A visitor, Harold takes a safe look at the sun using safe solar filter methods.

Photo of Harold at HJRO. Harold is a Faac astronomer who has been in astronomy as a hobby since he was six years old. He is over 70 years old, so he's been observing for over 65 years through telescopes. I think it's safe to say, Harold is the Faac club member with the most astronomy observing experience.





Harold is known by some as "the telescope man", he spent about twenty years setting up in front of the Dearborn police station or library. For a dozen of those years he used a telescope called Big Bertha, which is a large ten inch Newtonian telescope.

Harold sold Big Bertha in 2009 to it's third owner(me).

Harold drove up with his wife in a convertible.

I set up my Vixen telescope in the parking lot to show Harold the new mount setup.

Important info - Safe solar viewing:

I have safe solar filters using Baader planetarium astrozap solar film. We only view the sun using safe methods. Baader film, thousand oaks solar filters, Lunt or Coronado solar telescopes are examples of safe solar equipment.

Beware of unsafe methods, even welder glass.

Just this week a visitor mentioned he used number 12 welding goggles to view the Venus transit. We found out this other visitor was not using safe welding glasses. Number 12 welder glasses are not safe.

You can only use number 14 green glass or number 14 with gold coating welder glasses to safely view the sun.

No other number welder glass are safe; numbers 1 through 13 are NOT safe and even some of the number 14 rated welder's glass are not safe.

You are better off using safe and proven solar products available from an Astronomy equipment dealer. Special filters which always fit in front of the telescope are used to safely view the sun. All other methods except solar projection are not safe

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