online .

If you ’re within the course of totality , you will also see the fond phases of the occultation . But halfway through the 2.5 - 60 minutes - long event , the Dominicus ’s entire face will be block up by the moon . For this brief period , call aggregate , you may remove the solar occultation glasses from your oculus and the solar filter from your smartphone . This is the only time it is good to look straight at the sun without proper eye shelter .

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The best way to take a photo is to throw off your flash , go ultrawide , interlace the focus on the middle distance and compose images with the completely eclipsedsunin the composing , according to Live Science ’s sistersite Space.com . To take a TV , put your phone on a tripod a few minutes before totality , engage ultrawide mode , compile the inning and let it record . The bonus of this method acting is that you ’ll get double of yourself experiencing totality and an audio recording of how you reacted .

group of friends using solar eclipse glasses

monitor : It is only safe to watch the eclipse without solar eclipse trash during the few minute of total . Even when setting up shots with your sound , Chou advises keeping your solar occultation glass on throughout the occultation , unless you ’re in the path of sum .

When does totality begin?

The first place on land to experience the total occultation will be at Mazatlán , Mexico , at 9:51 a.m. local clip ( 12:51 p.m. EDT ) , while it will be at its long at Torreón , Mexico , with a maximum length of 4 instant , 27 sec . It will then pass over the continent for the next few time of day , before reaching the sea near the Canadian responsibility of Newfoundland and Labrador at 5:16 p.m. local time ( 3:46 p.m. EDT ) .

The clock time of sum in the 13 U.S State Department that will be able to see the full eclipse are below , so get your tv camera quick before these times .

a partial solar eclipse

A kid is shown looking at the solar eclipse while wearing special protective glasses

a map showing the pathway of the March 29 solar eclipse across the globe

a close-up image of a sunspot

A close up image of the sun�s surface with added magnetic field lines

A photograph of the northern lights over Iceland in 2020.

a close-up of the fiery surface of the sun

An illustration of a dark gray probe in front of a scorching sun.

Looped video footage of swirling solar wind shooting out of the sun with UFO-like lines moving across the screen

Three-dimensional rendering of an HIV virus

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Tunnel view of Yosemite National Park.

A scuba diver descends down a deep ocean reef wall into the abyss.

Remains of the Heroon, a small temple built for the burial cluster of Philip II at the Museum of the Royal Tombs inside the Great Tumulus of Aigai (Aegae)