Altair 1.25 Inch Mini Solar Herschel Wedge (imaging ready)

Product Description

The Altair Solar Wedge (Herschel Wedge) replaces the normal 1.25" diagonal mirror on your refractor telescope. The Solar Wedge transmits a greatly reduced, safe amount of light to the eyepiece or camera.

Please note this product is designed to be used with REFRACTORS ONLY, and is not intended for use with reflector telescopes.

Altair 1.25" Solar Wedge Features:
1.25" Push-fit adaptor.
Ceramic Diffuser on the rear helps alignment and controls heat, enabling use with up to 5" refractors all day long without overheating.
T-Thread on top of the push-fit adaptor lets you screw a Magnetic Filter Holder or Hypercam directly onto the Solar Wedge, to hold Altair contrast filters such as G-Band or Altair 540nm, Altair NUV, CaK.
Unlike other makes, the Altair Solar Wedge enables both visual and imaging applications without having to change internal filters to adjust brightness. The top section can be turned to adjust the brightness level, to suit your accessories or camera.
Altair Solar Wedge is "imaging ready" because you can fine-tune the image brightness without removing your camera to get the best exposure, gain and contrast settings. That's ideal for "lucky imaging" CMOS cameras such as Altair Hypercam or GPCAM series. Use of filters such as Altair G-Band, Altair 540nm Continuum, and Altair NUV filter is made easier due to the brightness control.

Solar wedges are well known to give a sharper, higher-contrast image than traditional front-mounted metallized solar film. This is achieved by eliminating reflections between the filter and telescope lens. The result is a sharper, extremely high contrast view of sun spots, including solar photosphere features such as granulation. Sun spot centres appear a much darker black compared to views with solar film filters and many customers report never having seen the finer structures before. The difference is quite remarkable and immediately visible in the eyepiece. The Altair Solar Wedge has special anti-reflection coatings on the internal polarising filter and prism. A high specification prism gives the ultimate in sharpness and resolution for imaging and observing.

Safe and easy to use: Cheaper solar wedges direct excess energy downwards into the ground, or worse, heat up a block of metal on the back which you can burn yourself with. The Altair Imaging-Ready Solar Wedge directs energy into a special extra thick Polycrystalline Ceramic Diffuser disc at the back of the Wedge. Air vents allow air circulation by convection. The Polycrystalline disc has the added benefit of being translucent to some degree - therefore acting as a kind of narrow-field "solar finder". It doesn't completely replace the Altair Solar Finder, however works in tandem with it, enabling final tweaks even with a high power eyepiece installed. The sun appears projected onto the back of the diffuser as a "ball of light". Simply move your telescope until the ball of light is in the centre of the diffuser disc, and you are aligned with the sun, even with a high power eyepiece!

One wedge does it all! Both solar photography or visual observation: Often solar wedges don't give enough light for high speed exposures needed to "freeze" air-motion for a sharp image. The Altair Solar Wedge has an AR coated internal polarising filter, which let's you control the brightness of the image. Brightness can be increased or decreased by rotating the top turret assembly, then locking it in the desired position a thumbscrew. Variable brightness is very important both for visual and imaging use, to fine tune the ideal exposure time, or the ideal contrast levels at the eyepiece - especially when adding a colour filter such as the Altair 540nm continuum filter, or G-Band filter for extra contrast. Unlike other makes, the Altair Solar Wedge enables both visual and imaging applications without having to change internal filters. With the solar wedge in "bright" mode, exposure times as low as 2 milliseconds are routinely possible with high speed CMOS cameras like the Altair Hypercam or GPCAM. This effectively "freezes" the seeing (air movement), resulting in an incredibly sharp image.

Solar Safety
If you view the sun through a telescope or binoculars without a professional filter product, immediate and permanent eye damage will result. This has discouraged people from exploring this fascinating subject, however observing the sun is perfectly safe, provided you use your filter equipment correctly. Each wedge ships with instructions which must be read and understood completely before using the product. Never allow children to observe the sun with a telescope and wedge or filter without the supervision of a competent adult. Never remove a solar filter or wedge without first placing the front lens cap on the telescope. Always securely fasten solar filters or Solar Wedge securely to the telescope. Always remove any optical finder from the telescope before pointing it at the sun, because you could inadvertently look through it.