Seymour Solar filter

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Daryl
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Seymour Solar filter

Post by Daryl »

Do these have a 'shelf life', I've had one for 5-6years as I normally use an Herschel wedge. When I got it out recently I noticed a cluster of pin holes. The filter is stored in a case with foam lining so no movement is possible.


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Re: Seymour Solar filter

Post by Montana »

A very warm and sunny welcome Daryl :hamster:

Do you have coated glass or a film filter?

I have Baader Solar film and while it doesn't go off I did notice that where insects had pooed on it while outside on the scope for a while, the poo seemed to rot the surface off over time leaving a pin hole. I was a bit annoyed and had to add black marker pen over the spot. Next time I will be sure to clean it off with a soft wet cloth straight away. I can't afford to lose my Baader film as they don't make the large size anymore so it is irreplaceable. Could it be possible that you have insect poo left over time? however, this may not be the case with a glass filter, just an idea.

Can you post a picture?

I would only use it for imaging and not visual if you have pin holes. If lots of pin holes then I would be cautious about the camera too.

Alexandra


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Re: Seymour Solar filter

Post by Daryl »

Hi Alexandra,
It's a glass coated filter, good tip about the insect poo, I have a Baader solar film for visual which I use occasionally and is fine, the Seymour however has quite a few pinholes in one area. I store it very carefully inside a clean plastic bag in a foam lined case so I'm mystified why it's got the pin holes. I rarely use it and noticed when I first got it it had a few but they seem to have bred!

Nice to get a chance to observe the Sun even for a fleeting time before clouds rolled in. I'll email you with a picture as I haven't got a publicly accessible server.

Many Thanks
Daryl


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Re: Seymour Solar filter

Post by EGRAY_OBSERVATORY »

Hello Daryl and welcome to SolarChat.

The normal warning for any Object-lens covering with any type of Solar-filter, is that if there is any fault such as pin-holes, they should not be used as even with camera-imaging - damage might occur to the sensor-chips in CCD/CMOS cameras.
Obviously the risk of accidently using such faulty filters with Eye-Piece viewing could well result in permanent blindness...

Although not under warranty by it's age, why not contact the vendor/manufacturer as:- [email protected] for their advice as to this issue,
where they may already be aware of that issue and offer a repair/replacement service ???

Best Wishes
Terry


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Re: Seymour Solar filter

Post by Daryl »

Hi Terry,
Good idea I'll drop them an email, I'm certainly reluctant to use it. I'm in South Wales and living in a valley with tall trees which means during the winter I only have a brief time to observe due to obstructions, also the day job gets in the way.
I rarely use anything other than my Lacerta Herschel Wedge on my 90mm refractor.


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Re: Seymour Solar filter

Post by Montana »

Daryl, I have inserted your picture for reference. It would be interesting to hear whether anyone else has suffered this failure.
Seymour filter.jpg
Seymour filter.jpg (135.02 KiB) Viewed 1520 times
I think Terry has beaten me to it. That looks more serious than I thought. So it is a glass filter with a coating, it looks like that coating is degrading. Many solar filters seem to suffer from degradation of coating if they are soft coatings. This is the ‘rust’ so many refer to. It can happen inside and out and tend to be just a fault. Even my Solarscope blocking filters from the Isle of Man suffered this last year when taken out of winter storage I had what looked like snowflakes inside, this wasn't rust as they have hard coatings but it was something weird.

The area damaged is quite large so I wouldn’t use, it would be advisable to contact Seymour about it though. Manufacturers are usually very interested to hear about such things, it could be a faulty run and they may exchange it. Lunt did this for me 6 years after I bought their product. It is always worth a shot.

If Seymour do reply then please update us so that the information can help others :)

Alexandra


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Re: Seymour Solar filter

Post by Daryl »

Thank you Alexandra for posting the picture, that's very kind of you.
Seymour replied very quickly, this is their reply.

Hi Daryl

The glass is layered on one side. you can try dotting the pinholes with a black permanent marker to cover some of the brighter pinholes.

Best regards

[email protected]


Umm interesting solution and one I'm not entirely convinced about, I tried an experiment by scratching with my finger nail and couldn't make any impression on it. Anyone tried a black permanent marker?


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Re: Seymour Solar filter

Post by Montana »

Ummm I used black permanent marker on my one 1mm pinhole on my 11 inch Baader film and it was OK for imaging, I wouldn't look visually ;)

That seems rather a lot of coverage for black pen to me. If you hold it up to the Sun does it dazzle you? sounds a bit dodgy to me.
I would bin and use Baader Solar film instead ;)

Alexandra


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Re: Seymour Solar filter

Post by marktownley »

Hi Daryl.

Personally I would ditch the Seymour filter completely, they're about as poor a quality optically as you can buy. If you have a herschel wedge just use that - it's a no brainer!

Mark


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Re: Seymour Solar filter

Post by Daryl »

Yes it certainly does I held it at arms length and it was quite dazzling. I think it's a bin job, pity as it's only 5-6 years old and hardly used but kept in secure conditions indoors.

Best Wishes
Daryl


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Re: Seymour Solar filter

Post by Daryl »

I enjoy using my Lacerta Wedge, it's much better to use


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