Come join the friendliest, most engaging and inclusive astronomy forum geared for beginners and advanced telescope users, astrophotography devotees, plus check out our "Astro" goods vendors.
Come join the friendliest, most engaging and inclusive astronomy forum geared for beginners and advanced telescope users, astrophotography devotees, plus check out our "Astro" goods vendors.
My new Lunt 50mm HA Solar scope has arrived last week and I was impatiently waiting for a chance to take it for a spin. The forecast for the next ten days did not look great, but to my surprise and delight the sun broke the clouds today around 10 am. I have dropped everything, grabbed the scope and Manfrotto tripod and run out. Eventually, I would like to use the scope on a tracking mount but did not want to mess with it today.
My plan was to use Baader Mark IV zoom. Unfortunately, there was not enough inward travel to reach focus with it. So, I have run back home and grabbed my EP case. TV Delites in shorter FLs did not reach focus either, but due to outward focuser limit. Vixen SLVs on the other hand worked nicely in all FLs.
It took some practice finding the sun. The eye position for this scope is very sensitive and prone to blackouts, I have learned to hover above EP to keep the sun image steady, which is different from nighttime observing. At night I use a hoodie to block stray light. For sun I have discovered that baseball cap works better.
I have started at low power SLV 25mm (14x) where the Sun was smallish and worked my way down to 6mm (58x). Wow, just wow! The level of details exceeded my best expectations.
As I cranked power larger sunspots got resolved into small groups and mini sunspots popped all over the sun disk. Granulation, filaments, arches, proms, umbra and penumbra in sunspots, all were there with finest level of details. Proms showed intricate patterns down to tiniest threads. As I turned slowly the pressure handle new details within the disk came into view.
One hour in I was just warming up. Run home to grab more of short FL EPs, but when came back the clouds moved in. Glad that my wife managed to take a look and she was blown away to! Now we both are solar heads for life.
Very detailed first light report ! I was confident you wouldn't be disappointed . The restricted view is due to the blocking filter size , B600 is 6mm , the B1200 is double the size at 12mm and will open up your field of view . Could be something to consider down the road
Solar scopes (Coronado Ha) 60mm double stack , 90mm double stack , 150mm single stack .
W/L scope Williams Optic Megrez 110mm / Lunt herschel wedge .
Night scope Celestron 9.25 XLT
Mounts HEQ6 , HEQ5 , Losmandy G8
Good for you Andrey! What a nice read and congrats on the good luck with the viewing. Your skies behind you look menacing!
Bigzmey wrote: ↑Sun Apr 14, 2024 9:26 pm
Glad that my wife managed to take a look and she was blown away to! Now we both are solar heads for life.
Always good when you can get the other half involved; nice for you both.
Not trying to help you spend your $$$, but Mike is so right. I went from a 5mm to a 10mm and visually it was even more amazing, plus easier to find ol' Sol.
Like you said, it's always a bit more...
Nice report and a big recommendation for VROD
All the best,
Mark
"The Hankmeister" Celestron 8SE, orange tube Vixen made C80, CG4, AZ-EQ5 and SolarQuest mounts.
Too much Towa glass/mirrors.
Solar:
H/A - PST stage 2 mod with a Baader 90mm ERF on a Celestron XLT 102 (thanks Mike!)
Ca-K - W/O 61mm, Antares 1.6 barlow, Baader 3.8 OD and Ca-K filters with a ZWO ASI174mm.
W/L - C80-HD with Baader 5.0 & 3.8 Solar film, Solar Continuum 7.5nm and UV/IR filters with a Canon EOS 550D. Member of the RASC
I got one several years ago. Love the views but did have to replace the EP holder with a 15mm as the 30mm one the scope came with did not give enough inward focus for some of my EPs.
Was going to double stack it but never did. Maybe someday.
Enjoy it
Keep calm and set SCE To AUX
Wildland fire: a strong tradition since 440,000,000 BCE
NEW for 345,000,000 BCE - Crown fires!
@Bigzmey
The amount of dimming at the eyepiece will hardly be noticeable but the detail double stacking brings out is well worth the investment IMO . The reduced brightness becomes more apparent when imaging , the slightly dimmer view requires more exposure time and slows down the frame rate , the same happens when using barlows .
Hope this is helpful .
Solar scopes (Coronado Ha) 60mm double stack , 90mm double stack , 150mm single stack .
W/L scope Williams Optic Megrez 110mm / Lunt herschel wedge .
Night scope Celestron 9.25 XLT
Mounts HEQ6 , HEQ5 , Losmandy G8
Solsearcher wrote: ↑Sat May 04, 2024 8:49 pm
@Bigzmey
The amount of dimming at the eyepiece will hardly be noticeable but the detail double stacking brings out is well worth the investment IMO . The reduced brightness becomes more apparent when imaging , the slightly dimmer view requires more exposure time and slows down the frame rate , the same happens when using barlows .
Hope this is helpful .
very happy for you and your wife, very good report of an excellent product.
too bad the baader zoom didn't give the expected result .
i'm still wondering if i should buy 2 for mine with my binos .
thx Andrey .
I LOVE REFRACTORS ,
REFRACTOR , TS-Optics Doublet SD-APO 125 mm f/7.8 . Lunt 80mm MT Ha Doublet Refractor .
EYEPIECES, Delos , Delite and 26mm Nagler t5 , 2 zoom Svbony 7-21 , Orion Premium Linear BinoViewer .
Baader Mark IV is a good quality zoom. I have been using it for years. The problem is a short focuser travel on the Lunt 50mm. I can't get focus with many of my favorite EPs like TV Delos and Pentax XW, not just the zoom. The good part is I got plenty of EPs to find those that work with Lunt.
Something to be aware of. I have tried to use my binoviewers with two Baader zooms but they have ~5cm diameter and my nose get's in the way. I know other people use them for binoviewing so it comes down to face structure.
