How to Photograph the Sun With a Smart Telescope (Safely)

The Sun is the one target you can image from the middle of a city at lunchtime, and most smart telescopes come ready for it. Sunspots change from day to day, so it’s also one of the few targets that rewards checking in often. But the Sun is also the only target that can wreck your equipment or your eyesight in a moment. Safety comes first in this guide, then which scopes are ready out of the box, a step-by-step workflow and what you’ll realistically see.

This is a research-based guide: we haven’t tested these telescopes ourselves. Safety guidance comes from NASA and the American Astronomical Society (AAS), and results come from named reviews. Prices are US Amazon prices on November 12, 2026; check today’s price before you buy.

Safety first: the rules that don’t bend

NASA’s eclipse safety page is blunt: looking at the Sun through a telescope without a special-purpose solar filter over the front of the optics will instantly cause severe eye injury. You don’t look through most smart telescopes, but the same concentrated sunlight can cook a sensor, and anyone glancing along or into the scope is at risk.

The AAS guidance on filters for optics adds the key detail: the filter must be attached to the front of the telescope, and solar filters that fit at the eyepiece end are dangerous. That’s why every smart-telescope solar filter covers the objective lens.

Eclipse glasses are a different product. The AAS explains that ISO 12312-2 covers filters for viewing the Sun directly with your eyes, not filters for the front of a telescope. Use glasses to look at the Sun yourself while the telescope images it, and never hold them over any optics.

A few habits to build:

• Inspect the filter every time. Look for scratches, pinholes or creases in the film. Don’t use a damaged filter.
• Never leave it unattended. Wind, kids or pets can knock a filter loose.
• Cap or cover the finder. On traditional telescopes, any finder scope needs its own filter or a cap.

Which scopes are ready for the Sun

ZWO and DWARFLAB are the easy choice: every current Seestar and Dwarf ships with a solar filter. Live Science rated the Dwarf Mini’s solar and lunar imaging excellent, even though it found planets disappointing.

Vaonis sells a solar filter separately for the Vespera II, 3 and Pro 2. Unistellar sells its Smart Solar Filter separately; BBC Sky at Night notes the Odyssey Pro’s solar filter is held on by magnets.

Celestron’s Origin Mark II has no solar option. Celestron doesn’t offer solar imaging for it, so don’t improvise a filter.

Step by step: your first solar session

1. Fit the filter indoors. Attach the solar filter before you power on or carry the scope outside, so it’s never aimed skyward uncovered. Check it’s seated firmly all the way around.
2. Set up in the shade if you can. Level the tripod and start the app as usual. Keep the scope pointed away from the Sun until the filter is confirmed.
3. Choose the Sun in the app. Select the Sun as your target and let the scope slew. Follow your app’s own solar instructions where it gives them.
4. Focus on a sunspot or the edge. Autofocus usually needs contrast. A sunspot group or the sharp limb of the disc gives it something to lock onto. If there are no spots, focus on the limb.
5. Keep exposures short. Even through a filter, the Sun is bright. Let the app set exposure, and if you adjust manually, lower it until the disc isn’t washed out and spots show dark cores.
6. Capture a few frames, not a long stack. The Sun doesn’t need long integration. Save several images and keep the sharpest.
7. Pack up in reverse. Point away from the Sun, power down, and only then remove the filter indoors.

What you’ll actually see

A white-light filter shows the photosphere, the Sun’s visible surface. Expect:

• Sunspots, often in groups with darker cores (umbrae) and lighter surroundings (penumbrae). They change from day to day as the Sun rotates.
• Limb darkening, the disc fading toward its edge.
• Brighter patches near the limb on good days.

Prominences and flares are not visible in white light. The red loops in many ads come from hydrogen-alpha solar telescopes, which are different instruments. Size isn’t a problem: the Sun is about 32 arcminutes across, so the whole disc fits comfortably in the frame of every 30–50 mm smart scope here. On the Seestar S50 Pro it spans roughly 800 pixels. You can check framing in the field-of-view calculator.

A traditional alternative: the StarSense DX 130AZ

If you’d rather look at the Sun live through an eyepiece, the Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ (about $500) plus Celestron’s EclipSmart solar filter for 127 mm and 130 mm reflectors (about $23) is a capable white-light setup. Celestron markets the filter as ISO 12312-2 compliant and lists it for select 127 mm and 130 mm telescopes, so measure your tube’s outer diameter first. Cover or remove the finder before pointing at the Sun. Check the DX 130AZ price.

The universal EclipSmart filter in that table covers 75–100 mm objectives, which is too big for 30–50 mm smart scopes; use the maker’s own filter on those. The Thousand Oaks film sheet is only for confident DIYers who can build a tight-fitting cell.

Eclipse notes

A solar eclipse is one of the best reasons to own a smart telescope with a solar filter: the scope tracks the Sun automatically, and you can capture the Moon’s bite growing and shrinking across the partial phases.

• Keep the filter on. The simplest safe rule for a smart telescope is to leave the filter on for the whole event. Removing it at the wrong moment risks the sensor, and you can’t make that mistake if it stays on.
• Practice beforehand. Run a full solar session on an ordinary day so you know your app’s steps.
• Bring glasses for people. Hand out ISO 12312-2 glasses so everyone can watch with their own eyes while the scope does the imaging.
• Bring power. Eclipses last hours. A USB-C power bank keeps 30–50 mm scopes running; check your manual for supported input.

Our picks for solar imaging

• Seestar S50 Pro (about $999): solar filter in the box and the most aperture among the Seestars. Check the price.
• Dwarf 3 (about $549): magnetic solar filter included, 4K sensor and daytime wildlife use. Check the price.
• Seestar S30 Pro (about $664): 1.65 kg, so it travels to an eclipse easily.

How we chose

We checked each of the 15 telescopes we track for whether a solar filter is included, optional or unavailable, using maker pages and named reviews, and matched solar accessories to the scopes their listings confirm. Safety guidance comes from NASA and the AAS. Our full process is on how we research. For more on filters in general, read best filters for smart telescopes, and if you’re still choosing a first scope, see the best smart telescope for beginners.