Judson,
You sound like you are asking for advice as to how to get started in solar viewing. At the risk of covering stuff you already know:
There are basically two types of solar viewing for us commoners.
One is "White Light" and the other is Hydrogen Alpha.
White light is cutting down the amount of light that is coming into your telescope in the first place. You get to see the whole spectrum of light, but the dangerous rays and the intensity is cut off by a specialized solar filter or projection techniques. The two most common types of solar filters are film or glass. Film is much less expensive. A piece of Astro-Baader solar filter, available through many suppliers on Astromart, and I am sure at Anacortes (although I have not checked) would cost about $30. You can make a holder for it and attach it to the front of your scope (relatively easy to do--but be careful that you do it right....there are directions on the web). Glass filters are also available in various sizes, with one for your scope running in the hundred dollar and more range. (Again, I have not checked.) The Baader film is reputed to be a bit sharper. The color of the sun is a bluish gray. The glass filters usually offer a yellow/orange view that I find more pleasing. (It looks like the sun!!!).
You can also see white light through projection techniques. TO do so, you aim your telescope at the sun, and let the light flow through it, through an eyepiece, and onto a white board of some type (or through a projection screen, or in a variety of other ways). The white board can be attached to your telescope with a "holder" or on a separate easel, wall, or something. One does not see this projection technique too much in the solar viewing world, but it does have its place.....Be very careful of this technique. It can be hard on equipment, and dangerous in a in a public setting because somebody is gonna want to look through the telescope. A person can look through an unfiltered telescope directed at the sun only twice--once with each eye.
Oh, and there is another type of "white Light" solar filter--it is a piece of darkened glass that you put in your focuser--behind an eyepiece. DO NOT USE ONE OF THESE--especially with your large scope! There is a great danger of it heating up and breaking--catastrophically.
The other generally available technique is to use Hydrogen Alpha filters. These come in basically two general types, one using specially built filters involving some kind of electronics and special filters, and the other using "etalon" type of filters. THe etalon variety is what you find in the Coronado (like the PST) and Lunt products, and this is the type that brought Ha viewing to the masses. They function by allowing only a very specific wavelength of light into the eyepiece. They are generally a "system" of an "energy rejection" filter (which gets rid of a lot of the light) and the "etalon system"--which selects for an extrememly narrow band of light. You can buy them as a "solar telescope" which includes the telescope optics, the energy rejection filter, the etalon, and the appropriate diagonal. Or you can buy just the filter and the diagonal to add to an existing telescope. These systems can range into the thousands of dollars and more for larger scopes. The more expensive systems are "double stacked" to allow an even narrower band of light through, and enhance detail.
White light filters will show sunspots, but that is generally it. (And for the last ever so long, there have been none of them!!!) They show a bluish gray to orange color, depending on the brand, model, and so forth. Ha filters show things in a deep red because that is the only color they are allowing through. However, that red is the color of glowing Ha, and that is the stuff that is involved in so many of the interesting solar prominences and such. You should also be able to see detail on the surface of the sun, a granularity to it or the activity on the limb--prominences and so forth--depending on how you tune the etalon.
THere are other etalon based scopes (like those for viewing Calcium, and such), but they are relatively rare, and more expensive.
Old man advice--Go buy a piece of Baader solar filter and stick it on the front of your scope. Then save up for a PST or more advanced (larger) Ha scope. While you are saving up, consider how deeply you want to go into this solar viewing thing. Look thorugh other people's scopes to see the difference in the views, and decide what you want to do with solar viewing.
Alex
