First ever look at the sun with eyeballs today!

[teh_orph]

I bought a white light solar filter in the summer last year but have never dared put my eye to the eyepiece, choosing instead just to use my web cam with it.

But for the last few days I've been plucking up the courage to have a go and all this talk of high solar activity pushed me over the edge! So I put on the filter - pre-made, as bought from FLO - and lined it up with the sun and attached the web cam. I'd rather incinerate a cheap camera instead of my eye! Confident that the set-up was okay, I popped out the camera and put in the 25 mm EP (26x) and tested by putting my hand in front of the light coming out of it...all ok. I then stick my eye to the eyepiece and refocus with shaky hands - I'm not blind!

Anyway - what a sight, esp in conjunction with a UHC filter you can just make out the pattern on the body of the sun. I could clearly see the sunspot group that's out at the moment. Zooming in was a bit hit-and-miss: 100x was probably as far as I could push it without the seeing ruining the image (it was 3pm so it was still quite warm).

My biggest worry was the filter popping off. If I tighten the screws too much it pops right off the front of my scope! I also had a deep fear of a bird coming my way to steal that shiny cover, and crash right through it...