With the solar storm to hit earth on 10/24/03 I decided to try and take some pictures of our current sun spots. I used a 4 1/2" telescope and a digital camera. First, WARNING! DO NOT look directly at the sun through a telescope, you will be blinded! Here's how I did it without loosing my sight.

I setup the telescope and aimed it as close to the sun as possible without looking through the viewfinder/spotting scope. Next put a lower powered lens/eye piece into your telescope. As a first try I used a 25mm Wide Angle eyepiece. Next take an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper and hold it above the lense, start by holding it about 6" - 12" from the lens (distance not critical). Using the telescopes drive motor slowly steer the telescope until you see a VERY bright image on the paper. Once you've got the image, adjust the telescopes focus until you have a sharp image of the sun and its sun spots.

In order to take the photos below I setup a digital camera on a second tripod next to the telescope and simply aimed the camera at the image of the sun.... This isn't a high class high priced scientific setup but I still thought it produced some interesting results. Below are pictures using both a 25 mm (low power) eyepiece and a 10 mm (high power) eyepiece.

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