Safe way to find the sun?

[Manok101]

I just got a glass filter and it will be here in a week and I was wondering how was the safest way to find the sun? I realize that the finderscope would be a bad idea, what do you suggest?

[iwatkins]

Google "solar finder" for some ideas.

Some really good cheap ones out there.

Or if you are handy you can make your own.

Cheers

Ian

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

Failing that, just use the shadow of the scope on the floor behind you, should get you close enough.

[Viv]

You say glass filter ?!?! That doesn't sound right - so you mean solar film ??

[Manok101]

Orion makes glass filters, They seem safe I wouldn't imagine Orion selling unsafe equipment. Thanks for the shadow idea . Thousand oaks also makes glass filters.

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

Are they full aperture glass filters? Must be pricey... But yeah i've seen people actually rate the orion glass filters quite highly, they just aren't too common.

[Manok101]

Theyre full aperture. I think mine was about 80$ I can't wait. I had considered one for the 10" but that was 120$ and I've heard that it's not as good viewing looking through a bigger scope.

[glowjet]

To find the Sun with your scope, first you must take care of your finder scope if it is fitted, keep the lens cap on or cap it off. set your scope up in the normal manner roughly direct towads the Sun then if you have sheet of white card hold a short distance behind the scope and adjust in Alt/Az until you obtain a perfect silhouette of your scopes OTA outline you will then be just about on target, do make sure you have your Solar filter fitted before you do anything though

John.

[ollypenrice]

Or take a de-lensed finderscope body or any bit of tubing and fit it parallel to the scope. Block the front of the tube with, for example, a black plastic cap and put a pinhole in it. On the back of the tube put a translucent plastic cap. Align on the sun using the silhouette method then mark on the translucent screen the point where the pinhole is producing its bright spot. This will then serve as a finder dot in the future.

Olly

[Manok101]

Isn't this how Galileo lost his eyesight? .

[Bizibilder]

Here is one I made from a strip of thin aluminium and a piece of white card. The hole is 1.5mm and the overall length about 100mm:

[The Sailor]

Took me a while to find it but the mother-in-law was chucking stuff out and I seen this and grabbed it as soon as I realised what I could use it for .

Viewfinder Ernst Leitz Wetzlar. Extremely rare item. | eBay

I have attached it to a scope and placed a piece of paper sandwiched between the rear plates, using Stellarium I send the scope to the sun and fine tune it with this instrument, exactly like Bizibilder but this can fold down out of the way. Did not realise it cost so much .

Jim