[LEAKYSEALS951]

is the Nikon limitted to 3 exposure bracket points?
My canon is, but I swear there was a camera out there that had 5. maybe Im smoking something

I would go at least one stop, perhaps 2 depending on how things look, using the buildup to the eclipse as a trail run for the full blot out. I would be shooting, adjusting, shooting- so when the full eclipse hit, I would be ready. At that point, I would have as little of exposure time as possible to minimize sun/moon movement, so I could get as many pics as possible, AND possibly change exposure bracketting on the spot to get as wide range as possible... ie- 1 stop click click click, then 2 click click click

My canon has an optional HDR feature built into it. I would NOT use that feature during shooting, I would just get as many bracketted exposures as possible. The HDR feature takes time to process the image- that can be done later in PS.

As for HDR, I wouldn't even use HDR in PS, I would layer the different exposures and mask each and manually combine the images into a composite in PS at a later date to avoid all that HDR artifact.