first time out with solar filter.

[chris2411]

I've finally got to see the sun through a telescope, I was amazed how hard it is to find!! after about 20 minutes or so finally I saw the edge of a white disk and soon had my first solar viewing. I was begining to think my solar filter was a dud.

[Davey-T]

If you're feeling flush you can invest in one of these or make your own, various posts about it if you do a search.

Get about ten minutes of Sun between the trees this time of year, just waiting for it ATM.

Good luck with Solar

Dave

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/lunt-solar-accessories/tele-vue-sol-searcher-for-lunt-solar-telescopes.html

[Gazabone]

Hi, it's a great object to look at. You might find it easier to find if you use the shadow of your scope to do your first initial alignment. I also made a "solar finder", it's a sort of pinhole camera; take a tube and place an obstruction at the front (I used a cut up credit card) and drill a small hole in the middle of it. Then stick a translucent back to it (I used the base of a yogurt tub) and draw a central cross. If your tube is the right size for a traditional finder scope mount then aligning it to the scope and using it makes finding the sun a job of just a few seconds.

For the sake of safety, I should add that using this sort of finder means you never turn you eyes in the direction of the sun.

[brantuk]

+1 for the TV Sol Finder in post #2 - I have one and it's brilliant.

[chris2411]

Thanks for your comments, defo need to do something. I'm a great fan of doing something DIY.

[D4N]

I made a solar finder with a piece of metal and a hole punch

Other methods are as already stated making the shadow as small as possible or another thing I have had good success with is to take the eyepiece out of the scope, it is a lot easier to line up without the eyepiece.

/Dan

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[cjdawson]

Finding the sun is actually very very easy if you know the trick.  Firstly, I use my 8" sct to do this.

Setup the scope as normal, make sure that the solar filter is secured.

Next, point the scope in the rough direction of the sun (never look at the sun directly, just get the scope rough, it's good enough)

Now, look at the shadow that the scope is casting on the ground.  Pay attention to the OTA's shadow.

Move the OTA left or right to make the shadow as thin as possible.

Next, move the OTA up and down again to make the shadow as small as possible.

Once you've got it tiny, your scope is either pointing at the sun, or it's very close.   double check that your solar filter is in place then put in a low power eyepiece and have a look.

Something that I've noticed is that my setup has a couple of reflective surfaces, one of them is the mounting of the solar filter itself.  when I get very close to the correct position, this cases a light reflection, which also helps me to home in on the sweet spot.

Remind me to make a video of this sometime.

[chris2411]

Many thanks for all your help, just got to wait untill the Sun comes out again. That could be sometime in May!!

[101nut]

When it comes to setting up, I use a rule of thumb - if the light is good enough to give a reasonable edge to shadows it's worth having a look, otherwise don't bother setting up.

Although not always great, when there's strong activity it's surprising how much you can see through diffuse cloud.

AndyG