In article , Joe S. wrote:
I have two scopes -- ETX-90 GOTO and XT-8 Dob. I have an Orion solar filter
for each scope -- these are described in the Orion catalog as "full-aperture
glass solar filter."

Today I tried viewing the sun with the ETX-90. I set up and aligned the
scope, put the end caps on the finder scope and put the solar filter on the
scope. Then, I found the sun in the Autostar controller (it's listed under
"Asteroids") and told the scope to GOTO. It did -- but -- looking through
the scope, I could not see anything -- tried focusing back and forth but
really could not tell that I was seeing anything.

As others have said, you can get the filter-equipped 'scope
pointed approximately at the sun, maybe by adjusting until its
shadow is smallest.

But if the sun's disk isn't in the eyepiece,
it's easier to find the sun if you *remove* the eyepiece
(leaving the filter in place of course), look into the
eyepiece tube from a few inches away, and maybe sweep the scope around a bit.
You won't get much of an image, but you'll get a wider field,
and should be able to see that the sun is there if you pass near it.
Then center it and re-insert the eyepiece.

What am I looking for?

In the filter-but-no-eyepiece case, just seeing any sort of glow
which moves when you move the telescope probably means you've
found the sun.

Once you have the eyepiece in, it'll depend on the magnification.
At low power you'll see a whole round disk (possibly very
blurred if it's far out of focus). At higher power,
the sun could easily be larger than your field of view,
so you might see just a featureless glow filling the field.
If so, sweep the 'scope a bit to try to catch the edge of the glow,
and twiddle the focus until you see a sharp edge.