Solar Finder

pinshape

I watched the august total eclipse, had a great time. I took my scope and new solar filter with me, I found out I needed one more thing. A finder scope for the sun. So I came up with this. It uses shadows to find the sun, you don't need to look through the finder. Just align the shadows on the frosted plastic in the back. I have a Telrad scope mount, so I made an insert to fit that. There is also a stand to mount the finder if you don't have a Telrad mount. I frosted the back plastic with 400grit sand paper and steel wool. I used PLA filament, .4 layer height, 3 top and bottom layers and 3 vertical layers. Support material is required for the SolarObjective and SolarTube I used a 4mm brim on the SolarTube. I added a 45 degree mirror. This is so I don't bend over to look at the back of the tube. I printed this with a .2mm layer height. I just worked better. WARNING: never use this finder without a proper solar filter on your telescope or other instruments used to view to the sun.