4"x4" Solar Filter Sheet for Telescopes, Binoculars and Cameras

Full disclosure: First solar eclipse photo op for me! I have multiple total, and partial, lunar eclipses in my experience base but no solar chops! Until now. The Thousand Oaks Optical brand solar filter is quite economical, if you're on a tight budget, or just frugal by nature. And there's also the argument against buying an optical glass, dedicated size, filter for one lens or telescope aperture! The T.O.O. filter is metallized Mylar film, not glass! You can buy the size for the largest lens or telescope you own and then adapt it to smaller lens sizes as needed, with a bit of additional fabrication. I adapted the 4" X 4" filter to fit the sunshade of a 70-300mm zoom lens, which I could fit on, or remove as needed. I fabricated a filter mount from white card stock and Scotch Magic Tape. As such, the fit was secure enough to not need any additional support. If it was really windy, a few pieces of Magic Tape would have secured it to the sunshade! I made some test exposures well before the event started and dialed in a starting exposure and captured the image in pic 1. Sunspots are visible in the center and left of center. Cloud cover interrupted the rest of the event, and pics 2 and 3 are marred by wispy clouds moving across the frame. As my location was several hundred miles east of totality, the eclipse was a partial for me. I was happy to have caught what I did and gained some experience from it too. The filter performed exactly as presented! Please note: The filter can be used, as delivered, by simply folding and taping the corners to whatever optical device you plan to use. However, there's a risk of leaving a gap through which sunlight can pass, causing damage to the eye or optical gear! There are a number of sites online dedicated to amateur telescope making that have information on fabricating and adapting all sorts of gadgets and accessories for astronomy Do it right, you only have one pair of eyes. Safe viewing and clear skies!! Hope this helps

First off, the solar filter I got was very obviously from thousand oaks as it was written on the cardboard. So do not fear you will get an off brand as some reviews have mentioned. Works perfectly, I put it on my scope's lense cap then tested it with my phone before daring to use my eye. First light was only 40 times magnification and no apparent sunspots could be seen. Sun was yellow and looked like, well, the sun. When I went to 100 times magnification I found a very prominent sunspot, and watched it for a while. Very awesome thing to have as now I can use my scope in the daytime more. Please, as stated a million times, make sure it is properly working before you put your eye up to it. I do 5 checks before using it, some twice. Check for damage, tape is coming off, finger prints or oil, moisture damage, front and back, then firmness fitting so the wind can't blow it off (I have mine on my scoped cap so I added felt to the cap to make it fit snuggly and it is now very hard to take off which is perfect). Great product, clean views from what I can tell. Using it on a skywatcher 100ED Pro, very amazing. Can't say about use with reflectors yet as my 12 inch reflector is black and I worry it would never get to correct temp with the front capped. For my refractor it works perfectly. Thank you thousand oaks.

I bought this small sheet of solar film 6 months before the 2024 eclipse to be sure I’d have it on hand and not have to overpay or run into shortages. Then I spent about an hour trying to find the tiny cardboard envelope among all my camera accessories… But I found it in time and assembled a filter to attach to my Canon 100-400mm lens. I trimmed about 1/2 inch off of one side so that it would slide into my screw-on filter holder and secured it to the lens with a bit of painter’s tape so that it wouldn’t slip out of the holder. It worked perfectly, and I was able to capture sharp, stunning images of the partial eclipse (I wasn’t in the path of totality). I saved the film as well as my solar eyeglasses so I’ll be able to enjoy the next eclipse - even if I have to travel to witness it !

I used these to make filters for my binoculars for the April 8 2024 eclipse. Overall they worked OK (glad I had them), but not great. I knocked off one star because they were a little darker than I expected, and one star because they are so fragile. The fragility I could have prepared for, but the listing has so little info I was not aware until they were scratched enough to affect image quality. You might consider this user error, but considering that probably most people are like me using this for a specific event that you don't get a second chance at, I feel like this really should be stated clearly up front and I would have been OK with it. Regarding darkness, with my 10x42 binoculars, it looked good but noticeably (but not enough to matter much) darker than looking at the sun through solar glasses without magnification. With my 7x35's, it was quite a bit darker, making it not much easier to see more detail than through solar glasses without magnification. It may be that these are intended for higher quality devices but these are what I use for birding without issues. Regarding scratching, I cut out circles of this material and glued them into 4 frames I 3d printed to fit on 2 pairs of binoculars. Once they were complete, I put them in a small box to protect them, but in the box they could move around a tiny bit. Shortly before C1, I put them on my binoculars and left them on until totality. I was pretty careful with my binoculars like I usually am, but I would do things like put them in my lap or on a table on top of some clothes where the could run against clothes. Around the time totally ended, they were so scratched that the image quality was reduced to the point that I could no longer see any more details with binoculars than without. Over all, I got some good views of the eclipse before totality with them, and they weren't very useful after totality due to the scratches.

Grate sun filter thank you.

ボール紙で枠を作ってそれをCokin フィルターアクセサリーのフィルターアダプターに装着して使用してます。使い心地は結構良いと思います。

Excellent 👌 Thank you

The item is a small sheet of solar film normally used for viewing the sun. The sheet I recieved came within two weeks of ordering. Other suppliers of these type of products seems to have problems filling orders due to the short time left before the next expected solar eclipse. The film was well packed and came in percect shape. The product appeared to be of very good quality and should work well for its intended purpose.

８センチと５センチの望遠鏡用に購入しました。主鏡フードに段ボールで加工して取り付けました。安価で良い商品です。

I used this to make a solar filter for my telescope. Its dimensions were accurate, so it slotted right into the 3D printed mount I had designed, and it worked perfectly. I got a number of great photos of the eclipse, as well as of sunspots and other solar phenomenon.