Solar Viewing Tips/Need to Know Stuff

Hello all,

I just ordered a solar filter for my 8" SCT and it should be arriving today. However, due to the curse I am .... cursed with, for the first time in about 5 months Dallas area actually has clouds, from wall to wall clouds.... that never happens unless I want to look at something. Which I do now.

So while I wait for this abberation to move on (I wouldn't be suprised if Dallas suddenly became the rain capital of the world for the next year or two with the way my luck goes), what should I know about viewing the sun?

I'd imagine "leave the finder scope covered" is one obvious one.

What's the best magnification for viewing? Can you zoom in like the moon? And I do have a few eyepiece filters, but I can't the technical names of them at the moment (mainly they are a rainbow of colors heh), are any of them useful vs the sun?

Thanks in advance,

Eric Weeks

Hey Eric, I've got a similar setup though I don't use it much anymore. Some of the best viewing I got with the glass filter was using an Orion Ultrablock filter during the big sunspot events of Halloween 2003 at the first Eldorado star party. Look for granulation (it looks kinda sandy) on the surface - it's a good indicator of seeing.

The hardest part to solar viewing is finding the sun. ONe thing to remember is that you want to minimize the size of the scopes shadow on the ground. And always start with your widest field eyepiece.

Alex