SolarChat!

mdwmark

Hi Group, My concern is that these filters are ion assisted e beam . Which is really not that much different then e beam. Which come down to the coating. I don't think you can get a 1/4 wave on transmission with this coating method. So the filter will work for heat, but it will not be diffraction li...

mdwmark

Hi Group, Hard coated bandpass do not fail this way. When a Hard coated fails , the whole thing comes apart. Soft coated K-line blockers usually last longer then Ha standard blockers . I would say , because the layers are much thinner. But yes I have seen them fail over the years. These filters sees...

mdwmark

Hi Mark, the ser# shows it was shipped September 2014. The TEC chip should be an 127-4A or 4 Amp 15V max, 127 design . It should be in the 3 Amp range when it is heating, because the power supply is 12vdc. I started with chips with lower power. But found out that in the real world. You need more the...

mdwmark

HI Mark, The control cable, from the controller to the oven. For a long time has been 8 pin DIN , only using 7 conductor 20 AWG . But 22AWG will work also. Years ago I used a power supply that provided 12v dc and line power to the controller. But the cable to the oven was be the same. If it is a ASO...

mdwmark

Hi Alexandra, The 5X telecentric, I hope it was designed for you scope. If your using a 5X PowerMate with anything narrower than .6Angs you will see wavelength shift from the edges to the center. If you are using a TZ4 which has a back focus of 200-225mm( when you have it at the correct distance fro...

mdwmark

The ser#on the originals were month/year, as for the temperature ,I liked to put a real # so you knew were it would work best ,Del like to put Amb,The new Daystar probably changed it
Mark W

mdwmark

when you hold the DERF , look at the reflections, if it has a blue to it , that is the front, if you see a red in the refelection that's the back
Mark W.

mdwmark

Alexandra,
Get intouch with Baaders peoples and have them replace the part. Mr Baader really doesn't like it when something get sent out that is not to specs
Mark W.

mdwmark

Hi Group, from the ser# it was sent out 11/1993. It would be a good idea to put it back in the cell with the pressure of the o-rings. What can happen is that taking the pressure a way you can get a grease separation . This separation can happen anywhere in the filter stack. It can also happen with t...

mdwmark

Your SO-1.5 is from when I wanted to put the TEC controller inside the oven housing. It SHOULD BE USED WITH THE 5 VOLT POWER SUPPLY THAT CAME WITH IT. What happen was I had some people putting 12v power supplies and it would burn out the chip. So I went back to having the controller outside the hous...

mdwmark

I think it can be used with ole good TZ-4 without problems if you have full-aperture D-ERF - it's modular design and it's native 3X telecentric has same T2 connection as TZ-4. Baader states in SunDancer manual that forthcoming TZ-4 will be additional accessory and blocking filter from TZ-3 must be ...

mdwmark

We once had Muscovite mines here in the N.C. mountains. Mica is common here. I don't know what happened. Now how good the quality of the mica was or is I do not know. Yes you did!!! and it was the highest quality. But that was a long time ago. For the US mining, it became not cost efficient. Also t...

mdwmark

Hello to all I inquired with Unitron Italia, importer of Baader Planetarium products, regarding the availability of Solar Spectrum 1.25 'filters. It seems that the products will be available starting from Spring 2022 but with a significant price increase (from +50 to + 100%) in order to adjust them...

mdwmark

HI from your images with both filters. You are in the red wing of Ha.
The SD2 lower the setting and try -4 and see if the contrast is better.
Mark W.

mdwmark

WOW I think I should be insulated , but why bother from someone who doesn't have a clue what he is talking about. Talking to Gram for 45 minutes was great. He is working with advance technology that I can only read about. So, Ya it was well worth it. Making Mica etalons commericaly goes back to Spec...

mdwmark

OK , DON'T BE FOOLED THAT FOR VISUAL YOU ONLY NEED TO BE BLOCKED TO 1100NM. KG3 AND KG5 ARE YOU BEST CHOICES. iF YOU DON'T WANT TO USE A ITF. ALL THREE WILL TRANSMIT ABOUT THE SAME AT HA. IF YOUR PRE-BLOCKING IS TO AT LEAST TO 900NM THE KG GLASS WILL BE SAFE TO THE FAR IR. THE ONLY PROBLEM WITH KG G...

