Baader 'Cool Ceramic' Herschel Wedge

[YKSE]

Hind sight is a great thing.

The price i paid for my Hershel wedge and the 3 filters (ND3.0, SC and variable polarising)...............i could have bought a cool ceramic wedge which includes the ND3.0 and SC filter.

Live and learn.

No regrets. 

+ a £60 worth Clicklock for SCT? which can also be used in diagonals with SC thread, or in extension tube with SC thread for Newt

That's the one of reasons I prefer to do more homework before decisions.

[russ.will]

Cheers Russell.

Answers.....

I'd been planning on selling plenty of kit so have it covered budget wise. I'm awful at times, I say I'm going to buy something and sell something else to fund it, but end up keeping both!! I then get to a kind of crisis point with too much kit and not enough cash which is enough of a catalyst to prompt a clear out.

You are not alone.

Okay, I'm slightly behind your curve in terms of scope expense, but I know that the 80ED doesn't really have a place in my arsenal, given my viewing preferences. The C100ED has it mostly covered (for me) but I'm reluctant to let the 80ED go, because since Steve Collingwood fetled it, it's just so darned sharp.

Do I spend hours at really low powers sweeping the Milky Way? No. But on the occasional night that I do, it rocks. However, I feel the point may come when I need to cover a TV or Denk binoviewer - that won't go un-noticed by the ball-and-chain - and bless it, it will have to go. I'm hangin' in there until it has to though!

Russell

[russ.will]

I'm surprised you find the LX200 so much better, for a couple of reasons. I assumed that scope tube currents during sunny days and seeing conditions would count against the larger aperture. 100 to 120mm is often mentioned as the goldilocks size for solar. Clearly this is not your experience.

Cheers,

Stu

Yeah, you'd think so, but as the whole OTA is behind a Baader ASTF filter that rejects 99.9% (or whatever) light/heat from entering the OTA and the flange it's mounted in provides another 50mm of shadow around it, it's probably the coolest thing in the garden - on several levels!

Thinking about it; there's a lot less energy entering the LX200 than there ever was the 80ED, which was pointed, unprotected, directly at The Sun and had a really hot thing mounted at the back.

Until you asked that question, I hadn't thought of it that way. There must be some sort of tube currents generated by a hot wedge?

Russell

[Stu]

All good points but I think we need Mr P. Drew here to add some additional commentary and expertise.

I assume the wedge directs most or all of the heat out of the OTA so the internal heating is minimal?

[DRT]

One downside I have noticed about the Baader wedge is that it renders my 17mm, 22mm and 31mm eyepieces useless when using my Pronto or ST150 as there isn't enough inward travel to achieve focus, presumably because the wedge has a longer light path than a normal diagonal.

I haven't tried it in the ED100 yet but will hopefully get the chance to do that today.

[garryblueboy]

BigSumorian I have the earlier non ceramic 2" Baader on a Equinox 120 and as your report Awsome detail as you stated spooky in green but really brings out the details I have used various filters thousand Oakes etc film but since I acquired the wedge my interest in solar viewing has doubled.

[Luke]

Luke would probably be your best bet to answer that one Vox45. I'm sure he will be along shortly

I'm not too sure. I haven't done much shooting out as far as I remember, and the Lunt and the Baader don't tend to cross paths on my imaging setups.

At the mo I use the Lunt with my Tele Vue 60 at low power (not much of a test) and the Baader in my 120mm scope, ideally with 2 or 3x Barlow, so they are long way apart at mag level usually.

[Vox45]

So I took the plunge and bought the visual one. Magnificient piece of hardware first light will be this weekend...

I plan to do imaging later. In your experience, are the 0.6/0.9/1.8 filters really what I should go for, or are there better filters for a DSLR that I should go straight to ?

I also have a cheap toucam with an Baader UV/IR filter, not sure if this would give me better results than a DSLR...

[spaceboy]

I have just looked at the instruction manual and there is noting in there about only using it up to 100mm of aperture. In fact there is one reference warning of the temperatures that would be reached if you placed a filter in the wrong part of the light path when using a 6" refractor. It is a warning about the filter, not the telescope.

Spaceboy, was the warning you saw on a retailers website or from the manufacturer?

I could do with knowing before putting my eye behind this and my ST150

Probably a bit late now but for what it is worth I believe it was in FLO's description but checking they no longer seem to sell them ??

[perfrej]

My dear man, it will be better for visual than most 90mm scopes, but bested by most 100mm scopes.

Forum General ALERT! We have a member unaffected by aperture fever.

He was last seen heading in the direction of Olly. Is it too late to apply correctional methods, or can we rely on The Penrice to avail him of the dark arts? Namely, photons are most precious when destroyed on the retina. Only then, when uncompounded by artificial means, can the history of their journey be truly appreciated. 

Or not.

Russell

That, my fellow addict, remains to be seen. Zeiss optics... 

Oh, and I always revert to Olly's place. After all, it has become second home to me and my dear TEC-140, QSI and 10Micron GM2000HPS II are all there along with a truckload of electronics and cables.

Love this hobby (and the trips to Provence)

/per

[Tonynexevo925]

Probably a bit late now but for what it is worth I believe it was in FLO's description but checking they no longer seem to sell them ??

They still have the info online here

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/solar-filters/baader-coolceramic-herschel-wedge-solar-diagonal.html

[damnut]

Its listed as unavailable.

[Tonynexevo925]

Agreed but I thought it was the information he was after - he's already purchased in France. I may have misunderstood.

It is available from Amazon in Germany at €441 and UK at £371.

[Tonynexevo925]

Odd that as flo aren't normally so out on pricing.