Finding the sun

[Mark.Tanner (Mark)]

I've got a NexStar 8SE with a celestron solar filter. For the life of me, I can't use it to look at the sun. By using the shadow circle method and even taking a photo through my aligned finderscope i am quite sure that I've had the telescope pointing right at the sun numerous times, and certainly would have when moving the telescope around the area in case it was off by a bit.

Despite this, I've never seen the sun through the 25mm plossl eyepiece. I've adjusted the focus in case that was the issue with no result.

Astronomy aficionados, please help. What am I doing wrong?

[drylander (Peter)]

its best to do it during the day as it goes to out at night
Pete

[jahnpahwa (JP)]

Do you have any wider fov eyepieces?
I'm not super experienced myself, but a 25mm plossl at the focal length in your 8se is still fairly narrow filed of view. I was using my 36mm wide angle eyepiece in my 550m scope yesterday and was surprised how hard it was to find. I saw a pic of Saturn superimposed on the sun this morn, the apparent size isn't as a big a difference as I thought it'd be.

[Max Vondel (Peter)]

Maybe you need a Sun finder like this televue one

https://www.televue.com/engine/TV3b_page.asp?id=66

Or you can make one yourself easily enough, just check out the televue reference above

[Mark.Tanner (Mark)]

Thanks for the replies!

Unfortunately 25mm is the widest eyepiece I own. Strangely I took out the eyepiece to see if that was causing an issue with the light coming through and I just saw my own reflection! I hasn't expecting that.

The sol-searcher is a great idea! That would make sure that I'm definitely looking at the sun.

[AstroJunk (Jonathan)]

Use the shadow of the scope to get it close then look **AT** not through the eyepiece. When you get close it will illuminate as the internal sides of the ocular begin to pick up light. You can actually do this with out an eyepiece at all and just use the diagonal.

Like all things, its a bit hard to begin with, but you will soon learn which part of the scope casts the best shadow. I use the two clamp knobs on mine. The largest issue is simply moving the scope too far - Try finding the moon tonight using the same technique

[Mark.Tanner (Mark)]

That's a great idea! It's a clear sunny day today so I will have to try that.

I had a great look at the moon yesterday! Was the first night of proper astronomy for me so far. It was so exciting seeing Jupiter and its moons and Saturn and their ring

[Max Vondel (Peter)]

Keep at it Mark
Astronomy is not the easiest of hobbies being dependent on 3 primary factors, 1) the sky, 2)your instruments and 3)your observational skills
Fiction books would be short if the second line was "and they lived happily ever after". It takes time, effort and trial and error. Many of us even after decades of observing find something new and unexpected.
Still now you have an eye on the universe that few others have

[Saturnine (Jeff)]

One easy solution that I use , make a white light solar filter for the finder scope. A small sheet of filter material is not that costly and a simple cell to fit the finder scope is easy enough to make, plenty of online info on how to .

[JimsShed (Jim)]

If you have a 3d printer, you can print your own "Sol Searcher" https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4044159