Cripes this solar war between Coronado and Lunt will never end

[NickH]

Lunt Solar Systems Blog Archive The New LS60F (unobstructed)

at that price, unobstructed, well, if it's good, and works, then it's groundbreaking

And check out the new 50mm price too...under $1000

[Solar B]

If its going to cost $1700 then i would place it at about £14-1500

over here which would i guess be putting it in the same price

bracket as the new 60mm stand alone Coronado filters ,

God-help anyone who has bought an LS75 with the horrendous root

three obstructions.

Brian

[NickH]

But it's unobstructed, which could put it against something far more serious

[hunterknox]

If these are the products that result from the war then bring it on I say!

[brianb]

If these are the products that result from the war then bring it on I say!

Seconded

[NickH]

thirded...

Great to FINALLY see them do this too

[Solar B]

I do not believe that a really good unobstructed 60mm can be made

for this kind of price !!! presumably its the same etalon as used in

the LS152 ... so as with the 50mm in the LS100 you can now work

out what they are charging for the OTA alone....a lot.

Brian

[PeterW]

I'd better hold onto my pennies for a few months longer then.... Get something bigger and better. Looking at the Lunt site I noticed the etalon finesse is not actually that high, so the coating and polishing tolerances are not as extreme as they could be. Let the price and performance battle begin!

PEterW

[NickH]

well we'll see

I plan to put this one up against the solarscope 60

[brianb]

I do not believe that a really good unobstructed 60mm can be made

for this kind of price !!!

I plan to put this one up against the solarscope 60

Yes, that's the acid test.

As I understand it, there are fundamental differences in the way Lunt and Solarscope manufacture etalons ... including the base material (Lunt glass, Solarscope quartz). That does not necessarily mean any difference in optical or mechanical performance though the quartz unit should hold its tune better under conditions of varying temperature.

All Solarscope etalons are unobstructed; yes, even the 100mm unit; personally I'm not convinced that minor obstruction will make any significant difference to the performance of the unit, when the etalon is placed in front of the objective. The story may be different where a reduced aperture etalon is used, with a telecentric module, at the tail end of the scope.

[ollypenrice]

I need to seek the advice of you guys on solar scopes and imaging. It would be a nice thing for me to offer and many are the instruments that have made it down here with their owners. However, a disturbing number of those owners have had failures and problems with solar telescopes and this does rather put me off.

Olly

[NickH]

Olly, at your end of the spectrum, Daystar or Solarscope will do you nicely, or a 90mm Coronado

[brianb]

Olly, at your end of the spectrum, Daystar or Solarscope will do you nicely, or a 90mm Coronado

I've heard of a few people who have had issues with Daystar. The Daystar products are also rather less "user friendly", needing temperature stabilization to work properly. Solarscope are "local" and Ken Huggett seems to do a really excellent job of both manufacture & product support.

You have to remember that there is variation in performance between units from the same production batch ... and that etalons are, by their very nature, somewhat fragile in that mechanical shock can decontact the plates, resulting in poor performance even though there is no apparent damage. You should see the size & quality of the packing my SF-100 arrived in ... it did its job!

You have refractors which would make excellent solar scopes ...

[NickH]

Yes, I remember the 70 arriving in something akin to a coffin... pure quality, though I say Daystar as Dave Tyler and Kev Smith's results are staggeringly good

Price no object, SF100/Daystar

Price an object SM90/BF15 filter set

[Solar B]

All Solarscope etalons are unobstructed; yes, even the 100mm unit; personally I'm not convinced that minor obstruction will make any significant difference to the performance of the unit, when the etalon is placed in front of the objective. The story may be different where a reduced aperture etalon is used, with a telecentric module, at the tail end of the scope.

Herein lies the problem as obstructions within etalons are not minor

and from a visual perspective there are obvious differences.

Money no object choice for me would be SF100 DS .

Brian

[Merlin66]

olly,

what sort of "issues" are you/have you seen with solar scopes??

Yes, a 100mm aperture would be great, but for the run of the mill solar casual observer the SM60 (or similar) would probably do the job.

bang per buck, the 80mm modded PST still has a lot going for it (and that's coming from a user of a double stacked SM60/BF10 on an ED80)

Ken

[NickH]

Afferences.

Money no object choice for me would be SF100 DS .

Brian

Aye....£16000 :-)

[Solar B]

Afferences ?

I already own and use a DS SF100 Nick

And then i wake up and have my Corn-Flakes

Brian

[NickH]

Your point being?

[Solar B]

No Point merely "trying" to be Jovial.

Again....Afferences.....cannot comprehend.

Brian