White light imaging the sun with a Dob mounted reflector?

[pw (Peter)]

I'm pretty new to astronomy and I have a Bintel 8" Dobsonian mounted reflector and I've been observing the sun using Baader solar film filters on the scope and finder. I'm not sure what to do about making some photos through this setup. I have a Nikon 1 V1 CSC and I tried using it to view/photograph through the 28mm eyepiece which gives full disc views, it didn't seem to be able to focus the disc.
I tried using it with no eyepiece (2" focusser, so 10-30mm lens slips inside), but no image is formed.
I have DSLR cameras too, am I best to get a T adapter and T-mount ring for the Nikon bodies (D3s and D800E)? Do I use eyepiece projection of some other setup?
I'm assuming these will be instantaneous exposures and the lack of tracking will not be important for solar imaging.

[asimov (John)]

The sun in white light is a tough one. You might have to keep quickening those exposures up until you see some sort of details(s) to know if you are close to focus or not.

[Lee]

Almost certainly you won't bring your DSLR to prime focus (ie just using the bare camera body on the focuser, no eyepiece) with your newt as it is, without modification..... Newtonians generally have insufficient back-focus - so you need to get the camera's sensor closer to the mirrors, but the focuser won't rack in far enough....

So you need a low-profile focuser, or you need to move your primary mirror up the tube.... like I did in 2006....

My thread here.... as you can see there are other ways to do it, I found giving it the chop fairly easy and painless, I just use an extension tube to compensate when using eyepieces now, and it works fine.

[pw (Peter)]

Ahhhh, I've heard that before about standard Newtonian reflectors, I don't really want to modify it. I'm really torn about whether to buy a scope for photography, maybe one of those VTI North Group ED127 things and an equatorial mount for it, or to go for a dedicated solar scope like a Lunt 60 or 80mm job. The 127ED would be versatile, but it, the mount and additional Ha filters and etalons would add up to a big chunk of money. I was hoping to be able to do something with my current scope in white light as a stop gap at least.

[pw (Peter)]

OK I bought a T-mount ring for my Nikon bodies and an eyepiece adapter this morning. I've tried the focuser insert and the T-mount ring together without the long tube part that holds the eyepiece. I found that this allows focus with either the Nikon 1 V1 and FT1 F-mount adapter (no eyepiece required) or with my full frame Nikon bodies (again no eyepiece required) so that is very good news.
I'll try to make some pictures of the sun and Saturn when the clouds go away (this will likely not be for months now as I also bought a new Tele Vue Delos 6mm eyepiece this morning).