There has been a lot of activity on the sun all spring. Currently there is an amazing line of sunspots across the sun facing the earth. While we won't be able to see the Solar eclipse from here this weekend, it was a beautifully clear afternoon so the boys and I set up the telescope to take a look. We also experimented photographing the sun and tried out some different filters.
SAFETY WARNING: NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN, ESPECIALLY THROUGH ANY KIND OF OPTICS WITHOUT PROPER FILTERING. DOING SO WILL CAUSE PERMANENT AND SEVERE EYE DAMAGE IN A MATTER OF SECONDS.
That said, we are using a Celestron C-8 telescope. This is an 8 inch reflector type telescope. We used a 40mm eyepiece so we had a magnification factor of 50x. Mounted to the front of the lens is a Baader AstroSolar filter to make it safe to look at the sun.
"The edges of the sun were so wavy with energy." -MTC
"This was unlike anything I'd ever seen before." -DSC
We are sure to do some more observing of the sun as well as the moon and planets. We also hope to see the Venus transit in June.
