Earthwin Power/Filter slide

[Stu]

I just picked up this nice piece of kit which combines two things I was after, namely the ability to quickly switch filters, and also with power switch built in to avoid constant eyepiece changes.

Earthwin is owned by Bill Dankmeyer, who apparently started Denkmeier (derived from his name) but has now left to start his own business.

The Power/Filter switch is a very nicely made, solid piece of kit. It looks and feels well engineered. The slide assembly has four raised and ridged 'buttons' which slide easily and quickly. The top two operate a reducer and Barlow element, and the bottom two hold the filter slides which take 2" filters. The diagonal itself is a nice looking William Optics Dielectric model. This used unit also has a non standard Baader 1.25" adapter with the T2 thread at the top, a nice bonus.

In use, the power switch is handy, but still obvious require refocusing each time which takes a few seconds. I tried it on my Vixen last night and with the reducer in place it would not reach focus, but the standard and Barlow were fine which are more important to me. On the SCT I would expect the reducer to work ok (although being an Edge it may have some issues)

The filter slide works very well and I'm delighted with this. You can switch easily between no filter and either of the two fitted, or easily go straight from one to the other, handy for comparing different filters. The filters just drop into the adaptor and are held in place by a small, soft tipped Allen grub screw, seems to work well. I have fitted my Lumicon UHC and OIII filters to it. I know Michael uses the technique of quickly flicking a UHC filter into the light path to help identify Planetary Nebulae so I will give this a go now.

Further down the line, I may get this adapted so that I can use it on my Zeiss prism diagonals and be able to fit the click lock adaptor which is nicer to use. I wonder too whether it's possible to get a 2" adaptor straight onto the slide to use with a dob, but that's for another time.

I had some ok views of the Veil last night in the Vixen. I was using the AZEQ6 unpowered which wasn't so easy, but it worked! With no filter it was totally invisible, visible in the UHC and better in the OIII but really needs darker skies.

Here are some pictures.

[Matthew]

Very nice,you've made a wise purchase there,i have a sneaky feeling it's my old one I sold last year !.I used to use it with my C11 and binoviewers and with the built in reducer / Barlow slides I used to spend most of the night with a pair of 20mm plossls.

[YKSE]

Congratulations, stu, that's a nice handy accessary.

Is the eyepiece holder screwedon to the filer box? what thread size if so? How's the star diagonal connected to the box?

[Stu]

Very nice,you've made a wise purchase there,i have a sneaky feeling it's my old one I sold last year !.I used to use it with my C11 and binoviewers and with the built in reducer / Barlow slides I used to spend most of the night with a pair of 20mm plossls.

Funny how things move around isn't it

Seems excellent, and probably will work best on the SCT. Maybe I should buy my fourth set of BVs and see if I get on with them this time!!

[Stu]

Congratulations, stu, that's a nice handy accessary.

Is the eyepiece holder screwedon to the filer box? what thread size if so? How's the star diagonal connected to the box?

Thanks Yong

The holder is fixed via a flange which secured with small Allen headed grub screws. Would need an adaptor for the click lock I guess.

The diagonal seems to be very solidly screwed onto the box, haven't been able to shift it. I may take it to AstroTec and see what they can do.

[YKSE]

Thanks for checking it up, stu

Google around, I found this thread, maybe useful if shorter lightpath is wanted.

[Stu]

Thanks Yong, interesting

I think I will try to get it apart and see what I can do. The Zeiss 2" has a shorter light path than a mirror I believe, and the T2 is much shorter so that would really help. I'd love to use it on my dobs too. Watch this space....