What can I expect to see using a solar filter

[johankj]

The kind that is a cap that you put in front of the telescope?

Like this: Solar Filters - AstroZap Baader Solar Filter

[red dwalf]

i`ve used one like this to fit my celestron 6" sct and i thought they where great,

what you will see is not a yellow sun full of flares but a white coloured round orb which in itself is not very interesting, but if there are any sunspots these you will see, they show up as black marks on the sun and are very interesting to look at, i looked at my first sunspot only a few weeks ago now when i have time i will try to image them,

one thing that i found hard is getting the scope to point at the sun as you can`t look through your finder for obviuos reasons, and there`s no sun menu with the skywatcher heq5 but the is with the celestron goto mounts.

[northernlad]

You'll see Sun spots - well when the sun has then, as it's a bit quiet just now.

This is a pic I took through one, a couple of years back (Sun Spot 1019.)

The image will appear either white or orange in colour. My pic is coloured to look 'normal'

(Show off mode: It was also shown on Spaceweather.com)

[johankj]

Thanks guys, I think I will invest in one.

I think my Skywatcher ALTAZ GOTO can track the sun.

[red dwalf]

i like that image, how do you colour the image for it to look more natural ?

[northernlad]

i like that image, how do you colour the image for it to look more natural ?

Now for some reason the AVI was a shocking pink.

I stacked and aligned in Registax v4.

Fiddled with the wavelet settings.

In the RGB align tab, I de-clicked (in the colour channel) show blue.

I don't know if it was a fluke or not, but it worked out nicely.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

This is an image I shot years ago at 1/125s on Fujichrome through a Thousand Oaks glass solar filter (I know some people hate them, I have no problems), which produces a more natural colour

Apart form sunspots, some flare fields and granulation are clearly visible.

[Dangerous-Dave]

Apart from sunspots and granulation, a white light solar fliter will be invaluable for observing partial solar eclipses like the one on 4th January 2011.

Partial Solar Eclipse 01/08/08 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[red dwalf]

thanks for the imaging tip i`ll add that to my notepad imaging tips section.

[SeedyF]

one thing that i found hard is getting the scope to point at the sun as you can`t look through your finder for obviuos reasons, and there`s no sun menu with the skywatcher heq5 but the is with the celestron goto mounts.

I made my own solar filter - see the DIY Astronomer thread. As a by-product I had enough of the filter film left to make a filter for the spotting scope which helps with alignment.

But the correct answer is to look at the shadow your scope casts when you point it at the sun. As you move the scope into position the shadow will get smaller, when at its smallest the scope is pointing at the sun. Simple and safe.