I need some opinions, re: the Venus Transit

[Heyo]

So.. I want to look at the Venus transit, obviously... if it's clear I'll catch the tail end of it here in south Florida.

I have a telescope, and binoculars... all that I am lacking is some kind of filter...

Enter the shipping department of my job. They have these static bags that they pack electronics in... they are a really dark film, and I notice the mroe layers you stack on the darker it gets..

I thought about expirimenting with a bunch of layers and remove them one at a time until I can see clearly but it's not too bright...

(4 or 5 layers or so seems to black out almost ALL light)

I don't want to burn my retunas out.. but this seems to be some kind of mylar film which is what they make the fileters of anyway.. (it's semi-reflective)..

I could cut that stuff to shape and use it however I wanted to.. it's be pretty sweet.

Heyo

[Don_G]

1. Wouldn't It Be Safer

To take a coat hanger and hang a piece of white cardboard behind the eyepiece to view the transit across the Sun indirectly?

[Kolesar]

2. That's dangerous! Make a pinhole viewer instead.

poke a pinhole in a large piece of cardboard and use it to focus an image of the sun on another, white, piece of cardboard that you hold up a foot or two away.

I saw a drawing for this in the newspaper. I bet you could google up: "pinhole camera" venus sun

edit: go here: http://www.shu.ac.uk/eclipse/observe.html

[Salviati]

3. I would go with the pinhole viewer...

Either that, or a little riskier use layers of the film to look at the sun directly, exposed photographic film also works pretty good for that. I would never try and use binoculars or a telescope, sounds way too risky for me, my eyesight is bad enough already...