Lunt telescopes

[durr]

Does anyone here have any experience with this telescope Lunt 60mm H-Alpha Double Stack Scope B1200 or similar and how do you rate lunt telescopes? Steve

[russ]

There's a comparison between the Lunt and Coronado in the review section. That may help you.

update - here's the link:

http://stargazerslounge.com/equipment-reviews/104723-lunt-35-v-coronado-pst-shootout.html

[beetlejuice]

There's a comparison between the Lunt and Coronado in the review section. That may help you.

update - here's the link:

http://stargazerslounge.com/equipment-reviews/104723-lunt-35-v-coronado-pst-shootout.html

The August edition of Sky at Night mag is also reviewing the Coronado PST, Lunt LS35 basic, Coronado double-stacked PST and the Coronado Solar Max 40 (which wins but at 3x the price of a PST).

[brianb]

Lunt filter sets seem to be generally good although not up to the standard set by the best (Solarscope). The basic 60mm scope (I got one with a CaK diagonal) is serviceable but not that great, the construction is lightweight, the standard focuser is "very ordinary" (and the Feathertouch upgrade is expensive). IMVHO it would be better to obtain a good 70-80mm refractor (if you don't have one already) and just buy the filter set.

Is your main interest visual or imaging? If imaging I'd spend money on a larger aperture single stack filter set. For visual, double stack is better even if you can't afford as much aperture.

[durr]

Thanks for the info guys. I have bought a Lunt 60mm B1200 double stacked solar scope with pressure tuner so I hope it will perform fairly reasonable. I will write a review later on when the telescope arrives. From what I have heard this telescope is quite good for the price and they have improved quite a lot, but we will see. My friend bought a double stacked Coronado and the etalon is now rusty so I really did not want to buy a secondhand one or risk £2000 + on a new one. Brian I am hoping to both image and do visual work. Steve

[Peter Drew]

Steve, was your friend's etalon really "rusty"? I've experienced this on the front objective surface and on the blocking filter but not an etalon (as yet!).

[durr]

Peter, yes it was the front lens so I am now told. You could see that something was not right when looking into the lens and the performance had dropped off. I have another friend whose double stacked 40 is still going strong with no problems, and last evening it gave some excellent views of the sun. Does this mean that some go a bit strange while others escape this problem.

[NickH]

The etalons don't rust, it's the BF or front objectives.

LS60 B1200's when you get a good one, is okay...to quite good, but the QC is variable, and the B600's to a man, every one I have tried, I wouldn't buy. Hope your 1200 works out well..

Putting an SM40 up against the LS35 is interesting, as on paper they should be much much closer ~(similar bandpass, similar aperture and almost no chance of astigmatic optics unlike the PST)..

The pressure tuner is a work of genius though... do like that!

[durr]

Yes , I have heard that the B600'S were not that good but I have seen some fairly descent images from various B600 scopes. If it is not up to scratch its going back and I will forget about solar observing till a future date when new instruments come along. I had chance to view through a PST but was not very impressed with it. Steve

[johninderby]

Knowing what I know now when buying a Lunt I would want to test it first, or if that's not practical mail order it which makes it easy to return if it's not up to scratch.

I'm very happy with my Lunt 60HA B1200, and it really does work very well. It is a particularly good example. Pity that all the Lunts aren't as good.

John

[durr]

It will be at least three weeks before the telescope arrives and I will let you know what I feel about the quality and views that the telescope will give if and when the sun manages to come out. Looking through Jacks double stacked 40mm last week the single stack gave the best views of the prominences while the double stack gave very good views of the suns disk. Would the Cmax eyepieces make any difference on a lunt? Steve

[GazOC]

I've never used them Steve but the general opinion on the CeMax range seem to be that they are overpriced and no better than decent Plossls or orthos.

[A McEwan]

I have the LS60 B1200 Pressure Tuned and simply love it. I upgraded from a pretty good non-pressure tuned 60 B1200, which I found performed very well and was perfectly built. I had no issues with mine at all, and none with the replacement. Funny, I wouldn't have the described the focuser as "very ordinary", Brian - I thought it was just excellent, very smooth and held position well. I guess that is the difference in QC between units rearing its head? I guess I've been lucky with mine, but wtill wholeheartedly receommend them. My local club bought one after trying mine, and they got a good one too!

Ant

[brianb]

Would the Cmax eyepieces make any difference on a lunt?

Cemax eyepieces are just Plossls made with high quality glass.

IMO the best views you're likely to get with any solar scope are those given by Baader Genuine Orthos (which are also excellent for planetary work) - the small (by modern standards) apparent field of view is not an issue for solar work, the superbly flat undistorted view at high contrast are however very welcome. Eye relief on the 9mm is marginal but you won't need anything shorter; the best views with my (f/8) Solarscope are usually obtained with the 12.5mm.

[johninderby]

My favourite solar eyepiece is the Pentax XF 6.5mm to 19.5mm zoom. Couldn't tell the difference between the Baader GOs and the zoom for detail, and the zoom has the advantage of a bigger FOV besides being a zoom of course.

Somewhere around the 11mm or 12mm setting gives the best views most of the time. While the XF zoom is a good general purpose zoom it's characteristics seem to be just perfect for solar observing.

John

[durr]

Thanks guys for the C max eyepiece info, I won’t be buying them. Brian and Gaz I have a 9mm Baader so thats a plus, I might buy a couple of more planetary eyepieces later on. Ant glad that the scope as worked out well, and the company who is selling Lunt told me that they did have some QC problems but have improved and solved many of the issues, the newer models are far better. He volunteered the information and went over the problems that Lunt had with the earlier models, but only time will tell. Steve

[NickH]

Good to hear. I got a royal earful when I said exactly the same at launch, and it's nice to be proven right.. the first ones I had a play with were awful (H-A). the "*****" in their armour has been removed :-) and things do look better now.

[NickH]

Wow...the filters on here are amusing. the word in "****" was a legit word in the OED, and not offensive at all...

[durr]

I have two cameras and both are black & white, Watec120n+ ccd camera and the

DMK 41AUO2.AS . I was thinking of buying the colour DMK camera to do solar imaging would this be the best route to go or should I stay with the black & white cameras? Steve.

[Peter Drew]

Hello again Steve. I have used a 120n for b&w solar imaging but always had my best video results with an Astrovid 2000. I'm also now interested in obtaining colour images and have considered a DMK camera. I borrowed a Planetcam but found the image scale too large due to the 1/4" chip and the dip switches were difficult to operate being very small and very stiff, also the gain and colour trimming dials always seemed to miss the ideal settings. At the moment I have just bought a Samsung SDC435P which looks promising but no chance as yet to try it on the Sun.

[Merlin66]

Stick with the B&W.

The DMK seems like a good choice.

[NickH]

Stick with mono or lose 75% of your useful data...

Every pro solar imager in the world pretty much uses Mono.

DMK's are excellent, but if you can get a Lumenera LU075m in kit form for around £240 (which seems to be the case) that is also a winner

[durr]

NickH and Merlin thanks you have convinced me to remain with the camera that I have. Peter, let me know if you decide on a colour camera. Thanks guys Steve