Sol Searcher

I had previously written about having problems finding the sun with my telescope while using a finder scope called the Sol Searcher.  I resorted to removing the Sol Searcher and going back to using my homemade solar finder scope instead.  My homemade solar finder scope works very well (pictured at right with the bullseye on the back end of it) but, when I'm using more than one telescope for solar astronomy, it is best to have a finder scope for each telescope.  I was hoping this little, lightweight Sol Searcher finder scope would be the ideal solution but I was quite disappointed until the other day.  

When viewing the sun, your body is situated at the rear end of the telescope where the eyepiece is located.  You would naturally want to also view the solar finder scope from this position as well and that is what I was doing.  The problem is that when you are back behind the Sol Searcher finder scope, you cannot see where the sun is on the Sol Searcher until you are dead center positioned on the sun.  This is pointless because you can do the same without the finder scope by just looking through the eyepiece and that is very difficult at best.  You need to be able to see where the sun is positioned in relation to where the telescope is pointed in order to know which direction to move the telescope as well as how far to move the telescope.  

My own homemade finder scope has a large translucent bullseye on the rear end of the finder scope (bright dot on yellow translucent screen as seen in the top photo).  I can see the sun even when my telescope is not pointed at the sun.  As I get closer to positioning the telescope to view the sun, the bright dot approaches the center of this translucent bullseye.  This large translucent target area makes it abundantly easy to point the telescope directly at the sun.  

The other day, it dawned on me to try viewing the Sol Searcher from the sky-side of the telescope instead of from the rear of the telescope at the eyepiece.  When I am positioned on the sky-side of the telescope, I can see the front side of the rear target plate which is not at all visible from the rear end of the telescope at the eyepiece.  Since this rear target plate is not translucent, I cannot see the sun on this plate from the eyepiece end of the telescope.  If I get up away from the eyepiece and move toward the front end of the telescope, I can see the bright dot of the sun on the front side of this rear target plate.  This allows me to accurately point the telescope directly at the sun.  Now, this Sol Searcher finder scope was working for me!

The only disadvantage compared to using my own homemade solar finder scope is that I need to move away from the eyepiece to use this Sol Searcher finder scope but it now effectively helps me find the sun in my telescope view.  Ideally, this Sol Searcher should have a far larger translucent back plate with a bullseye similar to my own homemade finder scope.  Having to move around to the other side of the telescope isn't nearly as bad as not being able to find the sun though.

At this point, I'm feeling pretty stupid for not realizing I could use this finder scope this way before now.