With Sol’Ex (Solar Explorer), make incredible images of the Sun, as if you had a particularly narrow filter, much narrower than any filter on the market. Also, you can choose the wavelength of your image.
The Sol’Ex project:
Sol’Ex is a small instrument to build yourself, with 3D printed parts.
This is a project proposed and led by Christian Buil. The Sol’Ex project website gives all the practical details for assembly and use in the field.
Sol’Ex must be installed on a small astronomical telescope (with a maximum focal length of 400mm, to see the whole Sun in a single image).
The Sol’Ex project includes automatic image processing software: the result appears on the screen in just a few clicks.
The Sol’Ex optical kit offered by Shelyak brings together all the optical elements necessary for the manufacture of the instrument: slit, grating, lenses, etc.
You will have to independently obtain the 3D printed parts (STL files available on the site Sol’Ex), the bezel, the mount, a CCD or CMOS camera, as well as a solar filter or a Herschel prism to reduce the light intensity of the sun.
You will find more information on the Sol’Ex & Star’Ex project in this article here.
About the manufacture of 3D printed parts:
If you do not have a printer, you can have these parts produced by a service provider specializing in this field.
To go further… :
After becoming familiar with Sol’Ex, you will understand that this instrument can also be turned towards the (other) stars. Sol’Ex then turns into Star’Ex (Star Explorer), a small spectrograph at veryHigh resolution (HR).
A few additional optical elements are necessary to transform a Sol’Ex into a Star’Ex. This is the purpose of the complementary optical kit (ES0030 – Star’Ex HR complementary kit).
You can now also opt for the optical kit Star’Ex High resolution, which contains all the elements to make a Sol’Ex, then transform it into Star’Ex HR.
Applications :
- With the Sol’Ex you can take magnificent images of the sun, but also study sunspots and prominences on the surface of the Sun by following its evolution over time.
- The resolution is such that you can even measure the movements on the surface of the Sun (and its rotation) by Doppler effect:
- The fact of assembling and adjusting the instrument yourself allows you to fully understand its optical operation; It’s simple and very educational. So much so that Sol’Ex has its place in a school or university environment; as well as in all astronomy or science popularization associations.
Technical Specifications
- Resolution at 650 nm with 10 micron wide slit: 0.03 nm
- Wavelength range: 400 nm – 700 nm
- internal reduction ratio: 125 : 80
- 10µm slit for maximum resolution (Sol’Ex), or 15, 19, 23 or 35µm slit depending on your telescope (Star’Ex)
These technical specifications concern the Sol’Ex instrument once mounted (and not the optical kit).
In the Box
Sol’Ex optical kit :
- [OP0176] Doublet with a diameter of 25.4mm and a focal length of 80mm
- [OP0181] Doublet with a diameter of 25.4mm and a focal length of 125mm
- [OP0177] 25 x 25mm 2400 gr/mm holographic grating
- [SE0253] A reflective slit 10 µm wide and 4.5 mm long on support
Manual & Warranty
Shelyak 1-Year Warranty
Articles detailing the Sol’Ex & Star’Ex project
Sol’Ex project website
