telescopes plus
Solar Filters: Which Is Best?
With sunspot maximum coming soon, we tested five leading telescopic solar filters
for their sharpness and clarity of view.
Telescopic sunscreens. From left: Thousand Oaks Type 2, Thousand Oaks Polymer Plus, Thousand Oaks Type 2+, Orion, and Tuthill Solar Skreen.
I
t’s a great time to be a Sun ob-
server; the center of the solar system
has begun to rock ’n’ roll. Two or
three years ago the Sun was often
completely spotless, but now our back-
yard star has become rich with telescopic
detail as it heads toward a solar-activity
maximum predicted for early 2000.
Complex, elongated sunspot groups
greet solar observers almost daily. Most
spot groups are full of intricate detail that
changes from day to day or even, if you
watch carefully, from hour to hour. When
a spot group is near the Sun’s limb, the
magnetically active region around it often
appears enlivened by bright faculae (hot,
extraluminous patches). A guide to ob-
serving these and other solar features is
in last month’s issue, page 122.
By Alan M. MacRobert
S&T / CRAIG MICHAEL UTTER
For most people, the ticket to the world word-of-mouth reputation as coming in
of Sun watching is a good visual filter. second to thin Mylar films, which shimmer
True, you can use a telescope to project and billow in the breeze. What would a
an image of the Sun onto a piece of paper side-by-side comparison show?
and view the paper. But for To find out, Sky & Telescope
S&T TEST REPORT
those who want to see the purchased five leading tele-
sharpest detail with the least complica- scopic Sun filters intended for visual use.
tion, direct viewing through a filter is the
way to go. The Products
There’s only one right way to use a tele- Thousand Oaks Optical sells two visual
scopic solar filter: attach it to cover the filters made of glass with a metal coating
telescope’s front, where it will keep all but on one side, called Type 2 and Type 2+.
a tiny fraction of the Sun’s light and heat The “+” refers to a steel alloy added to the
out of the instrument. coating, at extra cost, that the manufac-
Several very different filters designed for turer says improves durability.
this use are on the market today. Which is Orion Telescopes & Binoculars also sells
best? A mirrorlike glass filter might seem a glass filter coated with metal on one side.
like a better product than its wrinkly It is manufactured by J. M. B. Inc., which
plastic competitors, but glass filters have a retails the same item under the name
©1999 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Sky & Telescope July 1999 63
telescopes plus
Identi-View Class A Solar Filter. J. M. B.
says the Class A includes a durability-
enhancing steel additive (which its Class
B filter does not).
Roger W. Tuthill Inc. has long sold filters
made of thin, aluminized Mylar under the
name Solar Skreen. This is the same Solar
Skreen sold by Celestron International.
Thousand Oaks recently added a plas-
tic-film product of its own, Polymer
Plus. Both Solar Skreen and Polymer
Plus use two metal coatings on separate
surfaces so that any scratches or pinholes
in one layer are blocked by the other.
We bought all five anonymously with
no indication that the samples would be
reviewed. In each case we chose a 4-inch-
aperture filter mounted in a cell designed
to fit onto the front of a telescope.
All arrived clean and in fine shape.
None had visible flaws or significant pin-
holes. The instructions from both Thou-
sand Oaks and Orion note that if you do
see pinholes in a glass filter, you can dab
them out on the coated side of the glass
with paint or typewriter correction fluid;
a toothpick is the traditional tool to
apply it with. The tiny dots of paint will
not affect performance. Dotting out pin-
holes was once standard procedure for
solar-filter buyers, but judging by our
samples, coating techniques have appar-
ently improved to the point where this
practice may be a thing of the past.
You should, of course, check for any
serious flaws that might pass enough
light to injure your eyes. The coatings are
delicate and will damage easily if not
treated with care.
The cheap look of the wrinkly Mylar
and polymer-plastic filters might discon-
cert anyone who doesn’t know what to
expect, as a flyer in the Tuthill box prac-
tically screamed: “STOP STOP DO NOT
DEPRIVE YOURSELF of the pleasure of
seeing sunspots by rejecting this Solar
Skreen filter out of hand because of its
appearance. You are buying a filter to
look through not at.” As the flyer warns, a
plastic-film solar filter should never be
pulled tight to make it look nice and
smooth. Stretching will spoil its optical
quality and may also open swarms of
microscopic cracks in the metal coatings,
letting in light that will degrade contrast
and could even, in an extreme case, harm
your eyes. The plastic should remain re-
laxed and a little billowy.
The Views
The clear apertures of the five filters dif-
fered slightly, so I stopped them down to
identical apertures of 94 millimeters. My

Telescopic Solar Filters

Orion solar filter Tuthill Solar Skreen Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks
(Identi-View Class A) (Celestron Solar Skreen) Polymer Plus Type 2+ Type 2

