SolarChat!

Hi all,
A couple of months ago I bought a Lunt 60 CaK with a B600 diagonal. The scope is living with Pedro now. The filter is still here. I like the difficulties of CaK imaging and was tempted when Apollo posted about the Chroma Filters. But the new prices Bob mentioned meant that this road came to an end.
On a Dutch forum I posted a "wanted add" for a PST CaK. Within 24 hours I got offered 2 of them. Bought them both, first will arrive here in a couple of days, will pick the other one up in two weeks. So some modding to do this winter....

Here is the idea, completely stolen from others that have walked this path before.

a) 2 inch Baader Blue CCD
b) Astrodon 1,25 inch UVenus filter or 1,25 inch UV/IRcut on KG3 from Beloptik
c) option: Baader CaK filter, removed one of the filters because of the reflections, before the PST #1 filter
d) PST filter #1 on the nosepiece of a Skybender (I will be using it sooner than I thought Apollo)
e) PST filter #1 inside the Skybender

Camera used will be the ZWO ASI 290MM

Triple stacking would be with the Lunt B600 on the nosepiece of the camera. Looking forward to experiment with and without the Baader CaK Single / stacked / 2 single filters before both PST #1 filters, with or without the Lunt B600 etc.

Question.
When I look at the transmission curves the Astrodon UVenus filter seems to be a better candidate than the UV/IRcut on KG3. The UVenus drops immediately after 400nm. Any opinions about that? Another advantage is that I already have the UVenus filter.
CS! Bart.

I think try what you've got already Bart.

Double or triple or quadro stack will not gain enough in sun appearance in Ca K at a small scale. Good Lunt CaK filter is enough for small telescopes. The only gain will be prominences. The only real gain from DS or TS can be obtained only at super granulation cells level. However this require a telescope at least 6" in size. Better from 8". See the image taken by F. Rouviere (France) with his 210mm telescope and 5A Quark CaH. Even QUAD stacked 100mm scope will not come close in details to an 8" single stacked 5A(!) scope.


Valery

Yes, I do use SAFIX after ERF

I don't know what is your 150mm refractor to tell you wha to do.


Valery

Thanks guys.
@Valery: Bob made some comparisons between single and doublestack CaK with smaller scopes. I like the doublestack images more than the single stack. I know I would have to go bigger in the end. But first let me master this with a relatively small telescope (150mm f/8 Skywatcher). For planetary (mostly visual) I use a 9 inch Maksutov-Cassegrain. It is home build (not by me) and completely isolated (from the inside) to fight the tube currents. Optics Intes MK91, D=228 mm f/3100 mm. Maybe that will be my solar scope of the future.
@Mark: Yes you are right.
@Apollo: I will try the UVenus filter first and see what happens. But I think you are right that this filter dives just before 393nm.

TheSkyBurner wrote: ↑Fri Oct 12, 2018 6:22 am

Valery wrote: ↑Fri Oct 12, 2018 6:01 am Yes, I do use SAFIX after ERF

I don't know what is your 150mm refractor to tell you wha to do.


Valery

150mm x 2250mm F/15

If your objective is null corrected at 532nm (530 - 546nm range), then at 3933,7A it
should has 0,94 Strehl and so, no corrector needed.

Valery

bart1805 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 12, 2018 7:22 am I know I would have to go bigger in the end. But first let me master this with a relatively small telescope (150mm f/8 Skywatcher).

Bart,

You are a prisoner of illusions. If your 150mm F/8 achromat is nully corrected at a green light, say, at 530-546nm then Strehl ratio at the CaK line 393,4nm is only 0.09. It will just not work as needed for really high resolution. It's resolution at it's full aperture will corresponds to the resolution in a good 50-60mm scope. 100mm stop will give you 0,9 Strehl, 110m - 0.8 Strehl and 120mm stop - 0.63 Strehl. Most of barlows lenses should make things worser, some of them significantly worser.


Valery

Hi Valery, I am, as everybody, a prisoner of a whole lot of things, but not of illusions I hope. (-;
I know what the limits are of this set-up.

Right now I am the prisoner of a dilemma: do I have to use force on the gold tube first or on the blue collar? Order does not it matter?
Any advice?

I also have a PST CaK and I was unable to disassemble the telescope. Let us know how you get the PST CaK parts

Hi Pedro,
First try of removing the tube or the blue collar failed. Then I removed the six screws so I could take a look inside. Destroyed one of the screws so had to drill that one out. Then you see the pentaprism and the #2 filter. I think I can get the retaining ring loose without removing the pentaprism. Will try it later tonight, first have to do some soccer coaching.... If this works it is quite easy, so there must be something else that goes wrong tonight. (-;.
CS, Bart.

Edit: the kids had to wait five minutes and I have found the catch: I have the number 2 filter in my hands now. Not the #1....

Hello Bart
Winter time is the right time for new project :-)
Please share us with some images of the inside of the PST.

Thanks Bart

Like Christian I would like to see some images of the mod

best regards

Hi Bart,

The 150mm F8 will work fine I think.

I have used a similar setup:

Celestron 150mm F8 achromatic refractor (CR150HD)
I masked it to 120mm to hit F10 for best use with PST CaK filters.
Skybender with 375~395nm filter (or a Chroma 393nm) (ERF #2) and Baader Blue CCD IR Block filter (ERF #1)
PST CaK filters (two of them) behind the skybender.
Then barlow/camera.

(image says 100mm mask, but it's 120mm):



Results with 2x barlow, masked to 120mm at F10:







Results with 3x barlow and no aperture mask, so 150mm at F8



Very best,

christian viladrich wrote: ↑Fri Oct 12, 2018 6:16 pm Please share us with some images of the inside of the PST.

pedro wrote: ↑Fri Oct 12, 2018 7:25 pm Like Christian I would like to see some images of the mod

Hi Christian and Pedro, here they are:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=25213

bart1805 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 12, 2018 12:28 pm Right now I am the prisoner of a dilemma: do I have to use force on the gold tube first or on the blue collar? Order does not it matter?
Any advice?

Another easier way; unscrew the retaining ring on the objective, pop out the objective cell, then use a 30cm steel ruler and you will be able to unscrew the retaining ring on the filter cell and then the filter you need for the mod will just pop out.