Trever
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 08/18/03
Posts: 2978
Loc: North Alabama
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I wanted to get back into Solar viewing so I preordered the $899 dollar version of the Lunt Solar Ha scope. I had to think hard since the PST is on sale for $499 now. But with the NEAF video of the Lunt scopes, I felt that they were the better choice. One of the reasons I chose this is that when I owned a PST, I found that I had all kinds of issues using a webcam with it and I had to disassemble it to even get it to work. I didnt really like using a barlow and even when I did, I still do not think the webcam worked well with it. So, I figured with the crayford focuser and overall build of the Lunt scope I figured that I would be happier in the end.
I would like to know though...Will the 60mm Lunt scope be equal or superior to the PST? Or should I have just stuck with the PST and engineered it for webcaming?
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Trever
Explore Scientific 152mm F/6.5 Achromat
Celestron CGEM 11 XLT SCT
Lunt LS60THaDS50 B1200 w/pressure tuner
Nikon 8x42 Trailblazer Binos
Stellarvue M1 mount
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dozer613
member
Reged: 08/01/04
Posts: 60
Loc: Chicago,IL
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The PST that I had, you had to view in a certain spot otherwise forget it,wanted to try to turn my kids onto solar viewing but the very limited FOV was a big turn off to them.
Anything is better than that
I also ordered the double 60
Marty
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Stellarvue SV85L
15x70mm Barska bino's
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Jim Rosenstock
Post Laureate
Reged: 07/14/05
Posts: 3714
Loc: MD, south of the DC Nebula
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Quote:
I would like to know though...Will the 60mm Lunt scope be equal or superior to the PST?
We will be among the first to find out! 
Certainly, among those of us who have pre-ordered, the expectation is for superior performance. But with no product "on the street", there's no knowing for sure. That's the nature of "pre-orders".
Let's enjoy the ride....
Cheers,
Jim
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Sol
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 08/20/07
Posts: 1958
Loc: Powys, Wales, UK
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You guys are a lot braver than me. I'm looking at the Lunt DS 60mm Ha too as an upgrade from the PST, but I want to see images from it and hear what customers have to say first before I part with the cash. I guess it will be your reviews and images that make or break the deal for me.
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Visit the Sunnymeade Astro Solar Blog
http://sunnymeadeastro.blogspot.com/
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darkstar528
Postmaster
Reged: 03/06/07
Posts: 6786
Loc: Hodgenville, Kentucky, USA
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>>>>you had to view in a certain spot otherwise forget it,
I think that spot may vary, and/or not be significant in the overall...My sweet spot is bigger than the area I generally look at(unless at minimum magnification just to check out overall view) so any more wouldn't mean I would see more, per se...And after seeing Emiel or Pete Lawrence's images, it would take a lot for me to upgrade, just my humble opinion...I wish you the best and look forward to your reports!!!!
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Blue skies,
Stephen "Darkstar" Ames
PST(#96038), VIXEN 8-24mm,CEMAX 2x Barlow, Thousand Oaks White Light Filter and a Meade Elec EP
CFI, CFII, MEI, working on EIEIO!
BAA Member
My solar site:
http://seemysunspot.com
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Ralph Marantino
Postmaster
Reged: 05/01/05
Posts: 6330
Loc: Old Bridge, New Jersey
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While no one will really know untill we get to look thru them,based on what I saw and handeled ay NEAF a 60mm Lunt has to be better than a 40mm anything else. 
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Lunt H-alpha LS100THa/B3400
Rockland Astronomy Club
Member BAA Solar Section
Central Appalachian Astronomy Club
Astronomical League
DSPST,PST & 70mm Coronado Cal K telescope.2.2A
Zeiss 2 inch prism diagonal&Zeiss Zoom EP
2inch APM Herschel Wedge in a 94mm F7 Brandon
14.5 inch f4.2 Starmaster Dob(Zambuto mirror)
TeleView Genisis SDF with 1000 Oaks Glass filter
Zeiss 63mm f13.5 refractor 1000 Oaks Glass filter
Itty Bitty Solar Radio Telescope.
