Pinched filters? Generic equipment discussions · Dan Brown · ... · 4 · 148 · 0

Hellbender 1.81
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While lying in bed trying fall asleep last night I had a thought. Is it possible that filters improperly mounted in a filter wheel could cause image defects? What spurred this thought was my Pegasus filter wheel. The manufacturer's intent is to use three screws with washers to hold the filters in place. If the screws are tightened I would expect the filter to be deformed. What I don't know is how much affect a flat filter that is slightly distorted will impact our images. Any thoughts?
Dan
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Boorkus 1.20
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This is the same as my QHY filter wheel, I think it's a pretty normal way of mounting unmounted filters. I just barely finger tighten them until the filter no longer rattles around.
There really isn't any reason to crank on those tiny screws, you just have to stop the filter spinning or otherwise moving under its own weight...
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andreatax 7.56
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This answer is, tipically, none.
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jhayes_tucson 22.40
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·  2 likes
Dan Brown:
While lying in bed trying fall asleep last night I had a thought. Is it possible that filters improperly mounted in a filter wheel could cause image defects? What spurred this thought was my Pegasus filter wheel. The manufacturer's intent is to use three screws with washers to hold the filters in place. If the screws are tightened I would expect the filter to be deformed. What I don't know is how much affect a flat filter that is slightly distorted will impact our images. Any thoughts?
Dan

First off, I totally agree about the poor way that filters are mounted in the Pegasus FW.  It will distort the glass and can even chip a filter if the screws are over tightened.

When a plane parallel plate is used in transmission, the transmitted wavefront is very insensitive to mechanical deformation (assuming that it's not made from a birefringent material).  That's because the beam deviation at the front surface is proportional to n-1, where n is the refractive index and the deviation at the front surface is undone by the rear surface.  The refractive index of glass is about 1.5 so a refractive surface only introduces about half the optical deviation of the surface.  In reflection, any surface deviation is doubled so a reflected beam is deviated about 4 times more than a refracted beam so the accuracy requirements for a mirror are considerably higher than for a refracting element.

The bottom line:  You can't bend your filters enough to make any difference in image quality.

John
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Hellbender 1.81
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John Hayes:
Dan Brown:
While lying in bed trying fall asleep last night I had a thought. Is it possible that filters improperly mounted in a filter wheel could cause image defects? What spurred this thought was my Pegasus filter wheel. The manufacturer's intent is to use three screws with washers to hold the filters in place. If the screws are tightened I would expect the filter to be deformed. What I don't know is how much affect a flat filter that is slightly distorted will impact our images. Any thoughts?
Dan

First off, I totally agree about the poor way that filters are mounted in the Pegasus FW.  It will distort the glass and can even chip a filter if the screws are over tightened.

When a plane parallel plate is used in transmission, the transmitted wavefront is very insensitive to mechanical deformation (assuming that it's not made from a birefringent material).  That's because the beam deviation at the front surface is proportional to n-1, where n is the refractive index and the deviation at the front surface is undone by the rear surface.  The refractive index of glass is about 1.5 so a refractive surface only introduces about half the optical deviation of the surface.  In reflection, any surface deviation is doubled so a reflected beam is deviated about 4 times more than a refracted beam so the accuracy requirements for a mirror are considerably higher than for a refracting element.

The bottom line:  You can't bend your filters enough to make any difference in image quality.

John

Thank you.
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