Solar Filters

[nephilim]

Just to clarify: My suggestion of looking "across" the instrument (by using a diagonal) simply means that if you take your eye away from the eyepiece you are NOT looking directly at the Sun (you are most probably looking at the ground!). Without the diagonal (ie with the scope set up "straight through") as soon as you move your eye away you most certainly ARE looking directly at the Sun.

Thats exactly the point I was trying to make thanks Roger I use Baader solar film over the full aperture of my scope, my scopes a reflector, so when observing, if i lift my head slightly up or down I'm looking at an angle 90deg away from the sun, were as if i did the same using binos or a refractor I'd be looking more or less at the sun itself.

[BinocularSky]

I think that observing sunspots would be a clincher, and this might not be possible with a 20X magnification.

Why not? I see plenty at 10x

as soon as you move your eye away you most certainly ARE looking directly at the Sun

A question: have you ever seen the Sun? If so, did you do so without looking at it?

nuff sed.

[Steve Ward]

I used to use a 10 x 50 Solar filtered binocular for checking out Sunspot activity before deciding whether to photograph or not .

Saved an awful lot of faffing about setting up only to find a blank disc . . .

The only problem I found was finding the disc in the first place .

If there was one thing I worried about it was using the binocular ( or telescope for that matter ) when anywhere near children , I don't have any myself but understand that some of you are quite attached to them . . .

Their tendencies to copy adults would always make me hide the binocular in their presence . . . Would not want to carry that one around with me . . . .

Steve.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Thats exactly the point I was trying to make thanks Roger I use Baader solar film over the full aperture of my scope, my scopes a reflector, so when observing, if i lift my head slightly up or down I'm looking at an angle 90deg away from the sun, were as if i did the same using binos or a refractor I'd be looking more or less at the sun itself.

Thats what i really dont get or understand.

[Paul M]

I used to enjoy observing the sun through my 60mm refractor as a boy.

It came with a focal plane filter. I'd already read warnings about using them so much preferred projecting onto a screen.

After one observing session in winter when I was 11 or 12 years old I returned indoors and realise that my right eye was very slow in adapting to the dimly lit lounge...

An hour later it was still very dull in the centre of vision.

The next day saw little improvement.

What had gone wrong? Not entirely sure. I certainly never looked directly at the sun through the scope but I did have a habit of squinting along the tube to roughly align with the sun....

I never did recover full vision in my right and dominant eye. I have a blind spot bang in the middle of my field of vision. It just "swims" and swirls and my brain fills it with a blend of the surrounding scenery. It's exactly the size of the full moon and roughly circular.

It's still my dominant eye but useless for observing. It's remained short sighted whilst my left eye has merrily gone on to develop normal age related long sight!

Lessons learned? Most certainly.

Take care!!!

[nephilim]

Thanks for posting & very sorry to hear. It shows that even looking at the sun with just the eye even by accident (partly the point of my posts) can have detrimental effects that will last a lifetime.

Steve