LHRIES Lite Solar Spectrometer
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colinsk
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/17/08
Posts: 2150
Loc: CA
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If the etalons are well made, and I can't think of many people better qualified to make them, then 60mm should make a big difference in resolution. I am in the catagory of hopeful. 
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Mahalo,
Colin Kaminski
Coulter 10.1" Dobsonian
TV-76/Baader Film White Light
LS60T/DS50/FT/BF1200
LDX-75
AT Voyager
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pjstoker
sage
Reged: 04/21/06
Posts: 439
Loc: So. Calif, USA
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Yes Stephen, I think you hit the nail on the head. That has been my experience also. Sweet spot very noticeable with a 18mm eyepiece, less so with a 12mm eyepiece and almost non existent with a barlow and 18mm or 12mm eyepiece.
Pat
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Patrick Stoker
http://home.earthlink.net/~pjstok/wp10_intro.htm
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Trever
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 08/18/03
Posts: 2978
Loc: North Alabama
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My PST was the same. It had a sweetspot that you had to do most of your viewing in. I never could have much luck webcamming with it though unless I tear most of it apart. Using a barlow must have prevented me from getting the best views as I was never happy with the views that way. I wanted something I could just use and not have to re-engineer it, so the Lunt was it. I guess we will see...
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Trever
Explore Scientific 152mm F/6.5 Achromat
Celestron CGEM 11 XLT SCT
Lunt LS60THaDS50 B1200 w/pressure tuner
Nikon 8x42 Trailblazer Binos
Stellarvue M1 mount
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Jim7728
Postmaster
Reged: 04/10/05
Posts: 5063
Loc: Stoop Landing Observatory, NYC
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Trever
Why not get the $1049 version with the 12mm blocking filter?
The 6mm on the $899 seems PST like.
12mm vs 6mm = larger tuning area. 
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Jim
Genesis SDF-f/5.4 FS-102-f/8
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Fish
sage
Reged: 10/13/07
Posts: 470
Loc: Norridgewock, ME
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Good evening,
I did (sort of) the same thing last month, pre-ordering a Lunt 60mm to improve on the performance of a PST.
The only difference? I'm doing it for CaK reasons! I wonder how long it will be for that version?
Deep violet skies,
Marc
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Goseck Observatory
Kunming 152 f/5.9 & Baader Wedge
Orion ED80 & LS75FHa2/B1200
Meade 102ED & LS18CaKMDd2
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colinsk
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/17/08
Posts: 2150
Loc: CA
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Quote:
12mm vs 6mm = larger tuning area.
The sweet spot is an etalon effect and not related to the blocking filter size. Normally the blocking filter is sized by the focal length of the telescope and the size of the sun.
Markus' recomendation to increase the size to 12mm for imaging is interesting. I took his advice but I still wonder what advantage a 12mm blocking filter has? 
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Mahalo,
Colin Kaminski
Coulter 10.1" Dobsonian
TV-76/Baader Film White Light
LS60T/DS50/FT/BF1200
LDX-75
AT Voyager
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Tom and Beth
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 01/08/07
Posts: 929
Loc: Tucson, AZ
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Wellll, I have a 60MM Coronado with the BF15. I DON'T know if we're talking apples to apples, but I chose the larger blocking filter to allow the use of the scope on an undriven mount AND for the better FOV for large Proms. The 60 is a killer combo with my TV76, but it doesn't get as much use since I picked up a 90 for another scope.
I can just imagine what a jump to the 200 would be! 
At least, that was my rational and I'm sticking to it.
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Jim7728
Postmaster
Reged: 04/10/05
Posts: 5063
Loc: Stoop Landing Observatory, NYC
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Quote:
Quote:
12mm vs 6mm = larger tuning area.
