johninderby

Glad to see it fits just right and better yet doesn’t cheapen the look of the Tak. Tak should include their own version with every scope.

Couldn’t find a scope cover that would fit then discovered the LensCoats. Perfect for the job and if you remove the hard pad then it folds up and fits in your pocket. John

Big Red the Carton 100mm f/13 scope that I built a few years ago was looking a bit tired so time to freshen it up and get it apart and check it over properly. The paint was dull and faded so rubbed it out and polished it and the candy red paint came up a treat. When I originaly painted it was first acid etch primer then three coats of silver base coat, six coats of candy red topped by four coats of clear. Proper candy red paint. The carry handle and gone a funny goldish colour in patches but was repainted and now good as new. Then all the brass bits need a polish and there are a lot of brass bits as well as the dew shield. Most important thing though it's still better to to look thrugh than at although have to admit I love looking at it of course. John BTW if you're looking for something to cap of the end of your scope one of the LensCoat covers works great. Elasticated with a removable hard pad in the end.

Small Maks lend themselves better to autimated production and normally use an aluminised spot on the inside of the corrector instead of a separate corrector and secondary which means less work involved in matching up components. Top end Maks do use a separate secondary but they’re really expensive.

Thought the viewing angle might be a problem but it turned out to be no real problem at all. You soon get used to the small difference. John

Edited

Agreed. Just because a piece of kit may be old doesn't mean it's still not as good as ever. Case in point. Big Red the Carton 100 f/13 frac that I built years ago. Very nice for planetary observing. John

It was the eyepiece I was using. Also fitted a new focuser that was longer than stock meaning the scope has less infocus than stock. Wouldn't' have been a problem with the stock focuser. With current eyepiece has plenty of infocus travel. Had the same problem with the Cool Wedge I used to have as certain eyepieces wouldn't focus. There is absolutely zero,light emissions of any type from the bottom of the wedge. The bottom is open purely for cooling. Tried my old Cool Wedge on a six inch scope and it got hot enough to burn you if you touched the back of it. A not so Cool Wedge. Fine on a four inch but the design can overheat on a bigger scope. John

Having had a Cool Wedge I'm very impressed with how the Lacerta compares. Amazing value for money. Who knows might make Baader bring out an improved Cool Wedge or heaven forbid cut the price. Not much in it for visual but the Lacerta's Brewster angle does give it a more evenly illuminated image which will help with imaging. When someone new brings out a great bit of kit at a great price it can only be good for the hobby. The old names in the hobby will have to sharpen up their game to stay competitive.. John

Hi On the 2" the built in ND filter is mounted in the bottom of the screw in base for the eyepiece holder so it can't be forgotten as it's an integral part of the wedge. The single polarising can darken it right down to the point that it's too dark so no additional ND filter needed. Buy it and feel sorry for those Baader Cool Wedge owners who paid through the nose for something that's nearly as good as the Lacerta. John

Not a problem in the UK at least with my 5" refractor. Does seem to handle heat better than the Baader Cool Wedge I used to have. Did use the Badder with a 6" refractor and that did get very hot after a while. The Baader was fully enclosed and so didn't get rid of heat very well with the 6". The Lacerta with it's open bottom design has much better cooling so should handle the 6" OK. John

They also do a 1.25" version that's very well priced but they recoomend going for the 2" for scopes over 100mm. John

Underside of wedge. Size comparison with 1.25" diagonal.

It hasn't been out that long and not yet common in the UK but I think it will become popular once word gets around.. About half the price of the Baader too. Built like the proverbial tank. Check out the thickness of the metal housing. Lacerta seems to be an Austrian brand and quite popular in Austria and Germany. John

Lacerta Brewster-angle 2" Herschel Wedge - First Light My new Herschel wedge arrived the other day and got it set-up with my Orion 120mm f/5 frac. Impressed with the sheer quality of the wedge. Very, very solidly made and has the feel of a big hefty piece of industrial equipment. This wedge has a Brewster angle of 56.6 degress instead of the standard 90 degree angle. This allows for better polarization and gives a wider range of adjustment. Although this design has an open bottom for better heat dissapation it's not to be confused with the old style Intes wedge that had an open bottom that let a potentialy dangerous beam of light shine out. This is a very dfferent design that doesn't allow any stray light to escape. You can actually look stright up into the open bottom of the wedge with no danger. See the two relevant pics. The angle of the prism is also adjustable. Mine didn't need adjusting but it's nice to know I could adjust it f I needed to. Manufacturers blurb: "Most commercially available Herschel wedges (like INTES, Lunt, Scopium, Baader...) come in a 90-degree variant. The Lacerta Herschel-wedge features a significant, 56.6-degree angle, so called Brewster-angle that provides a special benefit when compared with other 90-degree Herschel wedges. This befenit is coming from the fact that nearly 100% of light is polarised under this angle; this means that the Lacerta Herschel wedge offers continuous or even complete dimming with the mandatory ND=3.0 filter and an additional (optional) polarising filter. In reality a dimming range between ND=4.07 and 6.37 or even more can be achieved. Without the polarising filter the Herschel prism operates at ND 4.07 that is very good for photography. The 90° "traditional" Herschel prisms can achieve ND=4.24 to 5.00." First Light: Although there's nothing to be seen worth mentioning at the moment it did show good surface granulation and the image was nice and sharp. I used a Baader Solar Continuum filter and a single polarizing filer. Haven't tried the IR cut filter yet. I used to have a Baader Cool Wedge a while ago and initial impressions are the Lacerta seems to be every bit as good. Also have used a Lunt wedge and would have to say the Lacerta was a bit better. Conclusions: A worthy competitor to the Baader Cool Wedge and cheaper as well and has potential advantages over the Baader for photographic use. Does require a fair bit of infocus and I found with the Orion 120mm f/5 focus was just about achieved at full infocus travel with the zoom eyepiece I was using. I have trimmed 20mm off the OTA tube to allow for extra infocus travel which won't be a problem with usng the scope for other that white light solar as the new focuser has 20mm more travel than the stock one. John

At the 6.5mm setting the zoom has a 60 degree FOV (same as a Radian) and the sun's disk almost completely fills the view. I compared Baader Orthos, Naglers and Ethos eyepieces to see which was best and was surprised hat none of the other eyepieces could beat the zoom. I suppose it's a case of the zoom's optical characteristics exactly matching the Lunt. John