Coronado or Lunt?

[Highburymark]

Where are you based Peter? Solarscope prices within the UK are dramatically lower. All export market prices when I bought were almost double - just ask Helmut.

[petevasey]

7 hours ago, Highburymark said:

Where are you based Peter? Solarscope prices within the UK are dramatically lower. All export market prices when I bought were almost double - just ask Helmut.

I'm in the UK, North East.  But what dealers stock Solarscope products? - I haven't been able to find any.  Having said that, I'm in close contact with Helmut anyway, and I'm sure he would sell direct to me if I asked.   Nevertheless if he can finally sort my SV50 without a huge cost, I'd be happy with that.   I'm sure a double stacked 60 mm unit on my 65mm TSQuad would be a fantastic instrument.  But even if direct prices are as you suggest almost half of those through APM or Astroshop.eu, we're still probably looking at over £6000.  Similar to a double stacked Lunt 60 and way outside my present budget.  And of course Helmut might not have the filters available at the moment, I know he's been very busy and a bit short staffed this year.

I do need to get a solution soon - at my age (80) I might not be around, or at least particularly active when the next Solar maximum comes round - it's now or never!

Cheers,

Peter

[Highburymark]

3 hours ago, petevasey said:

I'm in the UK, North East.  But what dealers stock Solarscope products? - I haven't been able to find any.  Having said that, I'm in close contact with Helmut anyway, and I'm sure he would sell direct to me if I asked.   Nevertheless if he can finally sort my SV50 without a huge cost, I'd be happy with that.   I'm sure a double stacked 60 mm unit on my 65mm TSQuad would be a fantastic instrument.  But even if direct prices are as you suggest almost half of those through APM or Astroshop.eu, we're still probably looking at over £6000.  Similar to a double stacked Lunt 60 and way outside my present budget.  And of course Helmut might not have the filters available at the moment, I know he's been very busy and a bit short staffed this year.

I do need to get a solution soon - at my age (80) I might not be around, or at least particularly active when the next Solar maximum comes round - it's now or never!

Cheers,

Peter

Fair point. Solar cycles do tend to make us ponder the future!
I bought my Solarscope filters direct from Helmut - there are no U.K. dealers. It’s an unusual system I agree - I couldn’t believe prices were almost equivalent to Lunt when I enquired a few years ago. 
I’ll keep my fingers crossed for your SV50.

[Sadali]

I would go for  the Lunt all the way. Higher chance of getting good quality etalon. Myself using 60mm single stacked  -  bought used  for £2100 end of last year.  With good viewing and right pixel sized cameras you can squeeze from it  a lot. The closeup was recorder with 178MM and cheep 2x Barlow so quite oversampled, and full disc ( just a surface ) without Barlow and the same camera ( lots of detail for SS )    

I am considering double stack but  not now - this is the worst time to buy due to eclipse in US next month. I think after April, there will be a lot of people selling used equipment purchased just for this event.  

 

[petevasey]

Very nice - I would say pretty well comparable to my Solarview50 when working properly.

But a thought.  I'm still hoping to get my Solarview50 back from Solarscope working properly, although if they cannot match my etalon with suitable spacers, I may end up having to pay for a completely new etalon so that will be an insurance job .  In the meantime I was looking to get a secondhand Lunt 50 DS, but that fell through.   However that led me to look at the DS units for the 50, and I wonder if fitting one of them to my Solarview (once it is working properly) might be an economical route to double stack my Solarview, certainly considerably cheaper than the Solarview DS filters.  At £1495 the Lunt LS50C looks interesting.  I'd be able to make a suitable screwed adapter to fit it to the front of my Solarview.

Any comments?  Cheers, Peter

[Highburymark]

17 hours ago, petevasey said:

Very nice - I would say pretty well comparable to my Solarview50 when working properly.

But a thought.  I'm still hoping to get my Solarview50 back from Solarscope working properly, although if they cannot match my etalon with suitable spacers, I may end up having to pay for a completely new etalon so that will be an insurance job .  In the meantime I was looking to get a secondhand Lunt 50 DS, but that fell through.   However that led me to look at the DS units for the 50, and I wonder if fitting one of them to my Solarview (once it is working properly) might be an economical route to double stack my Solarview, certainly considerably cheaper than the Solarview DS filters.  At £1495 the Lunt LS50C looks interesting.  I'd be able to make a suitable screwed adapter to fit it to the front of my Solarview.

Any comments?  Cheers, Peter

It could work well Peter, but equally it might not. I’d ask the question on Solarchat, or see what Helmut thinks. From reading forums like this for many years, combining two differently branded etalons certainly pays dividends for some people, but I’ve never heard of a Solarscope/Lunt pairing.