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It may seem simple to point your telescope and easily find the sun. What could be easier? It’s just a giant fireball in the sky, how hard could it be? In reality, it can be difficult since you cannot look through the finder scope. Without some feedback, this can be frustrating.
Thankfully, there are a number of solar finders available. Today I’ll show you how you can print your own with a 3D printer.
Warning – Use A Solar Filter
You cannot under any circumstances point your telescope to the sun without a Solar Filter. If you look at the sun without a solar filter, you can be instantly and permanently blinded. You can Search For Filters or even make your own with a filter sheet. I chose to make a mount for a filter sheet. You can download it here for the 127EQ: filter-holder.FCStd
DIY Solar Finder
In the video above, you will see how I used my simple 3d printed solar finder. It works by using a small hole in the first plate (the one closest to the front of the telescope). The sun shines through this hole and then it must pass through a second hole. Once it’s through the second hole you know you are close. The final stage is to fine tune the suns image on the 3rd plate.
Mounting
My Celestron PowerSeeker has a camera piggy back connector. This accepts a 1/4″ machine screw. Simply attach it to this mount and align the front edge parallel to the mount.
Model File
You can download the stl file here finder-Body.stl. There are no supports needed and it is quick to print. I used PLA with 30% infill.
Images
The sun is fascinating and you can see sun spots quite easily with almost any telescope. I used a simple webcam to take these images using eyepiece projection.
