On April 8, we in North America will enjoy our first total solar eclipse in seven years, and the last until 2033.

So unless you plan to travel to Barrow, Alaska, at that time, be sure to be watching next Monday!

Nearly everyone will want to photograph the sky show, but if you’d like the advice of a veteran of 18 total solar eclipses, here it is: If you’ve never experienced a total solar eclipse — and believe me, you’d know if you had — put your camera away and enjoy it.

Now since most readers will ignore my advice, I’ll offer some tips to shoot the eclipse.

First, the partial phases. Never forget that you’re photographing the sun. No camera, and certainly no eye, can handle its intense light without a proper solar filter in front of it.

Never view or photograph the sun or partial eclipse phases with the naked eye, sunglasses, neutral density glass, double thickness of darkened film, smoked glass or other homemade filters.

Be sure to assemble and test all your gear in advance. This will give you experience in shooting the partial phases since your settings will be identical.

You’ll soon realize that you’ll need a telephoto lens (or telescope) to produce a reasonably large image of the sun.

Before the eclipse begins, disable your autofocus. Next, aim toward a distant daylit landscape and, zooming the image larger on the LCD screen, focus it manually. Then, gently tape the focus barrel so it won’t move.

If you’ll be using a tripod, be sure you turn off your camera’s image stabilization. Disable your strobe, keep your ISO relatively low and don’t be afraid to stop down the lens to ensure sharper images.

If you’ll be located along the eclipse centerline, you’ll also be treated to an unearthly spectacle, but these four minutes will be quite challenging for first-time eclipse photographers.

Exposures can range anywhere from a fraction of a second to several seconds, depending on what you’re trying to capture and when. Visit mreclipse.com for specific tips.

Totality begins immediately after the “diamond ring,” and this is when you must remove all filters. Photography now becomes quite tricky because the lighting changes so rapidly.

Now you’ve got some fast real-time choices to make: Zoom in and shoot the totally eclipsed sun itself or photograph the alien environment around you.

In the darkened blue sky, gorgeous sunset colors and a few of the brighter planets and stars will appear. To capture these with a wider-angle lens, you may wish to set your camera to aperture-priority, for example, and compose for the eclipse and environment together.

If you’ve never experienced a total solar eclipse, you will be stunned by how rapidly it passes, and you will soon realize how tough it is for even experienced eclipse chasers to capture great photos without missing the sky show.

I highly recommend putting the camera away and just taking in the enormity of all that’s happening around you. You will not be sorry.

Of course, there’s nothing to prevent you from pulling out your smartphone during totality to sneak a quick shot or two!