ZWO 1.25" Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector

ZWO 1.25" Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector

The ZWO Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector, or ADC, is a brilliant tool for correcting the scattering effect of light rays in the Earth's atmosphere. In layman's terms, when a bright objects such as a Planet is observed through a telescope, color fringing is often seen. For instance, Jupiter might have a red and blue fringe as well as distortion. This is the result of the atmosphere's influence on an object's light as that object passes through it. In other words, the atmosphere is behaving like a giant refractor lens. This effect is modified depending upon the height of the object above the horizon. The lower the object the more pronounced the effect.

By correcting this scattering effect, the ADC allows you to view and image bright objects clear of these distortions and aberrations. You no longer have to wait for a target to be high enough in the sky for it to be satisfactory to view. With the ADC you can now view objects no matter their location with perfect clarity.

ZWO ADC Operation

The ADC corrects the atmosphere's dispersion effect on planets, stars and other bright objects by using the chromatic cover of two opposing rotating prisms. Levers on the ADC adjust the two rotating prism and change the compensation effect from nothing to its apex when the they are separated by 180 degrees.

The atmosphere's dispersion effect influences some wavelengths differently than others. Adjusting the ADC's levers provides a simple way to compensate for this.

Imaging

Color imaging a planet without an ADC will inevitably result in color fringing and distortion. And when the presence of this fringing and distortion is taken away in processing, you wind up with an image with decreased resolution which cannot be reclaimed. While Mono imaging separate Red, Green and Blue images and superimposing them helps to offset this to some extent, in order to take advantage of an image's full resolution, a Luminance image should be taken. This will experience the same problems as a regular full color image.

The solution is to use the ZWO ADC which eradicates these distortion and image shift issues resulting in an image with immensely more detail. Further processing can produce a completely enhanced final image.

OPT Product Number: ZWO-ADC

• 1.25" Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector
• 1.25" Adapter W/ Female T2 Thread X 2