Safe Solar Filters

[paul schofield]

Hello again SGL. I have loved all things astronimal since as far back as I can remember, but only took the plunge into telescopes a couple of months back. My scope being a Sky-Watcher 130p. I would like advice regarding a Solar filter I have been considering purchasing. The filter is an Astro Engineering Sol-Vu solar filter, I know there is a lot of hoodoo regarding safety of such. The filter covers the main tube of scope and is not an eyepiece filter which I understand are not the way to go. Also in using a tube filter, does this endanger EP`S, obviously I would only be using my cheap SW eyepieces and not my more expensive meades (still not that expensive) ha. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you............

[Merlin66]

The Sol-Vu filter if its correctly fitted, will do the job and give nice white light views of the Sun.

[BazMark]

I use the same filter with my skymax 127 and it's fine. With the filter in place on the front of the scope not enough rays reach the eyepiece to damage it. They reflect back something like 100,000 rays for evrey one they let through

[brianb]

Will be perfectly safe when used as per the instructions. Fit it before pointing the scope at the sun and point the scope well away from the sun before removing it. Remove any finderscope, or leave it capped, or make it a safe solar filter using Baader solar film. Always check the filter for splits / cracks / tears / significant holes before use ... tiny holes can be "plugged" using a spot of paint. Make sure any fixing screws are tightened, if there are no screws then fix the filter firmly in place using sticky tape so that the wind can't blow it off.

No danger to eyepieces when using a safe solar filter. A medium power is best - seeing is rarely good enough to allow much more than x100 - x150 to be used, whatever the aperture. A red or green filter may help visibility of fine detail, especially if the colour correction of your scope and/or eyepieces is less than perfect.

[paul schofield]

Thanks all for the advice, very handy as I would not of thought to cover my red dot finder, phew, common sense I know. Thank you all....