Goodbye my hacked PST

It was sold eventually. This is a final record about how I packed it and how to use it, this is more like a note for myself so that if I want to make another one in the future, I will know how to do so, and it's also a note for the new owner.

First of all, it is how a fully assembled PST should look like. The etalon is sandwiched between the golden OTA and the black focuser body, the black focuser body also contains the built-in solar finder and the visual back. The visual back is also some sort of blocking filter, but I found that it couldn't be used as an alternative of BF5/BF10.


This is how the etalon should be placed between the adapters. The etalon should be inserted into the focuser of the scaled up telescope, and the other end should be fitted with a BF5, BF10 or BF15 before a camera can be inserted.

Notice that this scaled up setup should be used for imaging only, visual usage could be quite dangerous and it is not recommended. Never risk our eye.


I have packed the PST black body into a pink box fitted with peanuts... this metal block is very strong by itself and it should be safe for transportation.

Next, I have bubble wrapped the etalon with its adapters, the PST visual back, the PST keller and also the 52mm bonus ERF in another box.

Finally, this is the 6.5" ERF, I used it like this... but in order to avoid the screws from being bended during transportation, I have removed those screws and placed in inside a small plastic bag. The recessed locations are used to lock the ring with the OTA...


Since this is the biggest piece of glass, I have packed it, and then surrounded it with some big foam in the hope to give better protection, then the whole monster is bubble warpped further like below.

Everything is then placed in a box filled with peanuts inside a bigger box like below. BTW, I have included a bonus piece of heat absorbing glass in the package, but it is not required for the setup, of course, it might be useful someday if you found your setup too hot? Anyway, it's there and if you found it useless, just throw it away.

The whole package will be shipped via airmail in the post office, the tracking number has been email'ed to the new owner.

And finally, here is a list of summary which one might find useful to use a hacked PST setup:

http://osastrolog.blogspot.com/search/label/pst - this is my adventure with this project
http://oldfield.sinaman.com/star/projects/cerf.html - my log of experiments
http://www.dd1us.de/Downloads/Modification%20of%20a%20Coronado%20PST%200v6.pdf - another very useful document

Last but not least, solar observation or imaging could be very dangerous, so in any case if you have question, don't risk and try to ask first. Irreversible damage could occur and thus, take no risk. Good luck to the new owner and I believe that it's going to receive more sunshine than it was with me, I simply couldn't use this big setup for most of the time from inside my home.