astro_al

18 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

I went for a second hand Lunt after reading the bad QC of Daystar. Never looked back and my Lunt is a 2011 pressure tuned model. Hope you get sorted out.

I also went down the second hand Lunt route after sending two Quarks back. Hope your replacement is a good one. 

Unfortunately my driven mount is down the bottom of the garden and doesn’t really see any sun this time of year. The grab and go mount I take out the front is not driven. I did notice that you are using a Solar Quest mount with your LS60DS. I believe that has a 4KG payload so was thinking it would struggle with the Lunt, I guess not judging by your excellent images. 

Thanks. I will budget for that as well then. Main thing that is holding me back is the time of year.

Thanks @Nigella Bryant  good to know. Any Newton’s rings to deal with? I think I saw something that tilts the camera in one of you equipment images. 

Very nice images. I am just contemplating starting imaging with my LS60 DS. Looks like the ASI178 would be a good buy. 

Hope it holds for you.

I grabbed half an hour or so earlier visually, white light and Ha. I was able to test the new rotator for the front filter on the LS60DS which I think has helped me get a more even illumination in DS mode, or at least less of a linear area than in its original position. Seemed like more of the disk was on band. Could see a prom and a lot of detail around the main sunspot group. Looked like a smaller, secondary area further north.

The rotator also makes it easy to switch to single stack mode which was nice. Prom was clearer and brighter and I could see spicules on the limb like I could with the Quark, although at a lower magnification. All in all an interesting session. I need to find somewhere I can take the scopes in the afternoons though as the view from my garden is pretty obstructed this time of year. Not sure if that would count as daily lockdown exercise though.

2 hours ago, Paz said:

I've got a tak prism and a Baader t2 prism. I only really use the Baader these days as it is stronger and more versatile.

Same here.

6 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Got a hole in the clouds, prom's a beauty, well worth a look

It certainly was. Grabbed half an hour over lunchtime and was glad I did. 

I only have 4 pairs of eyepieces, 25mm and 20mm TV Plossls and the 10mm and 15mm APM Ultra Flat Fields which have a larger AFOV and better eye relief at the lower focal lengths than the plossls.

I do prefer the plossls and tend to use them with the 2.6x glass path corrector where I can, but the APM EPs are decent although one (i forget which) has noticeable edge of field brightening when used at night. The 15mm can also easily suffer from unwanted reflections on the eye lens.

I keep thinking about buying other pairs but something always takes priority. I may look at the Takahashi 30mm LEs, the 12mm Pentax XFs or the 24mm Panoptics at some point, but overall I am pretty happy with what I have.

I only ever use binoviewers these days. I have a problem with my dominant eye taking longer to focus than the other so viewing mono causes me all sorts of problems when I look away from the EP. I doubt I would go back even if I could though. I had years of short eye relief orthos and mimimal glass setups, which was great but no where near as relaxing as binoviewing.

Regarding EP selection and glass path correctors, I always found the quotes by Roland Christen posted here very useful: http://www.darksights.com/Binoviewers.htm

I managed about 15 minutes at lunchtime between the clouds and the trees. 30x in the Lunt LS60DS. Michael pretty much sums it up, although I could also see a fainter prom around the 6 o'clock position depending on where I positioned the sun in the FOV.

It will, but I had no problem using the Quark with an 0.8 exit pupil, (95x in a 76mm refractor) so I was hoping for the equivalent sharpness and brightness (seeing permitting) with a 60mm aperture at 75x. I was thinking the FC-100 because the increased focal length would make it easier to get to 75x with the eyepieces I have.

Managed a few sessions today between the clouds. Used the scope in both single and double stack mode and have got to grips with the tuning. Pleased with the results but I did think I would be able to get a little higher magnification, particularly in single stack mode.

So far I am using about 30x in double stack and about 40x in single stack otherwise the view starts to soften. Typically I am sticking with 30x in both modes. I think 50x on a day with better seeing in single stack mode might be doable.

