Reddit mentions of 10"x10" Solar Filter Sheet for Telescopes, Binoculars and Cameras

I'm confused? You have an assignment to build a telescope to look at the sun, due in a few days? That is a weird assignment, can you please elaborate.

Building a telescope is usually a multi month deal. Do you have a primary mirror? Secondary? Eye pieces?

Or do you already have a telescope you would like to use to look at the sun?

Please be very very careful. Looking at the sun with a telescope can permanently blind you. There is a specialized material that is used for this. You can either buy a premade solar filter that fits on the end of your scope, or buy a sheet of this special material and make it into one yourself. I did this for the eclipse a few years ago and it was amazing.

Please do not try any other wierd method that does not involve this special material. You will go blind.

Here is a link to said material.

10"x10" Solar Filter Sheet for Telescopes, Binoculars and Cameras https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DS7SCBQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_pbm3DbZTD2RXM

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DS7SCBQ/

After realising there is a solar eclipse not too far (10h drive) from me in 3 weeks time I figured I should do something about it.

Only I have never photographed the sun before and I would appreciate some advice.

I googled around but other than "use a filter" I couldn't find anything specifying what I should do to get a successful image.

First things first, my tools.

I will be using my DSLR, Pentax K-5, due to the remote locations needed I can't carry a telescope.

I have a selection of lenses ranging from 17-50 F2.8, 50 prime F1.7, 18-135mm F3-5.6 and this is my longest, Sigma 70-300.

I also have a doubler so it doubles the focal length and also a 10 stop ND filter.

One thing I have looked for is a filter, not finding a specific lens filter but this stuff.


My questions are:

1. Should I by something like this 500mm mirror lens?
   
   
2. Is that filter material the right stuff if I attach it to a lens?
   
   
   
3. What is the actual technique of getting good focus, exposing the image? do I take lots and stitch them? do I take long exposures? do I bracket each shot my a couple of stops? I have a small window to get this right and dont want to cock it up!
   
   Thanks for reading

Canon 70D & 100-400mm f/4-5.6 lens @ 400mm f/9 with a piece of solar film for all of the images other than the total eclipse. Shutter/Iso varied a little but between 1/500-1/1000 & Iso800-3200.

Removed chromatic aberrations and made some minor contrast/noise/highlight adjustments but the raw photos looked great right off the camera. They didn't need much- mostly a little cropping.

Taken from Crossville Tennessee

If you'd put the film over the aperture of the binocs first you'd have been fine.

I actually had a sheet of this: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DS7SCBQ/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 for my 8" telescope I'd ordered almost a year ago.

Cut it in two so a friend and I could gawk at the star. I was a little worried that it wasn't as good as the cheap paper glasses everyone had so we borrowed a pair from someone next to us and discovered to our elation that the 5"x10" sheet of solar filter actually gave a much better experience. You could basically wrap it around your face and block out all the other light and you didn't just have tiny little slots to look through. It could have used a strap but we got through it just fine and got a really nice experience. No burned eyeballs. A couple of stray reflections off my buddy's improvisor, but no worse than a reflection off a car.

Solar filters are specialized filters that block out most light (something like 99.99%). But the Sun is so bright, that the remaining 0.01% of light is more than enough to take the kind of picture I took.


If you look up the companies Baader or Thousand Oaks Optical, you'll be able to find solar sheets that they sell. They also sell specific filters for telescopes and cameras but those are expensive.


For my project, I purchased this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DS7SCBQ


It's manufactured by Thousand Oaks Optical and it's pretty sweet! You might have trouble ordering them in such short notice though :( Good luck!

I got just the plain film for $30 (10" square) or $10ish (4" square) for my scopes and made my own holder out of cardboard.

https://www.amazon.com/Solar-Filter-Telescopes-Binoculars-Cameras/dp/B00DS7SCBQ

Well, shit, the 10" is only $24 now.

There's a bunch of sizes available.

No. Binoculars have a much larger collecting area and therefore requires much larger attenuation. You can get an appropriate filter to cut to size for this purpose on Amazon for $30.

https://www.amazon.com/Solar-Filter-Telescopes-Binoculars-Cameras/dp/B00DS7SCBQ

Please do not risk your eyesight over $30.

Did you know Amazon will donate a portion of every purchase if you shop by going to smile.amazon.com instead? Over $50,000,000 has been raised for charity - all you need to do is change the URL!

Here are your smile-ified links:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DS7SCBQ

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