sun filters!!

Frank, they are excellent for visual and images, they are white light filters in that is sunspot/faculae detail you will see, you'd need h-alpha for flares/prominences.

That's v. true. They're great for sunspots, but since the sun is at solar minimum just now, there aren't too many of those, so it's a tad less interesting.
That's where the likes of the Coronado PST et al come in to their own (>€500). Then you always have the chance of seeing flares/prominences. :lol:

FYI I have a 1000 Oaks filter that fits my ETX70, a Celestron 80mm refractor, and also on to the sun shade of a 300mm zoom for my Canon 350D. The smooth side of a strip of velcro stuck to the inside of the filter rim ensures a snug fit. I simply add another double layer when changing from the etx70(mm) to the Celestron 80mm.

The Celestron is a real grab n go scope that fits to the camera tripod, so that gets used the most for sun viewing.

The filter cost me ~Cda$100.

My 2$ (inflation!)

Cheers Dave,
the baader film lense that i made was great and still works but as you said fell off my3.7" refractor and only that i put my hand up to the eyepiece as habit. I was as you can imagine, pale for about an hour while holding my hand in cold water.SO when that happens once you usually get the fright of your life and become very careful.

When I was doing dummy runs for the Eclipse Turkey trip last year at home, I swapped my 1000Oaks filter from the etx70 to the Celestron 80mm.
After a couple on mins I could get a burning smell. :
As there was nothing cooking in the kitchen it could only be one thing :!:
I was more lucky than you Sean.
It was the dust cap in the eyepiece tube of the etx70 that had a hole burnt in it after I forgot to put the lid back on the scope. :oops:

There was minor smoke marks on the flip mirror, but nothing to effect image quality :roll:

FYI I had Baader film Selotaped to the sun shader of the zoom lens for taking shots of the sun during the eclipse.

i dont know how they classify these filters so what type of filter would be needed for :

1. sunspots.
2. to see actual detail on the surface of the sun ( or is this possible at all from terrestrial viewing?)

i dont know how they classify these filters so what type of filter would be needed for :

1. sunspots.
2. to see actual detail on the surface of the sun ( or is this possible at all from terrestrial viewing?)

Baader is the quick and easy filter for sunspots, (and their surrounding detail). H-alpha for surface andatmospheric details. Te Thousand Oaks would probably be your main candidate.

To the other would-be experts on these: Do Thousand Oaks filters have combination light AND details? Or must one buy 2 filters?