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Solar Filters


trogre

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Hi All.

Been reading on forum and majority of posts seem to refer to solar filters of Baader Mylar film.

Without going into speciality filters these solar filter, ready made, come in Mylar film or glass. I know there is a vast difference in price for say a 8” Mylar filer as compared to a 8” glass filter.

So was wondering do most use the Mylar film purely out of cost? Easily replaceable if split etc? Or is it a matter you can make your own filter very easy?

I must admit I have never looked a sun through any filter so can on go on what I have read. The Mylar shows the sun in white as opposed to a glass filter that shows yellowy orange.

Is the sun shown in white a better option for viewing only, what is the advantage of viewing the sun in white?? I perhaps understand if use view in white and add colour in some software.

I know from experience the worse time as far as taking photographs on a sun ny day is between noon and around 2pm because of the shadows. Is there a “best” time to view the sun? The midday sun can be very hot, depending where you live and perhaps not the best time to view sun. I am presuming that the heat from the sun at midday-ish could get the metal on scope very hot not only to touch but may in extreme heat distort the tube ,true ,false?

At the other end of scale an early sun can be more comfortable for the viewer & equipment although an early sun can have haze problems.

So is there a best time to view sun? Does the view of sun change from a summer sun to a winter sun?

Thanks for any help

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Baader solar film is very good, and often prefered to glass filters. Older (mylar) films tended to wear out, and was optically less good than the current material (no longer mylar, I think, but I may be wrong). I have a glass filter on my C8, which is pretty good, I must say, and has lasted over 15 years. My kids have a Baader film on their 4.5" scope, which does now need replacement (tiny hole). Replacement is cheap, however.

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Baader Astrosolar film is different than mylar, yes. It's better than most solid glass white light filters too. The glass filters are all too often not made to a high enough optical quality so they smudge the image a bit. The thinness of the film, by comparison, makes any potential effect on the image minimal and Baader have perfected a good way of making solar film that results in it just plain being quite a bit better than old "mylar" filters. The only white-light image quality upgrade from Baader Astrosolar film is a Herschel wedge (not useable on all types of scope) and it is only a small upgrade.

Add in the cheapness of Astrosolar film and it has a lot going for it. The only downside is that film can potentially be perforated/broken more easily by careless handling than glass would be... but because it's so cheap you can just replace it.

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