AstroSolar Filter

I'm a bit weiry of trying one of these out for my own C11. Any of you guys ever observe the sen with one of these?

Hi Karl

I made a filter for my 80mm out of a sheet of Mylar, there are many sites on the web to help. The sun is seen in white light, showing sunspots, for prominences and filaments it requires a hydrogen alpha filter.

I find the 80m ideal, with a magnification of 53X with a 9mm ortho I can fill the field of view, I pop it onto a photo tripod and I'm observing in a couple of minutes.

I would imagine it would be more work with an 11" scope, setting up the mount and scope and all.

You could try binoculars, it's easy to construct a pair of filters for the lenses and the set up time is mimimal.

Don't give up on solar observing, it's a fascinating aspect of astronomy.

Hope I was of some help.

Paul

I made a filter for my 80mm out of a sheet of Mylar, there are many sites on the web to help. The sun is seen in white light, showing sunspots, for prominences and filaments it requires a hydrogen alpha filter.

Use a sheet of Baader, much more resilient to use and a bit more safer too. Mylar has a tendency for 'pinhole' effect, which basically means the coating applied to it is prone to peeling/cracking etc. Baader is the actual sheet material, so there is no coating to worry about. North Down Telescopes (Andy McCrea) in the North can get you an A4 sheet for about €20. I have made many filters for various instruments using Baader and cardboard/paper. If you need some help, just ask.

Seanie.

What would be a decent solar filter without getting into big money? Or should I wait to win the lotto and get a Coronado or something else? (I heard some other company was giving Coronado some competition--don't know the name though.)

For a glass solar white light filter, go for a thousand oaks filter.
I've had a full aperture 12" filter for a number of years now and its the bees knees as it shows a yellow sun image, I think the baader filter shows a blue sun image, which I don't really like.

The solar filters available from astronomy Ireland comprising of the silver foil.... What are they like? Can you thrust them? Can you observe unprecedented detail?
Can you actually see any movement on the solar surface or when prominences occur or do you just notice changes over minutes?