Sun color

Material Metallized glass1 Aluminized Mylar Metallized black Metallized glass1 Metallized glass
polymer plastic
Sharpness of Excellent Excellent Very Good Excellent Very Good
solar views
Price2 for approx. $69.95 $75.00 $59.00 $79.00 $69.00
4-in. aperture, mounted
Available from: Orion Telescopes & Roger W. Tuthill, Inc. Thousand Oaks Optical Thousand Oaks Optical Thousand Oaks Optical
Binoculars 11 Tanglewood Lane P.O. Box 4813 (see left) (see left)
P.O. Box 1815 Mountainside, NJ 07092 Thousand Oaks, CA 91359
Santa Cruz, CA 95061 800 -223-1063 800 -996-9111
800-447-1001 www.tuthillscopes.com www.thousandoaksoptical
www.telescope.com .com

J.M.B. Inc. Celestron dealers

20762 Richard
Trenton, MI 48183
734-675-3490

1
Coating includes additional steel alloy for greater claimed durability.
2
Plus shipping, in most cases.

64 July 1999 Sky & Telescope ©1999 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
test instrument was a 12.5-inch f/6 equato-
rial reflector with an excellent, smooth pri-
mary mirror. I mounted four of the filters
at a time in a cardboard mask over the
front of the telescope, positioning them
between the scope’s four spider vanes. In
front of the mask I put a rotating card-
board sector to cover all but one filter at a
time. I could turn the sector to switch from
one filter to another while watching the
Sun in the eyepiece, making comparisons
easy. In effect, I had four top-notch 94-mm
f/20 unobstructed reflectors feeding the
same eyepiece with the turn of a dial!
The most obvious difference among
the filters is the color they show the Sun.

S&T / CRAIG MICHAEL UTTER

The Thousand Oaks Types 2 and 2+ give
a yellow-orange image, as illustrated on
the facing page. Solar Skreen turns the
Sun pale blue. The Thousand Oaks Poly-
mer Plus and Orion (Identi-View Class
A) filters show the Sun a more natural
pale yellow or pale orange.
At first look using a magnification of
75×, all the filters offered sharp, contrasty
views during brief spells of good atmos-
pheric seeing. They showed lots of tiny
detail in sunspot groups, glimpses of struc-
ture in the penumbrae of the largest spots,
bright faculae near the limb, and signs of
granulation across the Sun’s surface.
But with repeated comparisons, subtle
differences emerged. The consistently
sharpest views were through the Solar
Skreen, Thousand Oaks Type 2+, and Ori-
on filters. The Thousand Oaks Polymer
Plus and Type 2 filters tested did a little less
well. According to Pat Steele of Thousand
Oaks, the Type 2 and 2+ use identical glass,
so the difference between these two was
apparently a random sample variation.
Different filters did better on different
solar phenomena. Bright faculae were
plainly the easiest to see in the blue Solar
Skreen image. So was granulation on the
disk. This makes sense; faculae and the
bright convection cells of granulation are
hotter and thus bluer than the surround-
ing solar surface. A blue filter should
therefore heighten their contrast, and an
orange filter should tend to suppress it. In
fact, Jeff Medkeff, author of last month’s
With repeated comparisons, subtle differences emerged. The consis-
tently sharpest views were through the Solar Skreen, Thousand Oaks
Type 2+, and Orion filters. The Thousand Oaks Polymer Plus and Type 2
filters tested did a little less well.
Our main test setup. Four filters at a time (stopped down
slightly to the same aperture) were mounted off-axis on the
author’s 12.5-inch f/6 reflector. By turning a cardboard sector,
he could switch the view from one filter to another.
Sun-observing guide, has noted just this haze; this haze also seemed to affect
effect using an orange eyepiece filter with sunspots slightly.
Solar Skreen. Through Solar Skreen, the sky around
On the other hand, Medkeff has report- the Sun was bright with scattered blue
ed seeing detail in sunspot penumbrae light. The Sun’s edge was sharp, however,
better through an orange glass solar filter and the scattered light had surprisingly
than through blue Mylar. This was not my little effect on the visibility of fine detail.
experience. A close examination revealed that the
The five filters showed wide differ- light scattered across the view in the plastic
ences in their amounts of scattered light. filters results from sunlight reflecting back
The glass filters scattered the least; they and forth between the two metal coatings,
showed a sharp-edged Sun on a black an issue that doesn’t arise with the single-
sky. Next came Polymer Plus, showing a layer glass filters.
very dim, bronze-colored glow all across All five products claim to pass about
the field away from the Sun’s edge. More- 1
⁄100,000 of visible light (photographic density
over, the Sun’s edge itself was very nar- 5). The industry seems to have standard-
rowly rimmed by a trace of yellow-green ized on this nice round number, but I
would have preferred a slightly brighter
image than any of the filters yielded with a
4-inch aperture. The view was adequately
bright at 75× (that is, with an eyepiece exit
pupil diameter of 1.3 mm), but at 110×
the images were so dim that I had to drape
a towel over my head and the eyepiece to
block out the surrounding daylight.
Solar Skreen, Polymer Plus, and Type

