viola_butler•7d agoProlific Poster

PSA: Don't waste $300 on a solar filter kit for your telescope

I bought this fancy solar filter kit from a random brand online back in March. Thought it'd be great for photographing the eclipse but it was literally just plastic film glued to cardboard. The images came out so blurry I couldn't even see sunspots clearly. I should have just bought the trusted brand filter from a real astronomy shop for the same price. Anyone else get burned by cheap solar gear that pretends to be pro?

2 comments

2 Comments

sanchez.blake7d ago

Man, that sucks! My buddy thought he was being smart last year and grabbed a cheap solar filter off some random website. He set it up on his dob for the partial eclipse we had, and the thing literally fell off during setup because the cardboard was so flimsy. Lucky for him he wasn't looking through it when it dropped, but he was pissed about wasting sixty bucks on garbage. Did you try to get your money back from the seller or just eat the loss?

owens.nancy7d ago

And did your buddy even check if the cardboard was fire rated or just regular crap? Because that's the real risk with these no-name filters, they use whatever's cheapest and hope nobody looks too close. Sixty bucks is still sixty bucks, but at least he learned the lesson without frying his retina. Makes you wonder how many people just shrug and toss the thing without getting their money back.