solar projection?

[redgiantjohn]

hi all due to the upcoming transition of venus ive been contemplating solar projection ive read a bit about it but it sounds a bit iffy to me,all id like to know is will it damage my telescope or eyepieces?ive got a 6" dob is it even possible to do it with this scope?

[Bizibilder]

Not a good idea with any scope where you are concentrating the Sun's light and heat onto either a secondary or an eyepiece - they could shatter. A much better idea (and much safer) is to use a full aparture filter like a sheet of Baader Solar film. You can make a holder by simple DIY with card and sticky tape. A sheet of film is around £20. This will work for both visual or photographic observations.

I must add that when observing the Sun always take the utmost care to use proper filters.

[Ad Astra]

There was a wonderful article in Sky & Telescope (last month, I think), that showed how to build a solar projection eyepiece.

Basically, it started with a 9mm EP, epoxyed into the narrow end of a large funnel (something 15-inches long or so that you would use to add motor oil to an automobile engine). The top end of the funnel was covered with rear-projection screen material.

The idea was that you would be able to project the image of the Sun onto a 5-inch circle and have a group gather around and see it all at the same time. It sounded quite brilliant, I plan on trying that one with one of my 150mm dobs for the transit event next month.

Do be sure you remove or cover the finder scope though, an uncovered finder pointed to the Sun will burn out the cross hairs in seconds.

Of course, as every one says, do be sure you use proper filters if you observe the Sun directly. Your vision is priceless. I deliberately did NOT assign eclipse observation to my students because it occurred on a weekend and I could not be there to supervise them.

You wouldn't believe some of the stupid, dangerous methods some people told me they used to observe the Sun directly - from "I wore two pairs of sunglasses!" to "I looked through a sheet of x-ray film!" One wag even disputed with me, saying "My eyes didn't hurt - I'm sure I did it properly!" (Your retina doesn't have any pain receptors....)

Be safe, have fun, post your results here!

Dan

[redgiantjohn]

thanks for the tips,not being overly confident with it i think ill give it a miss and just enjoy the pictures posted on here