One other thing. Before each use, hold the filter up to a strong light and look for tears or holes.
This includes when you build it although the chance of a hole in new film is very slim as they coat both sides of the film to avoid even pin holes.
Also when sighting the scope for solar viewing do not use your spotting scope in fact put the covers on it to be safe.
I mount the filter on the scope and then view through the lens mount to get the sun into view since you will be looking through the solar film. It seems odd but that's the easiest way to get it in view.

I have been making and using Baader solar film filters for all my lenses including the new 11"

http://www.astro-physics.com/index.htm?products/accessories/solar_acc/astrosolar

This site usually has decent deals on large sheets.

This was shot with this film. Granted its my 77mm Canon but I get just as nice of results with my 8". If the clouds ever let up I will try the 11" out and post some of those.
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-234341-1.html
Yes a filter is a must when imaging the sun.
Be safe.

Wow, Craig, that's a loaded question.

I almost always try the NR in ACR to see if it will make do what I want it to do.
A lot of the time, it works fine and I'm done. Sometimes it is just a start, others it softens more than it reduces noise (not often though).

When I need additional NR once I'm in PS, I will often try the NR first, to see which direction I'm going to go. I take a snapshot of that (or them), then proceed to do whatever I wanted to do on the image. After I get it the way I think I want it, I'll then use whichever NR technique I previously thought would work the best.
Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.
If it doesn't, I'll try one of the other techniques.
Then save the PSD, and finish for whatever output I'm looking for saved as a JPEG.

I hope I made sense :-)

I'm guilty of reading LONG exposure NR into this thread :oops:

I'm guessing that's because High ISO and long exposures go hand in hand for me.

It's not that often I need to crank my ISO for anything but astro photography.

I going to try the high ISO NR on the next new moon :-D

GT