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Lunt 35 Ha first light

Fish

By Fish
in The Astro Lounge

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Fish

Fish

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Must have been a good boy the guy in a red suit got me a Lunt  LS35 Dx and Baader  zoom eyepiece barlow set :smiley: .

Even more luck , the sky cleared as the sun rose this morning.

Mounted the scope on my trusty Manfrotto  tripod and took aim, I wasn't sure what to expect, I presumed that the view would be some what less than the images you see but hoped to see some disc detail and some prominences. The sun was low and quite a lot of light cloud so I was not expecting much. Wow as soon as the image focused I could see disc detail and proms , after a few minutes the detail increased even more .The view far exceeded what I expected ,amazing and I presume that today was not a great day for solar observing. So its been a long day chasing the sun when it appeared from behind the clouds, and the wife is now a certified Astronomy widow ,all day on the sun and all night under the stars :grin: . I think she now realises her mistake....

For the record the Badder focuses on its own, but only just ,it is resting on the clamping screw when in focus, with the barlow it focuses with no problems and for this scope you could not wish for a better range of powers. I compared the supplied Lunt 10mm eyepiece with the Badder at approx. 10mm and the zoom was sharper and better contrast by far .

Merry Christmas all.......and clear skies...........

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Fish

Fish

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Second day chasing our star :smiley: , more surface detail seen today. It seems that relaxing your eye allows more detail, its a feeling like averted vision  but not the same . From what I had read and seen in video I expected to have to tune the scope to see either proms or surface detail. That does not appear to be the case, if I tune the etalon so that the proms are at there best I can still see surface detail. Compared to observing planets the Sun is quite large in the eyepiece, may be that's obvious to most but I expected with a 10mm eyepiece the Sun would look two to three times the size of Jupiter but its bigger , and the detail is incredible. Two days and I'm hooked .

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NGC 1502

NGC 1502

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Second day chasing our star :smiley: , more surface detail seen today. It seems that relaxing your eye allows more detail, its a feeling like averted vision  but not the same . From what I had read and seen in video I expected to have to tune the scope to see either proms or surface detail. That does not appear to be the case, if I tune the etalon so that the proms are at there best I can still see surface detail. Compared to observing planets the Sun is quite large in the eyepiece, may be that's obvious to most but I expected with a 10mm eyepiece the Sun would look two to three times the size of Jupiter but its bigger , and the detail is incredible. Two days and I'm hooked .

Nice one.  I've had my Lunt 35 for almost 4 years, one of the first batch to arrive in the UK.  I'm constantly amazed at what it will do.  I find that the most surface detail is seen at lower powers around 20 - 30x, proms will take a  bit more, in good seeing 30 - 50x.

I find that the tuner often makes no difference, and I leave it at the home position (no tilt on the Etalon) but sometimes it makes a lot of difference and as I apply tilt, different parts of a prom can disappear, and other areas come into view.

I agree about relaxing your eye, and as you look, more detail becomes apparent.

Yours is the Dx version, so will have the B600 blocking filter that gives a less restricted view than my B400.

Hours of addictive telescopic fun  :grin:

Regards, Ed.

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Joves

Joves

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Nice one. As already stated, that is a fantastic Xmas pressie. I have the PST and think it's an absolute beauty. I've heard that the Lunt is possibly even a little better, with a larger sweet spot

Also, the sun is the same apparent size as the moon, so definitely a lot larger than Jupiter through a scope. Amazing to think that the sun is 400 times the size of the moon, yet 400 times the distance, so appears the exact same size in the sky. What a perfect coincidence!

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Fish

Fish

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Ah why didn't I compare it to the moon :smiley: , I don't understand the sweet spot, I expected only the centre to focus or something like . When I look at mine the whole disc and proms seem to be in focus when looking at the full disc but when looking at the proms zoomed in it does seem like the middle is the better place for detail. Maybe I need more time at the eyepiece to understand.....Day 3 and still amazed :grin:  

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Pig

Pig

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It sounds like you are getting the hang of it Fish :grin:

I am waiting on a response to an add so I may soon be the lucky owner of a Lunt 60mm :smiley: The sun is shining as I type and it would be nice to be able to observe it :smiley:

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Fish

Fish

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:grin: just about I would think .....

Funny just been looking at mounts  for tracking with travel in mind (on aircraft so light weight) .

Looks like my focus problem with webcam is not enough in focus .

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Pig

Pig

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I have read a few posts in the past about auto tracking the sun, reading between the lines I got the impression there are quite a few options available that don't cost a fortune :smiley:

I don't really know much about cams and photography I'm afraid, so I cant help you with that one.

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Fish

Fish

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I know very little about astro photography , only used webcam on the moon . It refuses to focus even with a barlow , may be its the camera. Keep me posted Shaun if you do get fixed up with a scope.

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Qualia

Qualia

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Dear Fish,

I try to observe and sketch the Sun everyday in white light and I'm spell bound by the experience. I've read each of the entries here and it seems you're having a great time as well, allbeit in gorgeous Ha! I'm trying to save little by little for a solar scope of my own and was wondering if you could do me a favour? Is it possible to point out an image which gives me the general idea of what is being observed at the eyepiece? 

Thank you for your time.

Rob

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NGC 1502

NGC 1502

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Most ( but not all ) the images here http://uk.images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_adv_prop=image&fr=ush-mailn&sz=all&va=hydrogen+alpha+solar show what can be seen visually, in good conditions, using a Coronado PST or a Lunt 35.

I've compared my Lunt 35 alongside my clubs Solarscope 50, and a Lunt 60.  Prominences are very similar through all three scopes.  The more expensive ones did show a lot more surface detail on the Solar disc, and a much wider field of good definition.

HTH, Ed.

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