How do I correctly use eye-piece sun filter?

[crovax]

But isn't laser collimation easier and more precise? I watched a video where a guy gave detailed description of both ways to collimate and laser seems a bit easier. I mean you just put it in, adjust secondary to make laser hit center and make sure the primary is in center of the picture and then adjust primary by making laser be in the center of device circle.

[Merlin66]

Yes, but....

Check out the other threads on collimation. There seems to be a common problem with the actual collimation of the collimation (!!??) of the laser pen inside the body of the unit. Some are obviously better than others. The Cheshire is an easy thing to use, no batteries nothing to go wrong, go wrong,.....

[brianb]

But isn't laser collimation easier and more precise?

It's a very easy way of doing the job but depends on the accuracy of the laser collimator itself - most of the ones I've seen are far enough out to make the thing a very fast and convenient way of miscollimating your scope.

Personally I find the Cheshire works well. But with f/8 Newtonians a peep sight is really all you need. One reason why I like long focus Newts...

[crovax]

Haha, I see, it makes sense. I guess I won't buy laser then. Is the collimating device the only thing I need (except wrenches)? All the manuals mention a cap where you need to make hole in the exact center. As far as I understand that cap is a hand-made colliamtor and I don't need that, right?

[crovax]

PS. I have only Orion Collimating Eyepiece (ïËÕÌÑÒ ÄÌÑ ÀÓÔÉÒÏ×ËÉ Orion Collimating Eyepiece ËÕÐÉÔØ | Ë ÔÅÌÅÓËÏÐÁÍ | éÎÔÅÒÎÅÔ-ÍÁÇÁÚÉÎ Astroshop.com.ua | ëÉÅ×, õËÒÁÉÎÁ / astroshop.com.ua) in nearest stores. Is it fine?

[Merlin66]

The Cheshire would replace (and enhance) the "collicap".

Touch wood, a wrench is all you'll need!!

[Merlin66]

The Orion one you list, should do the job nicely.

[crovax]

Thanks for the help! I am buying it and hope they'll manage to bring it today.

The Cheshire would replace (and enhance) the "collicap".

Touch wood, a wrench is all you'll need!!

I hope I mean those manuals mention some weird types of wrenches and I hope I have them or that I won't need them.

[Astral]

very interesting thread. Its actually helping me learn a lot. (Had no idea of the dangers of those eye filters!)

I'm glad you and your scope are okay.

[crovax]

The weather is very random in Kyiv and I almost don't have any chance to look at the night sky. I managed to look at Moon and Saturn so far only

So I decided to use every moment of clear weekend sky and want to give another chance for solar filters But thanks to all your help I'll ve super careful this time. In my local store I have "Solar filter Sky-Watcher 130 mm Baader Planetarium" with optical density equal to 5. It costs 26USD. Another filter I have is "Orion Solar Filter made of high-quality glass" for around 100USD. Here you can check how they look:

Synta Sky-Watcher 130 ËÕÐÉÔØ | Ë ÔÅÌÅÓËÏÐÁÍ | éÎÔÅÒÎÅÔ-ÍÁÇÁÚÉÎ Astroshop.com.ua | ëÉÅ×, õËÒÁÉÎÁ / astroshop.com.ua

óÏÌÎÅÞÎÙÊ ÆÉÌØÔÒ 4.57" Orion Solar Filter ÐÒÏÄÁÖÁ | Ë ÔÅÌÅÓËÏÐÁÍ | éÎÔÅÒÎÅÔ-ÍÁÇÁÚÉÎ Astroshop.com.ua | ëÉÅ×, õËÒÁÉÎÁ / astroshop.com.ua

This price difference looks very suspicious and I wonder if the 26USD filter is another dangerous Rubbish. The main problem with the Orion filter is that I can't find 130mm version (guess Orion makes them for their telescopes that have standart set of apertures). So will I be OK if I buy the first one or should I be looking for Orion-like filters? And if the first one is OK, what makes such a big price difference?

[The Warthog]

The Baader filters are very good and highly recommended. I would assume the glass filter is also good, but the price difference is because manufacturing the glass filter is more difficult. It is probably much more durable, too, but probably no better than the Baader filter. I use Thousand Oaks filter material (deep orange) that is even cheaper, and very effective.

[crovax]

Thanks much! Then I'll buy the Baader one. I don't have Thousand Oaks filter in my shop. Actually my choise is very very limited. I can choose between Baader and Orion. By the way I didn't manage to find exactly 130mm Orion so I am not really sure if a larger or smaller one fits my sky-watcher scope. So the facts that Baader is not dangerous and the viewing quality is OK is more than enough to choose it.

Also I think I know how I can use EP filter. During my last experimetns I had problems with locating sun because it's kinda too bright. I had to wear 3 sun glasses (and I must admit this is not the most comfortable thing ever:D) to locate it in finder. So I'll just be holding EP filter between finder and sun to avoid all that sunglases horror.

[The Warthog]

Or, if the Baader filter is sheet material, you could use a piece of it to cover your finder at the big end. You should cap your finder anyway, to avoid the risk of damaging it. You can effectively point the scope by moving it while watching the shadow on the ground behind the scope, until the shadow is as small and round as possible. Then you could use your filtered finder, or just wiggle the scope about a little until the sun is in the ep.

[crovax]

Wow, this shadow trick makes perfect sense, thanks for the tip. When I was trying to locate sun back then, I had problems because in the EP everything was totally black. So the only obvious way to navigate was finder. Now I'll be using shadow of course.

[crovax]

I've tested out the aperture Baader filter and the good news is that I still have 2 eyes. But actually....what should I be able to see? The sun was a pretty white circle but no details showed up even when I went to 225x. I saw something that looked like granulation but that could be my imagination. What I really wanted to see were sunspots. Am I doing something wrong or are they simply missing from the sun right now? Frankly speaking I thought that sunspots is something that can always be found at the sun. If I am mistaken, then is there some place where I can check the nearest opportunity to see sunspots?

[Merlin66]

So far so good.

The sun is very quiet at the moment with very few if any, sunspots visible

The Very Latest SOHO Images

The SOHO site is updated daily and shows any/ all activity on the Sun.

The EIT304 image is similar to the Ha view, and the MDI is close to the white light image.

BTW I find a green eyepiece filter in conjunction with the Baader gives more contrast.

Hope this helps.

[brianb]

What I really wanted to see were sunspots. Am I doing something wrong or are they simply missing from the sun right now? Frankly speaking I thought that sunspots is something that can always be found at the sun. If I am mistaken, then is there some place where I can check the nearest opportunity to see sunspots?

The sun is quiet now. There was a tiny sunspot yesterday near the south east limb but it would have been very hard to see; the patch of faculae was eaiser to spot.

2009 June 30, 0928 UT, 80mm refractor, x4 Imagemate, Baader solar film + solar continuum filters, DMK41 camera, stacked & processed in Registax.

Sunspots have been pretty rare this last couple of years; things are starting to pick up.

[johninderby]

While sunspot activity should be picking up later this year, at the moment there's hardly any activity to see.

Here's a solar image of todays activity that I've downloaded.

John

[crovax]

Well, this explains everything then

I've been thinking of using solar+moon EP filter too. I'll give that a try on Friday. Also thanks for the link! I'll be keeping an eye on Solar activity