Collimating solar scopes

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Allcart
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Collimating solar scopes

Post by Allcart »

Am I correct in thinking that light only travels through an etalon in one direction so using a laser collimator will not work?


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brianb11213

Re: Collimating solar scopes

Post by brianb11213 »

The transmission of a hydrogen alpha solar filter set is going to be so small that unless you're using a laser tuned to hydrogen alpha wavelength you're unlikely to get a usable response in either direction.

However there's no reason why you can't collimate the scope without the filters in: and adding the filters shouldn't upset the collimation in any way.


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Re: Collimating solar scopes

Post by Allcart »

Thats good Brian, it should work with the pst mods,. However, I was thinking about how I might collimate my LS60T mod. I cannot remove the etalon from that one.


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Re: Collimating solar scopes

Post by marktownley »

I've used a cheshire eyepiece in all of my solar scope mods... Definitely worth doing.


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Re: Collimating solar scopes

Post by Allcart »

Good news, I bought a Baader MkIII laser. I removed the BF from the LS60T and I could shine the laser all the way through the lunt etalon and see the laser dot on a piece of paper fixed to the end of the C6. I then covered both ends of the C6 tube with a paper target. I made a tiny hole in the centre of the near target and a cross in the centre of the far end target. Then it was simply a case of aligning the lunt so that the beam went through the hole and aligned with the cross at the other end.


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Re: Collimating solar scopes

Post by marktownley »

Good stuff Alan. I will have to put a laser collimator on my Christmas list...


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Re: Collimating solar scopes

Post by Allcart »

For my Lunt/C6 project it turned out to be invaluable. I don't think I could have lined up 2 separate scopes without it.


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colinsk

Re: Collimating solar scopes

Post by colinsk »

Good stuff Alan. I will have to put a laser collimator on my Christmas list...

There are diodes that are close to h-alpha and others that are a few nm off. If you are only collimating the objective then it does not matter but for the entire assembly you want a 658nm diode and temperature tune it. I am lucky enough to have spent 10 years developing a tunable laser in this frequency range for another project. But, sometimes luck favors the well prepared.


colinsk

Re: Collimating solar scopes

Post by colinsk »

This is really not worth while for collimation but perhaps some people will find it interesting. This is one of my lasers.

http://redlum.xohp.pagesperso-orange.fr ... laser.html


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