Hi there,
Later this year – at June 5th – there will be the last visible Venus transit for the most of us.
So, I am not willing to miss that event. That’s why I decided to equip my beautiful Nexstar 8SE with a sun filter. Sure, You can get those for a several amount of bugs. But this can get a little bit pricey and usually those do not fit quite well.
That’s why I decided to make one on my own.
Read how this is done, after the break…
Materials:
You really do not need much to build your own sun filter
- wood (MDF plate is quite adequate, approx. 2 EUR)
- sun filter (I used a sheet of Baader Planetarium Sun Filter, 38 EUR)
- Screws
- circular cutter
First start producing those rings, that will assemble to our filter mount.
I use a circular cutter to cut out those rings.
Well, the Nexstar 8SE has a lens cap that is secured by a “twist to open” mechanism. I decided to use this to secure the sun filter (trust me, you don’t want to be there, when it would fell off).
After the rings are cut, testing the fitting of all parts is always a good idea.
And after sanding and lacquering the rings (lacquer will prevent the wood to loose small particles that could soil your telescope), you can attach the filter foil.
But be sure that all lacquer is dry, unless you want to glue that filter mount to your telescope permanently. 
To be sure, just wait for a day.
Finally, put everything together. And there you have it:
There You go! The filter is finished and I cannot wait to test this.
But as usual as every time you get a piece of new telescope equipment, the weather gets messy. Clouds everywhere…
