Can I take pictures of the sun without damaging anything? [closed]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Can the sun damage the camera sensor? Under what conditions?

.. and by that I mean not damaging :

• my eyesight
• my camera
• my lens

I imagine a proper ND filter could allow me but I'm not sure

Answer

A large number of people, both amateurs and professionals, photograph and optically observe the sun regularly. The filters required are well known - a search on 'solar photography' will turn up many references.

Be aware that if you get it wrong you can destroy your eyes or your equipment in moments.
Looking directly at the sun will rapidly damage your eyes.
Looking at the sun through a concentrating lens system allows it to happen quicker, or very much quicker ;-(.

Full daylight is nominally 100,000 lux.
A modern LCD screen on full brightness is typically 300 lux at the panel surface. 100,000/ 300 =~ 3000:1. In practice a 400:1 ND filter will do what you want.

For example, Hoya makes an NDx400 ND filter that is intended for solar photography as well as other applications.

Resulting in -

Above images from here

---

These images are all hot liked to websites. Identify ones which appear liable to be of direct relevance and click the photos to open the link. (Obtained using Google search + images).

Check more discussion of this question.