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[RobbW]

Anyone know if there is a local retail establishment where I could just walk in and purchase some solar film or a solar filter? Every online site I checked is back-ordered a minimum of two weeks due to the recent Venus transit.

Next week, I will be off work on paternity leave from Tuesday through the end of the week. Later in the week, after the hectic and frantic pace of new baby arrival starts to calm down, I may have some time to do some hardcore solar observing and broadcasting. This is something I rarely ever get a chance to do as I am usually at work during the daylight hours.

Unfortunately, I ruined the small bit of Baader solar film I used to have on my aperture mask for the C8. The only solar equipment I have left is the sun funnel I built, which doesn't really work very well for broadcasting on NSN.

I need to find a 4"x4" square of Baader solar film at a minimum. Just enough to cover the off-axis aperture mask I cut into my dust cover. Ultimately, what I would prefer is a full-aperture solar filter for my C8. However, I don't think I will find that anywhere locally. That will need to be ordered, and I'll just have to wait the 6-8 weeks for those to finally come in.

But if I can at least find a small square of solar film to cover my aperture mask, that will suffice for my solar broadcasting attempts later this week. I just need to find a place where I can walk in and buy it. I don't have time to wait a week for order processing and shipping. My time window for solar observation will be long past by then.

Anyone know of any local place to buy solar film? Thanks in advance for any help.

P.S If anyone has solar film in their possession and would like to trade, I still have a large amount of Da-Lite DaTex Projection Material leftover from when I made my sun funnel. I purchased a full 24" square of the material and only used about an 8" square cut out of one corner. If you're willing to trade, I'd have to meet up with you sometime today. So, local to me (roughly) and available today would be preferred, but I can probably work something out if I need to travel a little bit farther. Traveling to another state would probably be out of the question, though.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Robb...

I would have thought that the market would be/will soon be flooded with unwanted filters, scopes and other related solar items - much like the Halley comet hoopla and Mars Madness of years past.

Sorry, no got spare sheets....

[RobbW]

I was kinda hoping that would be the case, Joe. Sadly, I haven't found anything yet. I'll keep looking though! Thanks.

[Paulie pchris00]

Good luck on finding solar film soon. It will be a good temporary fix, but not a long term solution.

Rehearsing for the Venus transit, I was out on some windy days. Even before the transit, I'd noticed pinholes in my solar films. They were small enough to fix with black marker, and I felt it was safe enough to view the transit.

Last week, though, solar filter on my Dob masked down to minimize the effects of those pinholes, I smelled something burning before I even had a chance to observe. The plastic inner edge of my 9mm Plossl was starting to melt. I didn't see any pinholes worse than the before, but needless to say, if my eyepiece was melting, there was no way I was going to take a chance on burning my eye. I'm afraid my solar film for the Dob has done its job.

With Lake Michigan cooling off the region, the differences in temperature and pressure gives us some windy conditions during the day. The Lake's beaches and steel mills along the southern shore contribute sand and grit to the air, and it's not unreasonable to think that these gusts have blown particles right through my solar film while observing in windy conditions. I'm sure our recent dry spell didn't help, with no precipitation to wash the muck out of the air.

All that said, I'll be in the market as soon as possible for a full aperture glass solar filter, probably for my 4.5" go-to first, and later for my Dob. The Sun has been way too interesting of a target to give up on. If you find solar film fast and cheap, by all means, go for it, but if not, go for the long term fix of a glass solar filter.

[erikruud]

Seymour Solar has some sheets in their ebay store.

[-=CROMAN=-]

You can use mine until you get around to buying the full aperture filter. It is brass and glass. There are some pinholes in the glass but the instructions say you can open it up and use black paint or a marker to fix. i was to lazy to do it.

Im pretty much done with the solar stuff anyway. I prefer the sun funnel because of the ease of use and setup.

Let me know

[RobbW]

Thanks for the offer, Rich. I just placed an order from Seymour Solar as Erik suggested. It should be here either Wednesday or Thursday.