Solar observing glasses

[jonathan]

Just ordered a few pairs of these for complimentary solar observing, the sun should be big enough to see sunspots and the like, and when it sets it should be massive so looking forward to some interesting solar observing.  They are the ones that FLO sell with the Baader solar film, I'll be sorting out some hard glasses cases for them to keep them safe.  Why should they only be used for eclipse viewing?  The sun is always interesting.

[Peter Drew]

Sunspots to the naked eye are similar in difficulty to see as Jupiter shadow transits are in a small telescope. You need a pretty big sunspot and good seeing to see one with just solar "glasses". Worth looking all the same and inexpensive.    

[LukeSkywatcher]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but i bought a couple of pairs of these (from FLO as it happens). My plan was to observe the eclipse. On the day with the break in the clouds, yes you could see a white light image of the sun but no way would/could you see any sunspots (there was only one on the surface that day). To see sunspots you need a telescope and filter and magnification.

Simply looking through eclipse glasses at the sun with zero magnification will not show sunspots.

Please feel free to correct me if i am wrong or have misread the opening comment.

Paul.

[ghostdance]

I've never seen sunspots with mine, but in a thread last year other members said they could. Dunno how big those were tho! Certainly the present spot is invisible to me with them.

The 'glasses' are good PR tho - non sg people get a kick out of being able to see the Sun, detail or not.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I've never seen sunspots with mine, but in a thread last year other members said they could. Dunno how big those were tho! Certainly the present spot is invisible to me with them.

The 'glasses' are good PR tho - non sg people get a kick out of being able to see the Sun, detail or not.

The glasses are good for non-astro people to at least see the shape and size of the sun without blinding themselves. Us astronomers know (or should know) that they cant/wont show sunspots. Maybe some people can see them with the glasses..............but i seriously doubt it.

[Ibbo!]

If the sunspot is big enough it will be visible

seen it for myself on more than a few occasions.

[Steve Ward]

Regularly seen spots through Baader film naked eye , they have to be a fair size but not massive ... 

You'll have much less chance of seeing spots through the dreadful polymer-film filtered glasses , a dull orange disc is about as good as it'll get .

[jonathan]

I do appreciate it might take two or three sunspots in the same area for me to see something, but that does happen so I remain optimistic.  Also when the sun is low on the horizon it should be magnified by the atmosphere so that should be interesting to observe (rather than when I'm being blinded in my car on the way home from work - the visor just doesn't come down far enough!)

I seem to remember seeing the sunspot during the eclipse in my solar pinhole projector so I know they are possible to see without a telescope.

[Paul M]

Maybe a couple of times per Solar Cycle there will be a "naked eye" sunspot. Bad turn of phrase but it means it'll be visible without any optical instruments but still using suitable eye protection.

Rarely there will be some huge sunspots which are difficult to miss.

I've seen a few but in general there isn't much to see, particularly away from solar max.