Seeing it was going to be easy as there are lots of cheapish eclipse glasses out there. I ended up picking up a pair of Baader Solar Eclipse Observing Glasses which are now sitting in my Astronomy cupboard. I have already tested them and they worked wonderfully although I wasn't able to make out any sunspots but I suspect they would need to be rather large for me to properly notice them.
However, imaging it was a different story entirely as there doesn't appear to be any official DSLR filters made to do this. I therefore had to get all DIY which filled me with dread but luckily there was a guide I found on Astronomy Log. So my first job was to pick up a cheap flower shaped lens hood from ebay which had the 58mm thread required for my Canon 55-250mm Lens.
Then I cut out two lovely rings from some left over cereal box which fit perfectly inside the lens hood. I was lucky that a glass I found in my cupboard fit perfectly into the lens hood which ensure I could use it to draw a template in the cardboard.
Next on this rather exciting building mission was some Baader AstroSolar Safety Film ND 5.0 which was the most expensive part of the entire operation. I cut off some of the film so that it was the right size for the rings I had made and then came the tricky part. I placed squares of double sided tape around the cardboard rings and dropped one on them onto the solar film. I then stuck the other cardboard ring on the other side of it to create a lovely basic filter.
The final task was to use more double sided tape to stick the ring onto the hood.
All in all a relatively easy job and I have plenty of Solar Film available to create a filter for my telescope as well if I wish.
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