©1999 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Sky & Telescope July 1999 65
 2+ gave the brightest images; the Type 2
and Orion were dimmest. According to
Thousand Oaks, the brightness difference
between the Type 2 and 2+ was a random
variation; they are meant to be the same.
Sky & Telescope associate editor Gary
Seronik and I later tested the filters on his
3.5-inch Questar Maksutov telescope. We
both reached the same judgments as I had
using the 12.5-inch reflector. Again, the
differences in optical quality among the
filters were subtle.
The Cells
All the manufacturers offer filters mounted
in a wide variety of cell sizes. Many of
these are designed to fit specific telescope
makes and models. When ordering be
sure to specify your telescope, or at least
the exact outside diameter of the end of
its tube, to ensure the best fit. If the cell
fits poorly you’ll have to rig a fitting of
your own, such as by lining the cell’s in-
side edge with thick felt or foam tape. A
good fit is crucial! If too loose, a solar fil-
ter might fall off or blow off in the wind,
with potentially disastrous consequences
to your eye.
The Orion filter came in a cell lined
on the inside with black foam 3 milli-
meters thick. Four foam stick-on pads
were supplied in addition. The Thousand
Oaks filters came in bare, unlined alu-
minum cells; you have to supply your
own padding if the fit is not precise. (As
Thousand Oaks warns, too tight a fit can
also be a problem, putting stress on the

More Magnification for Observing

R
eaders are certainly familiar with the recent cure eyepieces. The barrel is threaded to accept standard 11⁄4-
dramatic growth in telescopes with short focal ratios, inch filters, and the 5× Powermate’s interior, including the
both apochromatic refractors and Newtonian reflectors. edges of the lenses, is blackened to reduce scattered light.
To achieve a magnification of 30 × to 50× per inch of aperture, I tested the 5× Powermate on my 6-inch f/7 apochromatic re-
considered ideal for detailed lunar and planetary fractor with a 20-mm Plössl eyepiece. This combina-
S&T TEST REPORT
observing or for resolving double stars, these instru- tion yielded 45× per inch of aperture and comfortable
ments require either an impracticably short-focus eyepiece or a eye relief. With a double star centered in the field, sharply defined,
Barlow lens. The Barlow is often preferred since, for a given color-free Airy diffraction disks were readily seen, indicating good
magnification, the eye relief will be longer, making the viewing optics. As the stars were shifted back and forth across the field,
more comfortable. their appearance did not change. The images remained sharp
Because they work by increasing a telescope’s effective focal right to the edge of the view. Next, I placed the limb of the al-
ratio, Barlows also improve the performance of
By George East most-full Moon near the edge of the field. Although
older eyepieces designed in the days when f/8 and this is a severe test for lateral color, the limb appeared
longer focal ratios were the norm. Barlows typically consisted sharp and free of color. I tried several eyepieces; all did well.
of a two-element negative lens that amplified 2× to 3×. Never- Since the 5× Powermate slides into an eyepiece holder only
theless, as such they would still require a rather short-focus as far as a typical 11⁄4-inch eyepiece, it works well with star diag-
eyepiece to achieve a high magnification with today’s short- onals. Another commendable convenience is that it is parfocal.
focus telescopes. Enter the Tele Vue 5× Powermate. I checked this by focusing the telescope with an eyepiece in the
The 5× Powermate features a four-element design with two 5× Powermate, then removing the Powermate and using the
doublets: a negative pair to increase the effective focal length of eyepiece alone. Without my touching the focus, the images
the telescope and a positive pair to minimize vignetting and were sharp. This worked with all the Tele Vue eyepieces I tried,
aberrations that typically arise when one tries to squeeze too but not with some eyepieces by other manufacturers.
much magnification out of a traditional Barlow. Indeed, Tele While many observers know that a Barlow maintains a given
Vue’s design is enough of a departure from a traditional Barlow eyepiece’s eye relief, it is less common knowledge that it actual-
that company founder Al Nagler skirts the issue of calling the ly increases the eye relief of long-focal-length eyepieces. Thus, it
Powermate a Barlow at all, terming it instead “a compact am- can be difficult to position your eye properly when a Barlow is
plifying lens system.” coupled to such eyepieces. The problem is compound-
Like all Tele Vue prod- ed when you are viewing a bright object like the
ucts, the 5× Powermate is Moon — the eye’s pupil contracts. I discovered this
solidly built and well fin- phenomenon when I tried lunar observing with a 32-
ished. It has a chromed 11⁄4- mm eyepiece and the 5× Powermate. In practice, the
inch barrel and black-an- magnification of this combination (28× per inch of
odized drawtube with a aperture) doesn’t require the extreme amplification of
captive thumbscrew to se- the 5× Powermate; a shorter-focal-length eyepiece
coupled with a traditional-power Barlow would be a
Tele Vue 5× Powermate better combination.
The 5× Powermate is an ideal approach to achiev-
5× “Barlow” system
ing high magnification with today’s short-focal-length
Street Price: about $168.00 telescopes. It offers magnification and good eye relief
Tele Vue with no noticeable image degradation.
100 Route 59
Suffern, NY 10901 Telescope maker, astrophotographer, and long-time amateur
Phone: 914-357-9522 astronomer George East often reviews products for Sky &
www.televue.com Telescope.