I did want the Lunt for lower mag, full disk views but it would be nice to have the option for slightly higher magnification to get tighter in on the proms in single stack mode. I am wondering if I get an adapter for the FC-100 if that combination would support a bit more magnification, so single stack but using the front-mounted etalon with a different doublet.

Nice to be viewing in Ha again  

5 hours ago, Peter Drew said:

In addition to this is the practice of "clocking", that is rotation of the DS unit relative to the SS unit.  Significant improvement can often be achieved by this method and there is a special adaptor commercially available to assist with this.  Ha viewing is an interesting learning curve!     🙂

I have heard the term 'factory matched' when describing a second filter purchased with a scope vs adding the second filter later. If the filters are matched does this remove the need for "clocking"?

30 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

No - what I said was a bit confusing - I played around with the pressure tuner all the time. Just meant I tuned it in single stack first time before adding the second etalon. From then on didn’t take the ds filter off, but used pressure tuner and ds tilt tuner. 

Got it. Thanks for the clarification.

This? 
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p4295_TS-360--Rotation-with-M90-thread.html

41 minutes ago, Peter Drew said:

Ha viewing is an interesting learning curve!     🙂

And I thought this would be simpler than the Quark! 😁

Thanks @Highburymark - so once you had the pressure tuner sorted for the internal filter in single stack mode you left it alone from session to session and just tweaked the double stack filter?

I received a new to me Lunt LS60 double stack today. Feeling happy about having the option to view in Ha again.

I managed all of 10 minutes which allowed me to test that I could focus OK with the binoviewers and a 1.7x GPC. Great that you can unscrew the EP holder in the blocking filter diagonal to reveal a T-thread for the bayonet for the binoviewer. Also nice with the new Maxbrights that you can screw the 1.7x GPC into the nose of the binoviewer.

So with focus achieved (maybe 4mm to spare) I screwed in the pressure tuner and could see the view change from a blank disk to something with detail and a few small proms. Next started to adjust the front filter with the wheel but the clouds moved in. Promising start though.

My question to other owners of this scope is do you tune in the scope in single mode first before adding the second filter and then start tuning that? I read online that this is the way to approach it. If so do you do this once and then 'set and forget', or do you leave the front filter in place and tune both each session?

Thanks for any tips.

Al

43 minutes ago, Ken82 said:

Nice collection 👍 how heavy is the fs-60 please ? 

3KG as pictured. This includes a 1KG weight. Bare tube is 1.3KG according to Takahashi Europe http://www.takahashi-europe.com/en/FS-60CB.specifications.php

I use the 2" Baader Herschel wedge. This requires a very specific configuration to work in some of my Taks with my binoviewers. It needs the Baader Clicklock instead of the Tak visual back and then a 2" to T2 adapter on the Herschel wedge to connect a bayonet fitting for the binoviewers instead of the standard 2" Clicklock fitting. On top of that it needs the top filter cell in the wedge to be empty to accommodate the length of the 2.6x GPC.

It works with a few mm to spare in the FC-76 DC, FC-100DC and in the FS-60.

27 minutes ago, kev said:

Errr. Can i drool? 

As long as you have the correct adapter 😁

22 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Your 152 looks superb, Al, but I bet it needs a hefty mount to hold it well.

It does Dave. I have an AZ-EQ6 on a permanent pier at the bottom of the garden which handles it nicely. I have to be careful to lift it into the saddle vertically though and to keep it close to my body, otherwise my back is unhappy. 

Here is a picture of the FS-152 mounted and next to the FC-76. Just shows what doubling the diameter of a refractor’s aperture comes with. 

I am mostly enjoying using the FC-100 at the moment. Great grab and go option and light as a feather in comparison to the 152. 

Sorry to hear that your experience mirrors my own. I have been missing my Ha viewing since my Quarks went back. Great customer service from FLO but I won't ever try another. If I have the funds at some point I will probably get either a front-mounted etalon or a dedicated Lunt scope.

4 hours ago, CraigT82 said:

The zero position is when the two levers are together and can be anywhere within the zone where the two lever slots overlap. 

Thanks @CraigT82