I needed to add a Sun finder to my ED80. The concept is dead simple: have a piece of thin material with a tiny hole in it that projects a spot of light onto another surface. Align the scope with the Sun and then mark the location of the spot. That is now your reference point for aligning to the sun. Here’s one you can buy for $30.

I messed around with a couple of ideas before stumbling onto this one. I had some VHS tapes in the garbage bin. I took off the hinged flap from one of the tapes, filed off the pins, drilled a small hole in one of the ears, taped a piece of white paper to the other ear, then taped the whole thing to my scope. The length of the flap just bridges across the mounting rings.

I aligned the scope, then drew crosshairs where the spot of light hit the paper. Done!

Here’s a larger image.