Solar Spectrum advice, tips, do's and don'ts

Use this section to discuss "standard" Baader/Coronado/ Lunt SolarView/ Daystar, etc… filters, cameras and scopes. No mods, just questions/ answers and reviews.
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hopskipson
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Solar Spectrum advice, tips, do's and don'ts

Post by hopskipson »

I'm awaiting delivery of a Solar Spectrum 0.3A research grade 18 mm etalon from Alpine Astronomical. I ordered the TZ-4 and the required adapters for use on my CR-6, F/8 refractor. I will probably be masking this down to 100mm or less as my seeing rarely supports the 6". I have a tri-band D-ERF from Aries. Does anyone suggest a sub-aperture ERF like a Ha or Red-IR filter for more protection? I was also wondering about double stacking with a SM2 90mm etalon. Has anyone tried this? If I use it on my F/7 102mm scope, is the ERF of the SM2 etalon sufficient protection?

I read the "manual" to familiarize myself on its use. The instructions could be more helpful with some pictures. How sensitive or adjustable is the heater/cooler? Are there any tricks or nuances that may need to know? Any advice or help will be much appreciated.


James
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The Quark introduced me to this wonderful side of the hobby and the sun hasn’t disappointed yet.
Solar Equipment: Solar Spectrum RG-18 0.3A, Coronado Solarmax 90mm etalon Isle of Man SN-001, Tuscon SN-380 and Meade SM2, Lunt LS80 DS, Quark Chromosphere, Lunt 2" wedge, 2-Lunt CaK II 1200, Baader 3.8 and 5.0 solar film in 208mm cells, and 3D printed Sol'Ex SHG, Lunt 40mm
Coming Soon: Solar Spectrum CaK II <1A filter
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Re: Solar Spectrum advice, tips, do's and don'ts

Post by Ljungmann »

It should be more than okay "just" to use the Aries filter. When you have a first class h-alpha filter with superb finesse, spectral uniformity and bandwidth you should be aware that using a SM2 can introduce some aberration problems. If I look in my SS 0.3A filter I can not think of any devices that can improve the performance except making the focal length even longer - greater than f40. Its on band after a few minutes and stable a few minutes later. You can adjust the temperatures up and down and see the wings. It will take some minutes to get -+.5A.
Not really. If you want some more in deep explanation look at a Quantum manual from Daystar. It works nearly the same way except Mark have this feature to cool the filter if it begins to drift to the red wing.


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Re: Solar Spectrum advice, tips, do's and don'ts

Post by george9 »

I don't find it useful to stop down my 6" f/7 for my RG32 0.3A Solar Spectrum, and I am not in a super seeing location. Either the seeing is there or not, and stopping down doesn't fix it for me.

I use a Baader DERF. I don't use a sub-aperture ERF, and Mark W generally recommends against the duplication as superfluous. Remember it has its own ERF.

I do double stack my Solar Spectrum with a Lunt DSII unit. It eliminates the double limb and adds detail on the disk without losing proms. It just makes the normally wide sweet spot a little smaller. If I want the full >30mm aperture view through my binoviewers, I go SS, but if I am willing to cut down to about 28mm, I do DS.

George


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