Starting out in Solar photography - which Baader film is more appropriate?

[PaulPod]

Hi guys - I hope you are well. This is my first post and I'll try to be as specific as possible!

I want to start taking photos of the sun, in part as way to get more use out of my telescope as work, family life and inner city living can make it difficult to get as much viewing time as I would like!

Im only really starting out, my current set up is:

- Skywatcher Skymax 127, on the AZ-GTI mount

- 15 & 5mm BST Star Guider eyepieces, plus the stock Skywatcher 25 & 10mm

Im currently just using a phone mount (Celestron NexYZ) and a Pixel 7 to capture images. Pretty basic but I've got some nice shots of the moon, and some ropey ones of saturn and jupiter! Im also fairly familiar with photoshop when it comes to processing, but haven't yet started any sort of image stacking. 

Im aware the first thing i need is a front mounted solar filter - given my set up, would the OD 3.8 or 5 be more appropriate? Im aware the 3.8 would be unsuitable for any visual work, but I have read that it can give better results for photography, especially with shorter exposer times (which makes me thing this may be more appropriate for a phone set up?)

Im aware the set up in itself is probably pretty limiting, but as I say I'm just starting out so cant justify a massive spend on fancy filters at this stage!

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated 

 

Cheers!

Paul

[Elp]

The baader films don't really cost that much so no harm in trying both, the cell you can just make out of durable cardboard. For safety and saving any confusion of doing visual and imaging I went with nd5. Seymour Solar film is also available which gives the sun a yellow/orange hue rather than the baaders white/grey.

Edited June 13, 2023 by Elp

[PaulPod]

Yeh fair point. I emailed FLO and the guy recommended the 3.8 and sent me over the instructions for the cell so I've gone with that. Looking forward to getting it set up!