Lunt SUNoculars: first impressions and (brief!) first light

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

As posted elswhere, I received my Lunt 8x32 SUNoculars yesterday, and I am very pleased with them. I won these in a weekly raffle at the fundraiser for http://www.solarastronomy.org, and if you donate October 30 at the latest you might win a similar pair (or even a Lunt LS80!!).

The Lunt SUNoculars are solidly made, but very much lighter then the big bins I am used to. The rear lens cap is secured by looping the neck strap through slots in the cap, and the front caps are have a rubber ring attached to them, so they can be attached to the front of the rubberized housing of the bins, but they can also be removed. The bins have a tripod attachment screw hidden by a cap with the Lunt  logo at the front end of the hinge. Given the shape of the housing, a fairly narrow tripod adapter will be called for. I am not sure I would ever use this on a tripod, however. These are like eclipse glasses on steroids. Eye relief is plenty for those with glasses (like me), and the twist-up eye-cups seem solid.

I managed to give them a very brief first light yesterday evening, just before sunset. Conditions were far from ideal, but I got clear views of the sunspots, with a pleasant, fairly neutral to slightly warm tone. This is difficult to judge with the sun so low in the sky, but they seem more neutral than the blueish tint of Baader Solar Film, or the orange tint of my Thousand Oaks glass filter. The image through the bins was as sharp as the seeing would allow, and at rare stable moments the image was pleasantly sharp. The magnification is a great for quick looks at the sun, and is perfect for eclipses and transits. I might look up ISS transits to see if I can spot them

I also expect to have some fun handing these to unsuspecting people wanting to borrow binoculars for birding

In all, these SUNoculars are well worth having

[laudropb]

They certainly look the part. Hope you get some nice skies soon and get the chance to give them a good try out.

[Anish]

Something about SUNoculars scares me, unlike viewing the sun through a filter in a telescope via a diagonal, you're actually staring right in the direction of the sun. It must be fairly easy to actually see the sun uncovered when you look directly at it. None the less, a very cool piece of kit, I presume that they're only good for looking at the sun?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Stu]

They look very nice Michael. I had a pair of Coronado 10x25s I think they were. They were fun to use and my first introduction to solar observing. I viewed the last transit of Mercury with them from work.

Anish, you do have to be a little more careful not to dazzle yourself. I tended to put the binos up to my eyes before looking anywhere near the sun and that avoided any problems.

[Star Struck]

They sound really interesting.

Will you be doing a more detailed report?

I wonder when they will be available in Europe/UK?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

They sound really interesting.

Will you be doing a more detailed report?

I wonder when they will be available in Europe/UK?

I discuss a bit more here:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/255447-23-october-2015-big-prom-in-h-alpha-and-the-sunoculars-first-light/

[tich]

Well done for winning them Michael they certainly do look like a nice piece of kit.