66 July 1999 Sky & Telescope ©1999 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
glass. The Tuthill Solar Skreen came in a
homemade-looking cell of plastic plumb-
ing-type fittings. It had three nylon
screws for clamping the filter onto the
end of a telescope; the screws have big
heads for easy manipulation.
Tuthill advertises Solar Skreen un-
mounted for those who prefer to make
their own cells in custom sizes or to save
money. Thousand Oaks can also supply
unmounted filters if asked. Orion stocks
filters only in cells.
The Bottom Line
If you’re looking for the very sharpest
images of sunspots, my experience was
that the Solar Skreen, Orion (i.e., Identi-
View Class A), and Thousand Oaks Type
2+ filters were indistinguishably excel-
lent. If you want the clearest views of
faculae, Solar Skreen comes out on top.
The runners-up, the Polymer Plus and
Type 2 filters, still did a very good job.
The differences in sharpness were subtle
and usually overwhelmed by the notori-
ously poor daytime atmospheric seeing.
If you plan to show the Sun to lots of
people and don’t want to have to keep
explaining why it has an unusual color,
the Orion/ Identi-View and Thousand
Oaks Polymer Plus portray the Sun the
most realistically. The blue cast of the
Solar Skreen image does look odd until
you get used to it.
The good news is that any of these fil-
ters will show a wealth of detail on the
active solar disk.

Less Magnification for Photography

W
hen I reviewed Tele Vue’s 85-millimeter apo-
chromatic refractor in last September’s issue (page
59), I noted that astrophotographers planning to do
serious work with the instrument needed the optional field flat-
tener. Now the company has developed
S&T TEST REPORT
an even better photographic accessory
for this telescope and its sibling the Pronto refractor.
The 0.8× Reducer/Flattener is a three-element lens that turns
the 600-mm f/7 optics of the Tele Vue 85 into a 480-mm f/5.6
system that is highly corrected for astrophotography with 35-
mm cameras. The Pronto’s 480-mm f/6.8 optics become a 384-
mm f/5.4 system. The 0.8× Reducer/Flattener is strictly for
photographic use and will not work with visual accessories. It
is threaded for standard 48-mm filters.
By Chris Cook The lens flattens the telescope’s field,
yielding more uniform focus across the film plane. It also min-
imizes vignetting of the 35-mm frame and allows almost a full
f/stop increase in photographic speed. The 0.8× Reducer/Flat-
tener virtually eliminates the secondary color seen on star im-
ages at the corners of frames of photographs made with the
field flattener that I originally tested with the Tele Vue 85.
To test the new system I chose the large, diffuse nebulosity
IC 2177 in the winter Milky Way, where the dense star field
would be a challenge of the new lens’s capabilities.
As the result here clearly shows, the 0.8× Reducer/Flattener per-
forms superbly. Star images are perfectly round to the very corners
of the field, and there is minimal vignetting. A high-magnification
examination of the images reveals little, if any, secondary color
even at the edge of the field. This accessory is a must-have for
someone planning to use the Tele Vue 85 photographically.

Chris Cook does most of his astrophotography from dark sites in the
mountains and deserts of Southern California.

The diffuse nebulosity IC 2177 northeast of Sirius is informally

Tele Vue 0.8× Reducer/Flattener
known among astrophotographers as the Seagull Nebula. This rich
Photographic corrector for Tele Vue 85 and field in the Northern Hemisphere’s winter Milky Way proved a criti-
Pronto refractors cal test of Tele Vue’s new 0.8× Reducer/Flattener with the Tele Vue
Street Price: about $255.00 85 refractor. The 21⁄2°-wide field shows round stars to the very cor-
Tele Vue ners of the image. This full-frame view was made by compositing
100 Route 59 four 30-minute exposures. Cook’s original Kodak Pro 400 PPF nega-
Suffern, NY 10901 tives were scanned at a resolution of 3,048 dots per inch and
Phone: 914-357-9522 blended with Picture Window before being enhanced with Adobe
www.televue.com Photoshop. North is up and east is to the left.

©1999 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Sky & Telescope July 1999 67