mdwmark

HI David,
Your a little in the red wing, I would drop the setting .5 and see if you can see a difference.
Mark W.

mdwmark

Hi , The filters uses circular polaroids . The polaroids are arranged to cancel the internal reflection caused by the bandpass mirror and the etalon mirror. In the image Bob posted. The second polaroid cancels the internal reflection between the ITF and the back side of the etalon. The mica etalon i...

mdwmark

Hi Marty,
Your images are well processed but you are in the red wing. If you see high contrast at the tips( like the prominences images) , that is a good sign you need to move blue about .5ang. When you are in the center of the Ha line, the disk will look softer.
Mark W.

mdwmark

I don't understand the specs they are giving for this scope? If the F# is F/15, I don't care which one of there Ha filter you start with. The filter Hw at that F#, will never be narrower than 1.5Ang. The optical laws don't change just because you want them to. The narrower your starting Hw the faste...

mdwmark

Hi Apollo, There are a couple thing you going to need to worry about before taking the TS-1 apart. It may be a little different then Bob Image. The filter stack is under pressure. Depending how much pressure can cause a grease separation. It could occur at the windows or just as easy at the windows ...

mdwmark

Edmunds sells a 100mm Part number #65-969 What scope are you using where you need 100mm extension? Is this for the back side or the front of the telecentric? The front, then the TZ4 sits about 48mm in front of prime focus. The best way to see what you need for an extension is put the telecentric on ...

mdwmark

That sounds like your talking about only the bandpass part of the filter. If you make an bandpass at Ha , it will turn back on in the green, and be full on in the blue end of the spectrum. On the long side it will start back on around 780nm. The bandpass normally used were 5 Ang two cavity and block...

mdwmark

A solid etalon doesn't de-contact. That is something else.
Mark W.

mdwmark

Hi Ffellah, Your image is in the red wing( +.5Ang). That is a good example of what the red wing looks like. I would drop the temperature 2 or 3 deg first and see the difference. When you are in the center of the Ha line, it will have a softer look. The tips of the photosphere will have less contrast...

mdwmark

The 6Ang filter is just a bandpass. So it will have the bandpass at Ha but will turn back on at about 500nm and 780nm. The bandpass will look the same even when it fails. If you are looking at the color. The most common is the wavelength will shift either long or short over time. This will make the ...

mdwmark

OK George is right. You will need to tilt the etalon 1.8deg to reline the etalon to the off axis. The tilt will need to line up with you ERF. So it the ERF is at 12 o'clock. The etalon will be tilted backwards at 12 o'clock. This is the same that we have been doing from the 80's with mica filters. A...

mdwmark

The temperature of the blocker is important. You need to match it up with the etalon so that it will block the next peaks. Air spaced etalons use an blocker that is 6-8Ang at the HW. If they are at 6563Ang at 23C for the CW. Then when it is 43C the CW has moved to 6566.3Ang into the red. So Now you ...

mdwmark

You have a few thing going on that you need to look at. 1) at F/21 the center wavelength has shifted blue( same as tilting the filter). The HW is also broaden out to about 1.3Ang if you started at .7Ang. 2) your using a yellow ERF, so you will be getting a lot more heat into the scope then if you us...

mdwmark

Or not, If that is just a blocker. Then it will turn back on at 750nm in the red. KG3 is down at about 1000nm. So that area between 750 and 1000nm will be leaking energy. That will be enough to be a problem(not to good for your eye). The short side, RG630 will block anything there. If it is really a...

mdwmark

Gordon Garcia, That's a name from the past. I haven't talk to him in years. I hope he is still around. He did some great stuff with film. SO-410, I wonder how many remember that film. Kodak changed the name later, but I don't remember what it was. Using the tilt for fine adjustment is what I had in ...

