Now these things are pretty cool, I've had the pleasure to look through a pair once and really enjoyed it, I don't know why I don't own a pair to be honest. They offer a magnified view in white light with the ease of using binoculars. If you have ever used a pair of bino's on the Moon then you will get an idea of what you will see viewing the Sun. Plus these are a relatively cheap way of doing it.
There are a few different options here too, you can get the pre-made specially designed Solar binoculars, you can purchase filters that will fit on your binoculars or you can use the DIY route and make some filter caps or a box for yourself.
How to make a Solar filter for your binoculars.
This is just one method, a quick search will reveal different ways that you can make your own filters, you can really make it any way you want to as long as it is secure and safe. The advantage of this method is the cost, it costs no more than buying the correct solar film and a few odds and ends like pieces of card, glue, tape etc..
Please follow manufacturers guidelines though as they are the guys who truly know what they are talking about.
Of course if in doubt you can use the commercially made and tested variety.
www.scopesnskies.com...
www.scsastro.co.uk...
Conclusion
A fun and simple to use method of observing the sun, a great entry point to solar viewing and can be enjoyed by the all ages.
Telescopes
Alright, so the methods mentioned above are a great starting point to viewing in White light but to really get the most detail out of the Sun's surface one really needs a telescope. It doesn't need to be a specialised scope, doesn't need to be expensive or top of the range and it doesn't need to have a large aperture. All that you need is to be able to fit a filter on the front of your scope. As mentioned there are a number of different brands and types of filters you can use, whether it be coated glass, mylar or solar film but that comes down to what you are most comfortable with using.
You can purchase ready-made and ready to go filters like those in the picture above and link below to fit which ever size scope you own, if your size isn't listed some places will custom build one for no extra cost and that cost is quite affordable to start with. You should be able to find solar filters for well under $100.
www.firstlightoptics.com...
Like with the binoculars, even more so really, DIY solar filters are popular amongst amature astronomers and thankfully, and kind of revolutionary the invention of products like Baader Solar Foil have made this an easy an less expensive option while managing to keep the product at the highest possible quality. Be sure to check the specifications first as some films are designed for photography only and not considered safe for visual observing.
To make a filter again it is a fairly easy process with not many tools needed as can be seen in the tutorial below. Again there are more than one way you can make these filters just be sure to have safety in mind at all times.
How to make a Solar filter for your telescope
Here is an example of the sort of image you can expect to see, right now there is far more sunspot activity on the Sun and is increasing as we approach the Solar maximum so now is as good a time as any to start observing the Sun.
Imaging in white light
One of added bonus' to viewing with a telescope is it can open up the world of Solar photography which is unique in the world of astrophotography in that the Sun is constantly changing, you will never get the same picture two days in a row, it can change in just a matter of hours or less. No other object in the day or night sky offers as much variation, the ever changing Sun is truly a captivating subject even in white light.
Imaging does not have to be expensive although it can be and often is thought to be so, and one doesn't have to spend hours processing images although you can and if you do you will see quite a difference. It can be as simple as finding the right settings on your point and shoot(P&S) camera and holding it up to your eyepiece. But with refinement and better equipment come better results
To get started you need a camera obviously, the three most common and recommended types are DSLR's, webcams and CCD imaging cameras. A DSLR camera is easy to use and can produce good images without much fuss, just take the photo and upload it with little to no time processing it afterwards.
This was one of the first pictures I took using a Canon 20D and a home- made filter, I added the yellow tint to it though the actual image is more black and white. I don't know why we have adopted the Sun being yellow as its real colour is white.
But as you can see that picture is a bit lacking to what can be seen in, well in better and clearer pictures.
To get the absolute most out of the Sun a webcam or CCD camera are really the top performers. The advantage they give is that they capture many frames at a time, hundreds of single frames in a short time span and this is important because when you stack those frames on top of each other it vastly improves the detail that can be seen.
As you can see the difference is substantial. Of course there is nothing to stop you getting similar quality by taking hundreds of photos with a regular digital camera but it is time consuming, memory consuming and a nightmare to process plus you have to be careful as the rotation of the Sun can cause variances. This is where the webcams and CCD's come in handy as they capture 1000's of frames in a matter of minutes.
I'm going to speak of mainly the webcams here as they are really all that are required and are low cost in comparison.
Models like the Toucam, Phillips SPC880's and even LifeCams can all be used with great success and need only minor modifications in software and adaptors to attach it to your eyepiece holder. The only downside is you need to run it off of a laptop or ipad or have a really long usb cable to your PC.
An example of a complete astro package webcam.
The basic process of using it is fairly straight forward too, once you get the exposure and levels correct for the webcam just record a couple of minutes of footage and save the .avi file. Then using a free stacking software program like avistack or deepskystacker you just load the .avi file and let the software do it thing. With a bit of practice you can get great solar images like the one's above.
Conclusion
This is a brilliant and safe way and probably the most common with astronomers to observe the sun and sunspots. It’s not really expensive and frankly if you own a telescope you should get yourself a solar filter so you can enjoy your hobby in the daytime as well.
, at times like this I long back to Africa with its clear skies 360 days a year, lol .......
