I received my Coronado Solar Max 60 with T-Max and a BF 15 last Tuesday and had just a few sucker holes in the clouds to play with it for a short while. I hope to get in several good viewing sessions this week at the 20th Annual Deep South Regional Stargaze. Right now the weather is looking fairly favorable. That will be appreciated after the wettest October in south Louisiana since 1985.
Anyway in respect to storage....., I got an adapter in order to use my filter with my Tak FS78. The plastic case that the Solarmax 60/T-Max and BF15 come in looked like it had enough space in it to cut out some additional foam for the adapter. I cut out the foam and indeed the adapter will fit. Closing the case is a bit more difficult. It got me thinking about just how secure this case may be as the plastic latches are very much like those on a plastic Orion eyepiece case. I had an unfortunate accident with one of those about a year ago. A moderate bump opened the case while carrying it out to the car and a 2" amici diagonal and several eyepieces spilled out on the concrete carport. The rubber caps on the eyepieces saved them from harm, but the diagonal suffered some internal chipping of the amici prism in two corners. It is still useable, but it is not what it used to be.
Anyway the thought of seeing better than $2500.00 worth of solar filter falling out of the case (in slow motion) with me helpless to do anything about it, is a frightening thought. Why entrust the safety of a Coronado filter to a $20.00 eyepiece case? No reason to do it, so I went out and bought a Model 1450 Pelican Case. You can get these mailorder for about $75.00. With this case, all anxiety about it accidently coming open is eliminated. To get it open, you have to want to get it opened. It floats, and it is waterproof. I consider it an appropriately priced compliment to an investment that I want to keep as good as new for many years to come. The Model 1400 would do, but the slightly larger Model 1450 allows me to comfortably fit the filter, the BF15, the Tak FS78 filter adapter, plus an extra dewshield from an old University 80 refractor which I have fitted for the SolarMax 60 cell.
The dewshield, with some internal felt, slides right over the outer cell of the SolarMax 60. It extends about 2.5 inches beyond the front of the filter. This in my opinion, minimizes the chance of curious fingers touching the filter. I am not sure yet if the additional protection it provides in respect to shielding the filter from off-axis light will be of any consequence. If so, great, but the real purpose here is to protect the filter surface from the curious who just feel compelled to touch it.
I would strongly recommend both improvements that I have made.
Barry Simon
Anyway in respect to storage....., I got an adapter in order to use my filter with my Tak FS78. The plastic case that the Solarmax 60/T-Max and BF15 come in looked like it had enough space in it to cut out some additional foam for the adapter. I cut out the foam and indeed the adapter will fit. Closing the case is a bit more difficult. It got me thinking about just how secure this case may be as the plastic latches are very much like those on a plastic Orion eyepiece case. I had an unfortunate accident with one of those about a year ago. A moderate bump opened the case while carrying it out to the car and a 2" amici diagonal and several eyepieces spilled out on the concrete carport. The rubber caps on the eyepieces saved them from harm, but the diagonal suffered some internal chipping of the amici prism in two corners. It is still useable, but it is not what it used to be.
Anyway the thought of seeing better than $2500.00 worth of solar filter falling out of the case (in slow motion) with me helpless to do anything about it, is a frightening thought. Why entrust the safety of a Coronado filter to a $20.00 eyepiece case? No reason to do it, so I went out and bought a Model 1450 Pelican Case. You can get these mailorder for about $75.00. With this case, all anxiety about it accidently coming open is eliminated. To get it open, you have to want to get it opened. It floats, and it is waterproof. I consider it an appropriately priced compliment to an investment that I want to keep as good as new for many years to come. The Model 1400 would do, but the slightly larger Model 1450 allows me to comfortably fit the filter, the BF15, the Tak FS78 filter adapter, plus an extra dewshield from an old University 80 refractor which I have fitted for the SolarMax 60 cell.
The dewshield, with some internal felt, slides right over the outer cell of the SolarMax 60. It extends about 2.5 inches beyond the front of the filter. This in my opinion, minimizes the chance of curious fingers touching the filter. I am not sure yet if the additional protection it provides in respect to shielding the filter from off-axis light will be of any consequence. If so, great, but the real purpose here is to protect the filter surface from the curious who just feel compelled to touch it.
I would strongly recommend both improvements that I have made.
Barry Simon