mdwmark

I was not happy with the one they brought to the Big Bear convention. It had a strong secondary reflection. (double solar image). But they seem to be happy with it.
Mark

mdwmark

Ha Ha ha, That's the old TS-2 housing. I came up with that for the etalons that run around 30-40C(the ATM worked poorly there). Del quit using them when I left. They where larger so that a standard rubber strip heater would fit inside. They must have been with the stuff when the new Daystar took ove...

mdwmark

that looks like normal failure
Mark W.

mdwmark

That's not a humidity problem on the images. Humidity usually fails from the outside in. This is something different.
Mark W.

mdwmark

HI Ken, The normal screw was a plastic knurled-head thumb screw.We would smooth the bottom of the screw so it would not dig into the cell of the filter stack. The easiest way to check the filter. Is to put on the scope, point it at the sun, and without an eyepiece look into the back(red side). Be ba...

mdwmark

Hi Ken,
The screw is a 10/32 thread. If you have to change the threads to metric, Take off the back plate with the spring. You should have enough room to run a tap with the cell tilted.
Mark W.

mdwmark

HI group, The cost of converting the TS-1 to TEC is not that much. But I like to check them out first to make sure the etalon is still good. If you are in Europe they will be ship through Baader Planetarium. So you can contact them about shipping. In the US they would go through Alpine Astro. The bl...

mdwmark

download/file.php?mode=view&id=35048

mdwmark

Well I know of a few that are used. I converted them to a TEC controlled ovens so they will work all year long.
Mark

mdwmark

Hi Apollo, Just checking , the GG395 and the KG3 are these hard coated of soft coated? If they are soft coated, then they will need to be used in the back of the telescope. Soft coating filters with that many layers would never come out 1/4 wave on transmission. On the KG3 , the SiO2 overcoat , is t...

mdwmark

There prices are right in line with everyone else. That $825 for a two cavity(I would think 2 cavity would do better then OD2) at 1 piece is a good deal. Your idea about how easy it is to make a filter may be true for an AR's or edge filter or something like a 10-20nm HW bandpass. But a ultra narrow...

mdwmark

double pass has been used with Lasers for a long time, if your working with a point source you fine. A star is a good point source. The sun is not, it has field angle. Lunt tried it with his 8" reflector and it didn't work. If it would have worked it would have been in uses years ago. That .25 ...

mdwmark

The graph is for a simple 1/4 wave design. The high end etalons for solar will use a broad band mirror. So they are usually from K-line to Ha or Ha to the Ca lines in the IR.
The broad band mirrors will have more layers which means a higher cost.
Mark W.

mdwmark

That is what I though it would look like. I guested 24Ang peak separation.
Attached is a coating design for Ha. The narrower peaks will be where the transmission is the highest. As the transmission drops the HW will broaden and the bottom of the curve will not be near zero.

: etalon mirror Ha.gif (9.62 KiB) Viewed 5015 times

mdwmark

It may be something with the AR's. Must broadband AR's are designed from 400 to 700nm. If they where using TIO2 as the high index then you will be getting absorption from it(this is the most common design). It also maybe where the AR designed was centered. If they are a MGF2 AR centered at Ha then y...

mdwmark

OK, I though the original concern was Daystar's statement that Quark didn't need an ERF. If they want to change blockers. That there concern. The filter is still safe to the eye even when a front blocker fails. I have been making Ha filters for 30+ years and have never hear of anyone having problems...

mdwmark

BUT , when you move in and out to focus, you will run into that problem of high heat.

Mark W.

mdwmark

I was thinking, The front of the telecentric is not at prime focus. So it will be hot but not as bad as prime focus. If your using an F/5 then I don't think it would make much difference. I'm not sure the distance for the Quark but I would guest about 45mm in front of prime focus would be a good pla...

mdwmark

Yep, I know. Over the years repairing filters, I have come across many that where damage using to fast of scopes. Like your burning ants analogy. 100mm F/15 with no ERF will melt a .54" spot in the delrin of the front plate and take out the blocker over time. The point of the front mounted ERF ...

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