[Suzy]

Originally Posted by mozzie

great job suzy!!!! very professional.....

as to is it safe...you'll be blind within a second if not no looks good just be very cautious while using it...

Aaaaaaaaaaarghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!
Not what I wanted to hear!
Naturally I got Russ to try out his workmanship by making him look through it first.

Originally Posted by Dennis

Hi Suzy

Looks a nice job! Just check to make sure you used the Baader visual astro solar film, with an optical density of 5.

The other type of Baader film is the Baader astro photo film, with an optical density of only 3.8, which is designed to let a lot more light through, so that you can use high shutter speeds for photographing the Sun - it is completely not suited to visual use.

Under controlled conditions, with the Sun low on the horizon, I once had a very quick glance through my Vixen 4” refractor with a full aperture 3.8 film, just to centre the Sun in the FOV and it was very uncomfortable to the eye.

Cheers

Dennis

Dennis I was hoping you'd see this thread of mine and make a comment- so thank you!
Yes, it's visual film.
I'm glad to hear the sun can appear bright and not something we've done wrong- that's such a relief! I think I'll pop on a moon filter or a coloured filter and see if it dims it down a bit. As I said before, it wasn't "uncomfortable", but just might make the viewing more comfy as I'll be seeing it on and off most of the day.

Originally Posted by michaellxv

Hi Suzy,

Looks like a good solution. I'd be a little concernd that the CD's may warp in time with exposure from the sun. Just keep an eye on that and check before each time you use it and you should be ok.

Hi Michael- long time no see!
That's a great tip you gave and I will definitely check regularly.
In fact Ron gave me another great tip today- seeing as the scope is going to be outside facing the sun most of the day and with that big dust cap being black (and absorbing all the that heat all day, and also that the dvd will be sitting under that cover, he suggested it'd be a good idea to cover the dust cap with alfoil (except for filter hole).
So as double measure, I will seal the dust cap all around with tape (black electrical) as usual, then put the alfoil on and then I'll seal that all around as well. I want double precaution for that tape not to come off as my cap tends to fall off a bit easily when it's pointed down, so I don't trust it one little bit.

Originally Posted by Poita

The blank DVDs I have aren't completely light-proof, I can see through them a bit. Other than that it looks pretty slick. I tend to use a polarising filter and an IR blocking filter for solar viewing, I like the extra detail it seems to give, and the added protection of the IR filter.

Hi Peter,
I see Ron set you clear.
Thanks Ron, nicely explained.
During my many reading sessions of safe solar observing, I did come across an article saying that dvds weren't recommended for use- I didn't even know that was even a possibility on an level!
Thanks for your tip re polarising filter- I'll try the moon filter or perhaps one of my colour filters (yellow perhaps) and see how I go. As we'll be observing it for quite some time, it might make viewing more comfy on the eye during such a long session.