Ok Captain Safety hat on for a second...



I initially started this as a "waaah! dont do that!" post but I've done some digging and thought you might be interested.



According to NASA



"More recently, solar observers have used floppy disks and compact disks (both CDs and CD-ROMs) as protective filters by covering the central openings and looking through the disk media. However, the optical quality of the solar image formed by a floppy disk or CD is relatively poor compared to mylar or welder's glass. Some CDs are made with very thin aluminum coatings which are not safe - if you can see through the CD in normal room lighting, don't use it!!"



It goes on to say you should never use a filter like this in conjunction with an optical device ie a camera. I'd say I wouldnt use it with a camera where you actually look through the lens ie a digital SLR - but with a cheap digital camera all you're risking is the camera itself.



Actually you could use almost the same design and replace the cd's with a sheet of "baader solar film" it will work even better. The film comes in A4 sheets and costs £20 (sorry not sure about US costs). Or buy a pair of eclipse specs and carefully cut the film out. Less frugal but a single A4 sheet would make half a dozen filters.



Sorry - hat removed !!



T



:D