solar telescope

[Marcel]

Hi! I am lokking for a solar telescope. pre-owned or new. What are the best options?

Thankxxxxx

[Peter Drew]

They are all worth having. What type of observing/imaging are you interested in doing, white light or Hydrogen-Alpha and what is your intended budget?    ?

[cletrac1922]

6 hours ago, Marcel said:

Hi! I am lokking for a solar telescope. pre-owned or new. What are the best options?

Thankxxxxx

Marcel

Have recently purchased a Coronado Solar Max 11

The only thing I do not like about them is that the locking screws are plastic

Have to source some metal ones

The new Solar Max 111, now has a fine and course tuner, and the RichTune tuner has been moved to the front

I use single stack with BF10 blocking filter

Alternate manufacturer is LUNT, and they have a lot of issues with the pressure tuner, and no end of issues on my club one

Not sure what existing scopes you have

I use my Solar Max 11 on my EQ5 mount

John

   

[Demonperformer]

If you already own a telescope of the appropriate size, you might want to consider a quark eyepiece (I'm assuming you are after an Ha scope) as an option.

[Marcel]

On 11/02/2019 at 00:47, cletrac1922 said:

Marcel

Have recently purchased a Coronado Solar Max 11

The only thing I do not like about them is that the locking screws are plastic

Have to source some metal ones

The new Solar Max 111, now has a fine and course tuner, and the RichTune tuner has been moved to the front

I use single stack with BF10 blocking filter

Alternate manufacturer is LUNT, and they have a lot of issues with the pressure tuner, and no end of issues on my club one

Not sure what existing scopes you have

I use my Solar Max 11 on my EQ5 mount

John

   

Hi John,

This is very helpfull for me. So Lunt has its own issues? If i read your reply your happy with yours? I know about the plastic screws. Its a shame. (Laughing) Lunt is also more expensive so its not my first choice. I'm for work in Mexico-City next week. So ill have some thougts about it. First thing to arrive is my starsense for my sky-watcher thursday. It will be nice weather here so ill give it a try first. Kind regards Marcel

[Marcel]

1 minute ago, Marcel said:

Hi John,

This is very helpfull for me. So Lunt has its own issues? If i read your reply your happy with yours? I know about the plastic screws. Its a shame. (Laughing) Lunt is also more expensive so its not my first choice. I'm for work in Mexico-City next week. So ill have some thougts about it. First thing to arrive is my starsense for my sky-watcher thursday. It will be nice weather here so ill give it a try first. Kind regards Marcel

Uhmm, i have an EQ6 r pro, skywatcher 200mm newton, several deloss and a paracorr 2.

 

[Marcel]

On 10/02/2019 at 18:55, Peter Drew said:

They are all worth having. What type of observing/imaging are you interested in doing, white light or Hydrogen-Alpha and what is your intended budget?    ?

Hi, my intended budget is 2500 eur. Hydrogen Alpha . Every brand has its own issues.  So it makes it difficult. 

[Buzzard75]

16 hours ago, Marcel said:

Hi, my intended budget is 2500 eur. Hydrogen Alpha . Every brand has its own issues.  So it makes it difficult. 

I recently purchased a Lunt LS80, it's a pressure tuner and I am quite happy with it. Yes, every brand has its own issues and sometimes you get a lemon. You just have to layout a budget, identify models from several manufacturers that fall into that price range, weigh the pros and cons, decide which features you really want and look at potential upgrades to budget for down the road. I would also recommend looking through any of them when the opportunity presents itself.

Quarks are great if you already have a scope that you can use them with. I didn't, so I would have had to budget for a scope as well. I could have gotten a scope, a quark and a decent mount for what I paid for the Lunt LS80. However, I knew the Quark required a power source, it took some time for the Quark to warm up and everytime you adjusted the tuning it took some time to settle as well. Since I do a lot of public outreach with my club, I really wanted something that I could just grab and go, didn't require a power source and didn't require much waiting to be setup and ready to go. That put me down the all-in-one route. I quickly narrowed it down to the two main brands when it comes to H-alpha, Coronado and Lunt. I had looked through Lunt's before, but never seen a Coronado. I've heard horror stories for both. I ultimately decided on the Lunt. I just felt I was getting more scope for the money. I also I got an incredible deal on it. I got a new scope for a used price. I also knew that I would be able to upgrade down the road with double stacking the tuner and replacing the focuser. You can supposedly do the same with a Coronado, but I didn't see any Solarmax III double stacking etalons for upgrades on Coronado's website.

So, set your budget, do your research, come to your own conclusions. My decision or someone else's decision is not necessarily the right one for you. You'll need to make your own decision based on your own circumstances and finances.

[Marcel]

51 minutes ago, Buzzard75 said:

I recently purchased a Lunt LS80, it's a pressure tuner and I am quite happy with it. Yes, every brand has its own issues and sometimes you get a lemon. You just have to layout a budget, identify models from several manufacturers that fall into that price range, weigh the pros and cons, decide which features you really want and look at potential upgrades to budget for down the road. I would also recommend looking through any of them when the opportunity presents itself.

Quarks are great if you already have a scope that you can use them with. I didn't, so I would have had to budget for a scope as well. I could have gotten a scope, a quark and a decent mount for what I paid for the Lunt LS80. However, I knew the Quark required a power source, it took some time for the Quark to warm up and everytime you adjusted the tuning it took some time to settle as well. Since I do a lot of public outreach with my club, I really wanted something that I could just grab and go, didn't require a power source and didn't require much waiting to be setup and ready to go. That put me down the all-in-one route. I quickly narrowed it down to the two main brands when it comes to H-alpha, Coronado and Lunt. I had looked through Lunt's before, but never seen a Coronado. I've heard horror stories for both. I ultimately decided on the Lunt. I just felt I was getting more scope for the money. I also I got an incredible deal on it. I got a new scope for a used price. I also knew that I would be able to upgrade down the road with double stacking the tuner and replacing the focuser. You can supposedly do the same with a Coronado, but I didn't see any Solarmax III double stacking etalons for upgrades on Coronado's website.

So, set your budget, do your research, come to your own conclusions. My decision or someone else's decision is not necessarily the right one for you. You'll need to make your own decision based on your own circumstances and finances.

Thankxxxxx!!!!