To Mod or not to Mod? To purchase or not to purchase?

Frankenscope? Let's see it!***be advised that NOTHING in this forum has been safety tested and you are reading and using these posts at your own peril. blah, blah, blah... dont mess around with your eyesight when it comes to solar astronomy. Use appropriate filtration at all times...
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Starry Jack
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To Mod or not to Mod? To purchase or not to purchase?

Post by Starry Jack »

I have tremendously enjoyed my PST Stage 1 100mm I built with the help of this forum over several years. My next step could be:

1) Mod something much better
2) Buy a Meade or Lunt
3) Buy one of your fabulous mods


By nature I am a tinkerer but time is limited.

I do a lot of video outreach and I don't use visual any more

Thoughts?

Starry Jack


Explore Scientific 152mm f6.5 achromat
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Quark Chromosphere f27 native, (f14 when focal reduced)
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MalVeauX
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Re: To Mod or not to Mod? To purchase or not to purchase?

Post by MalVeauX »

Up the aperture. Get a 150mm or 200mm (C6 or C8?) with full aperture DERF and use the PST (F10 natively, matches great) with a large blocking filter and show off some high resolution outreach video.

Very best,


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Re: To Mod or not to Mod? To purchase or not to purchase?

Post by Starry Jack »

Oooooh. Sounds doable. I have not kept up with SC mods. Will have to research. I have a 100mm Lunt ERF. Dont think I could use that though. Maybe could sell that.
My PST is rust free. Will there be the infamous PST Sweet Spot?

Jack


Explore Scientific 152mm f6.5 achromat
Aeries D-ERF
Quark Chromosphere f27 native, (f14 when focal reduced)
Mallincam .5x focal reducer (large format)
12nm Filter
ZWO174 (IMX249 chip 5um)
Huge Sense of Adventure Viewing Creation
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Re: To Mod or not to Mod? To purchase or not to purchase?

Post by MalVeauX »

I would imagine all PST's have a potential sweet spot, except the very best of them. Since you already did a PST mod, it just seemed natural to take the same concept, but use it on a larger aperture instrument. Though you'll need a very expensive large ERF to deal with the heat. Otherwise, a C6 or C8 is actually inexpensive itself. The costs would be the full aperture ERF and the large blocking filter (15mm minimum) using only the PST etalon. Then just either use a small pixel camera (like ASI178MM or ASI290MM) to match pixel size to the F10 focal-ratio and you're set. $3~4k overall maybe? Or get a Quark combo and use it at F20 and don't use the PST etalon if it's really not uniform, etc.

Otherwise, a 60mm or 80mm double stack Lunt or Solarmax would be a great way to do full disc outreach and see a ton.

Very best,


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Re: To Mod or not to Mod? To purchase or not to purchase?

Post by Starry Jack »

Can I use my 152mm f6.5 achromat? I'd love a simple solution switching between day and night use and without buying a new mount to handle both day and night scopes.

Jack


Explore Scientific 152mm f6.5 achromat
Aeries D-ERF
Quark Chromosphere f27 native, (f14 when focal reduced)
Mallincam .5x focal reducer (large format)
12nm Filter
ZWO174 (IMX249 chip 5um)
Huge Sense of Adventure Viewing Creation
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Re: To Mod or not to Mod? To purchase or not to purchase?

Post by MalVeauX »

You could absolutely use your 152 refractor. Just depends on how you want to do it. To get to F10 for the PST etalon you'd have to stop it down to 100mm, which puts it in the same category as your current PST mod. Or you could get a Quark to use with it right away. While it will work with an internal UV/IR cut filter even at 152mm aperture, I still would recommend a full aperture DERF (such as a Baader DERF) to manage the heat for hours on end if using with outreach.

Very best,


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Re: To Mod or not to Mod? To purchase or not to purchase?

Post by Starry Jack »

I'm definitely leaning towards a mod. Thanks for getting me excited again.

I'd love to make my 152 swappable. I'll begin research. I appreciate all your suggestions for any rug of your preference because I learn that way.

Jack


Explore Scientific 152mm f6.5 achromat
Aeries D-ERF
Quark Chromosphere f27 native, (f14 when focal reduced)
Mallincam .5x focal reducer (large format)
12nm Filter
ZWO174 (IMX249 chip 5um)
Huge Sense of Adventure Viewing Creation
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