Lunt60MT first light

[Sunshine]

This is my second 60mm Lunt in five years, the first one I ended up selling to fund another scope, a night scope, leaving me without a solar scope. Omg i do stupid things sometimes, anyway I missed my solar scope enough that I ordered another with a B1200 blocking filter as I have imaging in mind as soon as I pick up a good mono camera. After a ten week wait it is finally here,  at about 1:30 today I set it out in my back yard for first light and I was floored by yhe amount of activity.  My 9mm Morpheus produced a wonderful image scale and as I carefully and slowly cranked the pressure tuner I could see features present themselves. One thing that I immediately found pleasing was the dark background and no ghosting or double limbs, odd reflections or anything anomalous going on, the entire disc across the enire FOV as the sun drifted was uniform. details were uniform with no perceivable sweet spots or areas lacking features, the sharpness and uniformity was impressive, having had a PST I can tell you a liytle about non uniformity but this is not a bash on the PST, i loved my PST and one must not expect it to produce the same image quality as a scope costing several times more. 
 

One thing which was truly amazing about this first light was the amount of promonances and flares on display today, i counted no less than 8 sprouting off the limb, it was like one of those mosaic images where many flares are seen but they’re not exactly all present at the same time. Seeing conditions were not great but well enough to allow me a great, detailed view of two plages and three filaments which appeared like dark snakes, very neat. As I familiarized myself with the tuner again I remembered that its just like a focuser, one must turn it firmly but slowly in increments, its easy to overtune and loose fine detail from one half turn to the next. concentrating on the flares and proms was a joy as there were so many! one particular flare shaped like a palm tree which widened as it rose showed wonderful detail, my eyes were torn about where to look, it was like the sun was welcoming me back to H-alpha and chose to put on a show, I’m overjoyed to see you again! Sun. 
 

As for the scope itself, mechanically, it can be used as a weapon if an intruder breaks in, it is a surprisingly heavy hunk of aluminum for it’s size and the fit and finish are just great, i have yet to try it at night but I suspect it will be a great little scope at night also with its ED glass, it may just make for a great little grab and go. For now I am over the moon..uh sun! about H-alpha, right away i will engage in one of my favorite things to do, outreach, i can’t wait to head to the local park and let others have a look, while talking and making new friends.

Edited April 9, 2023 by Sunshine

[Highburymark]

Excellent. Sounds like you have a keeper. And you can use a binoviewer with that nice B1200 blocking filter to bring out even more detail. 

[Sunshine]

2 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

Excellent. Sounds like you have a keeper. And you can use a binoviewer with that nice B1200 blocking filter to bring out even more detail. 

Funny you mention, a friend of mine said he’s going out of country for a fee weeks and offered me his binoviewer and eyepieces to try out, I’ll take him up on that!.

[Pete Presland]

Sounds like a great 1st light, especially with now issues and a nice evenly illuminated disc. Always helps that there is plenty of activity to view as well. 

[maw lod qan]

That looks and sounds incredible!

Makes me want a Lunt even more!

Well, I've got to go. Going to put a kidney up for sale on Facebook and Ebay both!😆

[niallk]

Congrats on the scope!  My 1st time viewing Ha was at an outreach event through a double stacked 60mm Lunt, and a TV Binovue 😎.  The views were exquisite!

I'd love to binoview, but can't attain focus in my LS50DS.

Enjoy - great activity on the sun these days after a long quiet period

[Sunshine]

Thank you! wow, binos i must try but haven’t been able to meet my friend due to conflicting schedules but i am itching to try. 

[Nigella Bryant]

Great news Sunshine, I'm expecting good observations from you in future.  My the sun always shine.