With the advice from other members on IIS, I have made solar filters out of Baader Solar Film 5.0 (Visual). It is used on the finder scope and aperture stop down and it does a great job. If you buy a sheet of this product you can make filters for both of your scopes. You will have enough left over to make a set of filters for your binoculars as well.
The Baader Solar Film gives better results visually over Mylar. I had a Mylar filter on my 80mm but ditched it for the Baader Film. Even though the add says it is Baader, I would contact the shop to confirm.
Baader film can be bought on line quite cheaply, just google it.
You don't need a full aperture 10" solar, IMHO, any size upto 100mm will be sufficient.
Google off axis solar filter for dobs and you should get plenty of results.
Bo
simple, make the filter, then look through it as is.
You will be surprised how "cold" the sun looks. Then, build it up with a low power EP and finally slip it over the scope and enjoy!
This thread has a piccy of my home brew sun filter and I love it.
Bo
hey all, fantastic site...im fairly new to astronomy and must've had a good dose of beginers luck: found out by accident about the venus transit while i was waiting for my 20x80 skymaster to arrive from the u.s, then quicky ordered a s.filter sheet and never once thought they might be sold out as the world gets ready, then i built cups for the s.filter cutouts all with 3 days to go....success! its pretty awesome looking at the sun anyway but could someone please let me know if i was wanting get serious and start to see detailed granulation and/or flares, suface ejecta and so forth i will really need h.alpha filters, or is it possible to keep a low budget with other types/brands of filter bought in sheets etc?...
If you want to get "serious" then unfortunately you need to invest in some expensive Ha/ Cak solar telescopes.
The complex design of the very narrowband filters (generally <1.0A) makes them very costly.
A good starting point is either the Coronado PST or the smaller Lunt scopes.
Hope this helps.
cheers merlin, yeah i thought that might have been the case, the imagery from those scopes u mentioned look incredible , and you would like easily perceive movement? the imagery from solar satellites and such looks sped up....
i bet it is, one piece of equipment at a time.....i currently have a tasco galaxee ( a toy really), viewing planets and the moon really is incredible (saw jupiter this morning for literaly the first time!) but thats about all...the next big acquisition will have to be a decent scope (i'm thinking dobsonion 8"+). although getting good binos and then taking time to research and save for the good scope is working out well indeed....
Solar filter question
