Lunt Solar Wedge First Light

"Disclaimer, Viewing the Sun can be extremely dangerous resulting in permanent damage to viewers eye!!!   The Sun is only to be viewed with equipment such as specific solar filters that are known to reduce the Sun's energy to safe levels.  The manufacture instruction's for solar equipment must be followed at all times!" 

Well, I finally obtained my Lunt Solar Wedge for white light viewing of the Sun.  This was after a 3-4 month wait.  The 2012 Venus Transit was to blame given the run on solar equipment since earlier this year.

Lunt 2" Solar Wedge and SV 105 APO

The solar wedge looks like an oversized 2" telescope diagonal.  The wedge attaches to the back of a refracting telescope.   The wedge then allows a safe amount of light from the Sun to reflect up towards the eyepiece.  The majority of the energy from the Sun passes thru a special grating in the wedge.  Since the light from the Sun comes to focus after contact with wedge's grating, no harm is done to the telescope.
The Lunt wedge itself comes supplied with an ND3 filter.

Lunt Solar Wedge and supplied case.

The benefits of the solar wedge are high light-output and a sharper image than conventional film and glass based filters.  For added safety I have purchased a Baader UV/IR blocking filter and 2" ND 0.9 filter to be used when visually viewing the Sun with the wedge.   Without the added ND 0.9 filter the image is too bright to comfortably view.  The UV/IR blocking filter is just an added measure of safety to protect against any UV/IR light that may be left after the light passes thru the wedge and the two ND filters.

From what I have seen so far, the Lunt Wedge, does indeed produce a sharp solar white-light image!  Detail across the solar disk is nice and sharp.  Solar faculae associated with the Sun's magnetic field are easily viewed too.  In one instance I could easily observe solar faculae surrounding Sunspot AR1542 as it sat on the edge of the solar disk.  The wedge can not be used with a reflecting telescope.  But it does allow for ease of use should the owner have more than one refractor.  I was able to use the wedge for solar imaging with my Stellarvue SV105 (4") APO on one day and use it for quick viewing with my WO 80 mm APO the next.

                                           Sunspots AR1542 and AR1542, 8/13/12

The above shot was taken using a SV105 4" APO, the Lunt 2" Wedge, a 2" TV 2X Barlow,  Canon T1i DSLR, and 2" Baader Continuum filter
BackYard EOS was used to collect a 1200 frame movie that was later stacked with Autostakkert2. The final composite image was later enhanced in CS2.

Unfortunately I can see that the 2X Barlow and DSLR was only sharp in the center of the image.
The image is also, not fully illuminated.  On the good side, I believe the lack of focus helps give this particular image a 3D effect.   But, next time a composite/ mosaic image will have to be considered in order to produce a sharper image with this combination.  But this was only a first light.  I hope to use a CCD-video camera at some point in the future to obtain best result.  Recent aquasition of a 4X Telvue PowerMate will also allow for sharpness and even illumination thru-out the image.

There was also a problem reaching focus with the DSLR without the barlow in place.  More in-focus is needed.  But a shorter barrel can be purchased to help bring the camera closer to the wedge.  



William Anthony