It will be tempting to use your cellphone to try to get pictures of today’s solar eclipse. But doing that is risky, according to NASA’s photo team.

“We asked our @NASAHQPhoto team, and the answer is yes, the phone sensor could be damaged just like any other image sensor if it’s pointed directly at the sun. This is especially true if you’re using any sort of magnifying lens attachment on the phone,” NASA replied to a user on X who asked if pointing a smartphone at the solar eclipse could damage its sensor. The comment was first reported by Scripps News.

There are some ways you can safely take pictures of the eclipse. Here are NASA’s suggestions for getting the best eclipse pictures:

Safety first

Looking directly at the Sun is dangerous to your eyes and your camera. To take images when the sun is partially eclipsed, you’ll need to use a special solar filter to protect your camera, just as you’ll need a pair of solar viewing glasses, also called eclipse glasses, to protect your eyes. If you’re fortunate enough to be in an area of totality where the moon completely blocks the sun, you can remove your glasses and camera filter to see the sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, during totality.

Any camera can work

From NASA:

“Taking a stunning photo has more to do with the photographer than the camera. Whether you have a high-end DLSR or a camera phone, you can take great photos during the eclipse; after all, the best piece of equipment you can have is a good eye and a vision for the image you want to create. If you don’t have a telephoto zoom lens, focus on taking landscape shots and capture the changing environment.

Having a few other pieces of equipment can also come in handy during the eclipse. Using a tripod can help you stabilize the camera and avoid taking blurry images when there is low lighting. Additionally, using a delayed shutter release timer will allow you to snap shots without jiggling the camera.”

Don’t limit yourself to sky pictures

Don’t limit yourself to just taking pictures of the eclipse itself. Make sure to get shots of the landscape that – depending on where you are – will look different during different phases of the moon eclipsing the sun. “

“As light filters through the overlapping leaves of trees, it creates natural pinholes that project miniature eclipse replicas on the ground. Anywhere you can point your camera can yield exceptional imagery, so be sure to compose some wide-angle photos that can capture your eclipse experience,”  NASA recommends.

NASA photographer Bill Ingalls recommends focusing on the human experience of watching the eclipse.

“The real pictures are going to be of the people around you pointing, gawking, and watching it,” Ingalls noted. “Those are going to be some great moments to capture to show the emotion of the whole thing.”

Practice

Make sure you understand your camera settings, especially adjustable exposures, which can help darken or lighten your image. It’s also important to know how to manually focus the camera for crisp shots.

From NASA:

“For DSLR cameras, the best way to determine the correct exposure is to test settings on the uneclipsed Sun beforehand. Using a fixed aperture of f/8 to f/16, try shutter speeds between 1/1000 to 1/4 second to find the optimal setting, which you can then use to take images during the partial stages of the eclipse. During totality, the corona has a wide range of brightness, so it’s best to use a fixed aperture and a range of exposures from approximately 1/1000 to 1 second.”

Share with NASA

Tag @NASA to connect your photos on social media to those taken around the country and share them with NASA.