SolarChat!

So long story short, I was trying to screw the dust cap back onto the filter and dropped the cap. On the way down of course instinct was to try and grab it. Unfortunately, one of my fingers made contact with the front element on the filter, causing it to dislodge on one side. I don't believe it caused any other type of damage as the filter is still "usable", and I see no effects that could be attributed to anything like the etalon being de-contacted as the hydrogen alpha spectrum is still visible.

My question is, is there a way of removing the objective assembly from the etalon and fixing this myself or should I just ship it back to Lunt and let them do it? There's not even a mark on the element from where my finger made contact.

Hi Dave and welcome to the forum. The front most element(the red glass) on the LS50c filter would be the ERF, and shouldn't affect the Etalon, but can affect visual safety if it lets in unfiltered sunlight. On my LS60F DS filter, the whole assembly(the red anodised casing) comes off to expose the etalon, and that assembly contains only the ERF ,so if you can post a pic, it would help us identify your problem.

Hi David, I saw your picture over in CN, and as Bob said, the ERF is pre tilted in its cell, and it doesn't look like you've caused any damage.

Correct, thank you. I'm new to Ha telescopes and didn't realize the ERF was tilted prior to what happened yesterday. My first thought was I had caused it. Whew.