Solar Equipment

[valleyman]

Thinking of getting a Solar outfit for Observing and Imaging.

What ever I get it will be mounted on my Celestron Nextstar Mount for tracking.

Got a Budget of about £2000 so was thinking about which Scope and Camera would be best within that budget. (Wife permitting)

Ben leaning towards the Coronado SolarMax II 60 Telescope BF5 and the Celestron NexImage 5 Solar System Imager 5MP.

Any advice and help would be great.

Any general advice as well would be much appreciated. 

Am familiar with don't look directly at the Sun

[Zakalwe]

Personally, I'd be looking for a 2nd hand Lunt L60 Pressure Tuned scope. The PT system is superior to tilt tuned systems.

There's far better cameras available than the Celestron. Firstly, the Celestron is a colour cam, which is a huge disadvantage when imaging in narrowband- you will get far, far better results with a mono camera. For a 60mm scope you will want something with small pixels, so stay clear of cameras that use the 174 Sony chip.  If you can stretch to £425, the the Point Grey Chameleon is a brilliant camera and it 3.75 micron pixels are perfect for a 60mm scope.

http://astrograph.net/epages/www_astrograph_net.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/www_astrograph_net/Products/AGPGCM-31S4M

You *might* need a SSD drive in your 'puter to run a USB3 fast frame rate camera like this....I certainly need one with my ASI 174 camera, albeit the top speeds on the 174 can run into the hundreds of FPS.

For visual work I'd also be trying to source a double-stacking etalon.....pricey, but the views are an order of magnitude better than a single-stack system.

 

I'd also consider the Lunt L50 scope...if you could stretch the budget a bit (budgets are ALWAYS insufficient and open to being ragged in this gig!), then you could get a double-stacked L50 pressure tuned scope and the Chameleon camera. That would beat the Solarmax and Nextimage into a cocked hat.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/lunt-solar-50mm-h-alpha-telescopes.html

[Peter Drew]

Good advice from Zakalwe, to which I would add that you will need a larger blocking filter than 5mm for imaging unless you like doing mosaics. Not a cheap interest even at entry level!

[brantuk]

All great advice above - those guys know their stuff with solar set ups. All I'd suggest is that you put all your budget into the scope - get the very best you can - and save up for a camera later. You can always mess around with a cheap webcam in the meantime.

[Zakalwe]

Theres one other thing to consider- the Sun is entering a minimum activity period, so the disc can be very quiet. A widefield rig (such as a 60mm scope) will struggle to give the resolution to get "close in" to the surface detail and smaller sunspots. This is where a Quark, ERF and normal refractor can come into play. However, I am hesitant to recommend a Quark to someone with no solar experience. They need good seeing, have much lower contrast and require a lot more patience to use and to process.

Again, if you choose this route, the camera requirments are different. Big pixels are needed...the ASI 174 (or other Sony 174 chipped cameras) work very well with the Quark. I'd also recommend an electric focus motor as getting focus is tricky.

Lots to think about and research!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have the SolarMax-II 60mm (not sure it is tilt tuned, I think it is a pinch tuner like the PST), with BF15 blocking filter. A BF10 would have been enough, but I could get a BF15 for less than the price of a BF10, so why not. A BF5 I had before was way lower in transmission than the BF15, so I would avoid the BF5. I would certainly prefer a Lunt 60mm with pressure tuner, as it does provide less banding, and has no central obstruction (but then I got the SolarMax and double-stack unit for such a good price, I couldn't resist.

You can image with the ASI174MM with it, but you will need a Barlow for optimal resolution. Even with 3.75 micron pixels that will be the case. I personally am looking at the ASI178MM for short-focal length solar imaging. Its 2.4micron pixels drag out even more detail.

 

These are two results I got recently with the ASI174MM and 2.5x PowerMate (2-pane mosaics)

Single stack:

Double-stack:

[Zakalwe]

For sure, it will work. I use a TV Powermate 2.5 and, sometimes, a x3 barlow with my ASI 174 and my Lunt. However, you can still see the pixels in the final image.  If you are buying new, then there's no point in buying into a compromise though. You might as well buy the correct kit from the start.

I'm also interested in the back illuminated Sony sensor for use with my Lunt, which will then mean that the 174 will be permanently on the Quark. I'd like to see some results from it first though.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

1 minute ago, Zakalwe said:

For sure, it will work. I use a TV Powermate 2.5 and, sometimes, a x3 barlow with my ASI 174 and my Lunt. However, you can still see the pixels in the final image.  If you are buying new, then there's no point in buying into a compromise though. You might as well buy the correct kit from the start.

I'm also interested in the back illuminated Sony sensor for use with my Lunt, which will then mean that the 174 will be permanently on the Quark. I'd like to see some results from it first though.

That's exactly why the ASI178MM is appealing. I use the ASI174MM for work with the Solar Spectrum 0.3 Å filter with Baader TZ-4, which results in a Quark-like F/25-F/32, depending on the scope. Then the big pixels come into their own. The 2.4 micron pixels of the ASI178MM give an optimal focal ratio of F/11-F/12, or so, so even that would require a Barlow for optimal performance.

[valleyman]

would the Lunt 50 B600 Blocking Filter work ok with a ZWO ASI178MM USB 3.0 Mono Camera.

Been given the heads up on the Lunt that might be coming up for Sale soon.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

The B600 has a 6mm clear aperture, which is touch and go on a 500mm scope (LS60). The ASI178MM has a 7.4mmx5.0mm sensor, i.e an 8.9mm diagonal, so a bigger blocking filter would be better. A B600 is fine for the shorter focal length scopes such as the LS35 and LS50

[Zakalwe]

The BF1200 is usually recommended for imaging on a Lunt 60. A BF600 is tight and will vignette.

[valleyman]

Thanks for all the replys Guys,

What would be the best Camera for the  Lunt 50 with the B600 blocking filter