Preparing for the Eclipse

Today is the big day for the total eclipse in the USA. We are in the 90% partial eclipse range, so won't see the total eclipse but will have a near-full partial instead.

We have purchased solar glasses (Amazon has told us not to use the ones we bought, so we got others, but they both say the same thing on them). I purchased solar film that I had hoped to somehow use on my Nikon Coolpix P500, because it is my favorite camera and I am most familiar with its settings, but there is no way to affix the solar film without it causing an issue with the camera. So I have decided instead to use my D3200 with a 200mm lens on it. The lens is not what I wanted; the Coolpix has a far superior zoom. Plus the D3200 is a more expensive camera and I'd rather not burn out the sensors. My other option is my Nikon D40, which is my oldest DSLR, but it doesn't allow you to take pictures through the monitor and I feel like I need to look at the sun through the camera monitor, not the eye piece. Plus it doesn't automatically focus anymore. It works fine with a manual focus but part of it is broken.

My husband has made two cereal box things that allow you to look at the spot and see the moon coverage, so I will at least have an idea of when to go try to shoot photos. I intend to also take photos of the area around us, just to see what happens. I want to go in the woods in the back, for example, while the eclipse is about halfway, just to see what kind of shadows are around me.

Wish me luck. This is all new stuff to me, and to be honest I do not know the D3200 as well as I should because I haven't fooled with enough, so I am having doubts about my ability to get it to do what I want it to. We shall see.