Hacked Lunt ls50tha etalon now using telecentric baader planetarium tz4s

[u/TheSkybender]

I removed the collimator sections from my Lunt Ls50tha 50mm x 350mm telescope and sealed everything up with aerospace grade clear silicone and a infrared rejecting bk7 window. I attached a custom thread adapter to make the system mountable to a baader planetarium tz4s telecentric and control the air pressure using a lunt pc-usb digital air compressor. The system works at high resolution now inside the focuser of any f/10 telescope, This is operating with a Vixen A105mII 105mm x 1000mm telescope. I only have a 5mm blocking filter currently so the field of view is extremely limited on my 20 megapixel basler aca5472-17um monochrome camera - but the results a proof of functionality. I will soon be upgrading to a bigger blocking filter so I can fill the entire chip. Visually with a 25mm eyepiece , the 5mm blocking filter is just fine and the image is spectacular. However, the camera sees a tiny straw sized field of view as seen in the last image. Definitely worth pulling out the OEM collimator system to make the system telecentric! There is a small reflection from the blocking filter, but it is easily fixable by simply flipping the blocking filter over so the reflective side faces the camera. If you do not wish to open the blocking filter, you can add a circular polarizer and the reflection will be 100% extinct.

[u/holdthefridge]

I didn't understand any of the things you wrote, but as an astrophotographer, this setup looks cool. Especially because I dont know what those two devices on the left are.. initially from far it looked like oscilloscope

[u/TheSkybender → u/holdthefridge]

haha the top part is a digital air compressor (used to manipulate the index of refraction between two glass plates), the black thing with tape around it is a usb 10" monitor that i had to 3d print framework for and the pink thing is a micro-itx computer that i use to control the USB3 monochrome camera