Some new white light gear

[wxsatuser]

Have always wanted to observe the Sun and seeing all the very nice images on the forum, my plastic went

made Sunday and splashed out on a Lunt 2" wedge, an Orion polarizer and a Baader continuum filter.

Ordered the wedge and polarizer from Telescope House and the Baader continuum came via FLO.

Both dealers on the ball as stuff arrived today, excellent guys!

Hope I have done the right thing as this wedge is very heavy but looks extremely well made.

Here is a pic of the gear......ignore the reducer, some how I needed one and the plastic did me again,

thanks to FLO for that as well.

[scoobee]

I use the 1.25" wedge and to be honest cannot fault it. As for the continuum filter it can produce some good results I have been told you can double them up for an extra effect.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I use the 1.25" Lunt wedge and it is great. I use it in my 80mm F/6, and at 480mm focal length the disk of the sun is only 4.19mm in diameter, so 1.25" is enough. Taking the roughly 6cm distance from the focal plane to the wedge into account, you need to add one cm (1/6th of 6cm for an F/6scope) to the spot size on the wedge, which yields 1.42cm or 0.56". The 2" is mainly useful for longer focal length scopes, but works fine in shorter ones. It also allows use of a wider range of EPs, which can make finding the sun easier.

I also have the solar continuum filter, and it gives a nice increase in contrast on the surface.

[Merlin66]

I ended up with the Baader....

On the TS102 with the ND and Continuum filters the views are second to none....

You should get similar performance with the Lunt.....

After so many years with the Baader Solar Film - which is still a very good solution for white light observering, especially on reflectors which can't use the Herschel wedge...the views are even better!!

Long live Sir John Herschel!!

[Mark at Beaufort]

Mike well done on your purchase you are going to enjoy your solar viewing from now on. I bought my 1.25" Lunt Herschel wedge and Baader Continuum filter at the recent astro show at Leamington. I also use a polariser on my 4" APO frac and the views are better than anything that I have experienced before.

Mark

[scoobee]

I use the 1.25" Lunt wedge and it is great. I use it in my 80mm F/6, and at 480mm focal length the disk of the sun is only 4.19mm in diameter, so 1.25" is enough. Taking the roughly 6cm distance from the focal plane to the wedge into account, you need to add one cm (1/6th of 6cm for an F/6scope) to the spot size on the wedge, which yields 1.42cm or 0.56". The 2" is mainly useful for longer focal length scopes, but works fine in shorter ones. It also allows use of a wider range of EPs, which can make finding the sun easier.

I also have the solar continuum filter, and it gives a nice increase in contrast on the surface.

I am not sure on the maths on mine, but at present I am using an ST 102 ( f4.9 ) which produce good single shot images.

As for the future I will be looking for a downsize scope to carry in the boot of my car for the quick imaging session, any suggestions?!

At the moment I have been using an FOV calculator web-page to try and decide

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Incidentally: using the Solar Continuum filter is also great on achromats, because the small bandpass reduces CA almost to zero. I am sometimes tempted to get a large achromat to use for solar white light, and perhaps to double as H-alpha mod donor scope

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I am not sure on the maths on mine, but at present I am using an ST 102 ( f4.9 ) which produce good single shot images.

As for the future I will be looking for a downsize scope to carry in the boot of my car for the quick imaging session, any suggestions?!

At the moment I have been using an FOV calculator web-page to try and decide

On yours the spot size at the image plane is 500mm x sin(0.5^o) = 4.36mm. Given a distance of 10cm from image plane to wedge in the 2" case (rough estimate), and an F/5 scope, the light cone widens out by 100mm / 5 = 20mm, so 24.4mm of the mirror or 0.96" is used when the sun is in the centre. If you do not have a tracking mount, a wider FOV is rather nice of course. Using a 1.25" wedge with its shorter distance from wedge to image plane (6 cm), we would be using 16.4mm roughly (which is still OK).

I think the ST102 would be fine as a portable scope, and would be OK for imaging with the Solar Continuum filter in place. The ST80 springs to mind as a smaller alternative, but that has a 1.25" focuser. The 80ED would be an alternative. Not much lighter than the ST102, I think

[scoobee]

On yours the spot size at the image plane is 500mm x sin(0.5^o) = 4.36mm. Given a distance of 10cm from image plane to wedge in the 2" case (rough estimate), and an F/5 scope, the light cone widens out by 100mm / 5 = 20mm, so 24.4mm of the mirror or 0.96" is used when the sun is in the centre. If you do not have a tracking mount, a wider FOV is rather nice of course. Using a 1.25" wedge with its shorter distance from wedge to image plane (6 cm), we would be using 16.4mm roughly (which is still OK).

I think the ST102 would be fine as a portable scope, and would be OK for imaging with the Solar Continuum filter in place. The ST80 springs to mind as a smaller alternative, but that has a 1.25" focuser. The 80ED would be an alternative. Not much lighter than the ST102, I think

Many thanks for your reply.

Sorry I should have said that I am using the 1.25" wedge, so I guess that i should go for the 80ED as this would mount on a standard tripod and should give good stability.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Many thanks for your reply.

Sorry I should have said that I am using the 1.25" wedge, so I guess that i should go for the 80ED as this would mount on a standard tripod and should give good stability.

The 1.25 wedge works on either scope. For imaging a tracking mount is rather nice (EQ3-2 with RA motor should suffice, very exact tracking is not required, I just point my Vixen GP mount north, set the poar axis according to latitude and away I go). I am not sure whether the ED 80 would give a better view than the ST102, if the solar continuum filter is used. Stopping the ST102 down to 80mm would also reduce CA significantly. I have seen some really good shots with an ST120 stopped down to 90mm.

