solar filter question

Hello all,
I have never seen the sun through a solar filter before. I see there are like 2 types of filters, glass and film. What do you guys use or prefer? I have a meade lx 90 (sct 8in) and see orion makes a nice looking glass filter. Oh, and what size is the sun when looking through the eyepiece. I know when im looking at the moon, i use a 32 mm or 26 mm super plossl and can fit the whole image in the field of view. Is the same w/ the sun? Do you ever see much detail? Sorry for the abundance of questions, but very curious before i throw more money into the astronomy "money pit". Thanks, Tom (T. J.)

Personally I prefer the film filters. I've had two glass filters and didn't like either, although I'm sure there are some very, very good ones out there. For years I bought filters from Roger Tuthill, but for my latest filter I bought Baader material and built my own. The Tuthill filters were very nice, the Baader blows it away. Unless you plan to do actual wet photography, go with the visual grade filter, not the photographic grade. The photo grade is thinner and designed for the slow, small grain films we used in the 70's and 80's. With CCD now, you can use visual grade for imaging and still get a very pleasing view visually.

I also have switched from a coated glass to the Baader film - the Baader does indeed blow my old glass filters away! Superb resolution of penumbral features in spots that were totally invisible in the glass filter.

Be careful, though - really liking solar can lead to sending large sums of money to places like Coronado Instrument Group. It did for me, and my wife now wearily notes that I do astronomy around the clock...

Jim

Tom,

I have to agree with the majority here on the Baader film filters. They are relatively cheap, and really cheap if you buy the film and make the filter youself. If you buy from Astro-Physics, they include instructions on how to make a filter using cardboard strips and sheets. It only takes an hour or so. Since you don't need a lot of aperture for viewing the sun, you may want to consider an off-axis filter for your 8" SCT.

Jim