[wxsatuser]

Interesting stuff guys.

I have a 102 SLT and was going to try and use that, if not I have an ED 80.

If all goes well, really looking forward to having a look at the Sun.

[Steve Ward]

I guess it must be you that seems to be trying to end my run of daily images ....

Have fun with the new toys , was contemplating a wedge myself but I couldn't use it with the big Mak .... ... so I stuck with the film

[wxsatuser]

I guess it must be you that seems to be trying to end my run of daily images ....

Have fun with the new toys , was contemplating a wedge myself but I couldn't use it with the big Mak .... ... so I stuck with the film

Hi Steve.

Your images and others on the forum have made my mind up to give it a go.

It will be a totally new thing for me and if I could be half as good as you guys, then I will be happy.

I won't challenge your dailies, no real time at the moment, will be weekends for sure,.

Most likely that will kibosh the weekend weather for sure.

[Steve Ward]

No worries ...

The skies cleared here a little after my last post so you are forgiven , I guess that the small box the wedge came in couldn't hold many 'fluffies' ....

Welcome to the "Light-side" and Happy Viewing ...

[wxsatuser]

No worries ...

The skies cleared here a little after my last post so you are forgiven , I guess that the small box the wedge came in couldn't hold many 'fluffies' ....

Welcome to the "Light-side" and Happy Viewing ...

I must admit was surprised it came with it's own small case, nice touch.

[Stu]

Wasn't aware these were available at such a decent price. Have just placed an order for the 199 euro package from APM including the NS3.0 and Polarising filter, plus a Continuum filter.

Very much looking forward to giving it a go. Most likely will use in the Stellarvue 80ED, and may even try Binoviewing if that would work with the wedge? The SV80 has a removable tube section so will come to focus no problem. I guess the question is whether I can fit the filters in the correct place in the lightpath?

Stu

[Stu]

Herschel wedge and filters have arrived :-)

Looking forward to giving them ago, possibly Wednesday if the weather co-operates

Stu

[wxsatuser]

Still have'nt had a chance to try mine.

Been cloudy or I have been busy doing other things.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Most likely will use in the Stellarvue 80ED, and may even try Binoviewing if that would work with the wedge?

Stu

Stu I can just gain focus with my Astro Tech 4" frac with binoviewers with the Herschel Wedge and the continuum and polarising filters in place. The Herschel wedge requires a bit more inward focus than my dielectric William Optics 1.25" diagonal.

If you have chance can you try the binoviwers on your TV76. As you know I want to buy a TV76 or Pronto and one of the seasons for getting this scope is to use binoviewers for solar observing.

I would say that viewing the Sun with the Herschel Wedge and binoviewers is an incredible experience.

Mark

[Stu]

Hi Mark

Will definitely give it a go and let you know if I can reach focus. I've got a couple of correctors too so am sure it will work with one of those if needed.

So do you use both the polarizer and continuum at the same time? From what I can see, the ND filter is already fitted into the ep side of the wedge, so do you then fit the filters to your ep or binoviewer, fitting one filter into the other?

Which ep's do you use mainly?

Cheers,

Stu

[Mark at Beaufort]

Stu - yes the ND filter is built into the Herschel Wedge. Initially I just used the continuum filter but I find that adding the single polarising filter just makes observing a bit more pleasing. Both filters are screwed either into the bottom of the binoviewers or into the eyepiece.

With my 4" APO which is f6.95 I either use the 13mm or 8mm Ethos or to get that incredible view of the Sun I prefer the binoviewers with a 1.6x barlow and 2 Antares 25mm plossls. I also use the William Optics SD66 and use the 8mm Ethos which gives a great view through the Herschel Wedge with the 2 filters attached.

Yesterday I put the WO SD66 side by side with the PST on my SkyTee mount and was jumping between Ha and White Light - fantastic.

Stu you will enjoy your Herschel Wedge and it saves having to carry the glass or baader filter if you go out on location. I wish I had this set up when I went to the States last year for the Annular eclipse and Venus Transit.

Mark

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

There are two types of Herschel wedges supplied by Lunt: one type has the ND3 integrated, in the other you need to insert it. I generally use just the Solar Continuum filter, not the polariser, but that might be due to the aperture of the scope.

[Stu]

Thanks Mark, that's really useful info.

I will probably start out using my Stellarvue 80ED as a sacrifice to the sun gods...... There is some bizarre reluctance in me to point my lovely 106 at the sun (!), but I'm sure I'll get my head round it fairly quickly :-).

I've got a 13mm Ethos, plus 10 and 8mm Delos which should work well. Also managed to acquire 2x24mm Panoptics for the Binoviewer so they should work very nicely indeed!

I'm also looking forward to putting the PST side by side with the Wedge on the Giro mount, best of both worlds and should be amazing.

Will report back in a different thread, apologies to the OP for any hijacking, but also many thanks for starting the thread as it highlighted to me the affordability of the 1.25" Wedge packages having previously thought they were out of reach.

Cheers,

Stu

[bob1957]

Hi everybody,

I have a 2" Lunt solar wedge to use with my Celestron 102mm f5 wide view refractor. I was hoping to get some white light views of the Sun today and after setting up with a 25mm EP I found that I can't get focus. It would appear that there isn't sufficient inward travel to bring the image to focus. I'm going to sit down tonight and layout the ray path, but has anybody had similar problems? Ideally, I don't want to have to shorten the tube of the scope if there is an alternative.

Cheers, Bob

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

The 2" requires more inward travel than the 1.25". This was one other reason for me to go for the 1.25". Adding a Barlow can help, but it has to be after the wedge or things can go horribly wrong!