The sweet spot is an etalon effect and not related to the blocking filter size. Normally the blocking filter is sized by the focal length of the telescope and the size of the sun.
Markus' recomendation to increase the size to 12mm for imaging is interesting. I took his advice but I still wonder what advantage a 12mm blocking filter has?
That's right for visual, I guess a 6mm bf will be fine. But I also found out from the Yahoo LuntSolar Group that for binoviewing, the 1200 BF is recommended.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/luntsolar/message/219
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Jim
Genesis SDF-f/5.4 FS-102-f/8
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Danno2006
professor emeritus
Reged: 01/25/06
Posts: 661
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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I changed my 60mm DP filter to the B1200 after reading that Lunt Yahoo post by Markus.
I use a binoviewer and DSLR.
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Doug D.
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 08/23/05
Posts: 1859
Loc: Virginia
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Not to rain on anyone's parade here but I personally don't see the convincing reasons to pre-order any of these scopes without "eyes-on" reports thus far. Sure, they sound like they could be great and I certainly hope that they will be but its not like you are at risk of missing the next solar maximum if you don't preorder now. And it doesn't seem like Lunt is at risk of becoming the next A-P with multi-year notification lists.
If Lunt delivers on the promise of all the configurations they've listed then there will be a lot of choice and that choice will depend on all sorts of performance and application factors that at present are largely based on speculation and conjecture. So even if one is anxious to preorder I'd think there is a lot of uncertainty about what is best to preorder - I see the potential for a lot of future Amart listings/trades as a result.
I don't own any Coronado H-alpha gear at present (and no plans to buy Coronado) but at the current prices for the 90 I would be sorely tempted regardless of what Lunt does. The 90 is a proven scope. So is the PST for that matter - even with the well known limitations and warts it is a heck of a way to get started in H-alpha IMHO.
Please don't get me wrong here - I do share the excitement of the pending release (from Lunt) of a whole new bunch of innovative solar scopes. It is almost certain to be very good for a hobby that we are all passionate about.
That 200 is tempting though - gee, maybe I should pre-order one..........!! 
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Hooville
AP 105EDF f/6 Traveler; AP 140 EDF StarFire f/7.5; TV 76 f/6.3 with Solarscope SF70 filter; Solarscope Solarview 50; Coronado CaK 70; Orion XT-10; Baader Mk V & ZAO II's; Half-Hitch Mk II; Astrotrac TT320X, pier & wedge; AP Mach1GTO; PGR Flea 2
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DavidW
member
Reged: 09/18/07
Posts: 92
Loc: Alberta, Canada
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Is there any disadvantage to using the 12mm filter with the 60 DP?
Thanks,
Dave
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sctchun
sage
Reged: 03/26/06
Posts: 208
Loc: HI
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I originally had a 60mm DP on pre-order, but I was thinking of doing White and H-alpha view simultaneously (Partially for public viewings), so I decided to go with the 50mm DP filter to go in front of my 80mm scope. This is so that I can easily align both socpes.
Also note, the Lunt 60mm scope is probabily more compariable in specs to the SolarMax 40mm or 60mm than the PST (.75 A vs 1 A).
Here's to the hype and hope it lives up to expectations.
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AT 8" IN
Meade 8" LX200-R (ACF)
Meade Series 5000 80mm
Vixen Sphinx SXW
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colinsk
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/17/08
Posts: 2150
Loc: CA
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Quote:
Is there any disadvantage to using the 12mm filter with the 60 DP?
Thanks,
Dave
I can think of two. The first is easiest. Cost.
The second is a little more difficult. Inside the scope any flat optics need to be tilted to take the very small reflection and place it off the image. "Ghosting". If you look around the image at wide angles in your h-alpha scope you can likely find a few ghosts from various optical elements. There is one in my PST that could be mistaken for the main image, likely from the blocking filter it self. The small window makes it easier to hide the ghost images. Now, it does not seem like Lunt is worried about it but it is more difficult to have a larger blocking filter. (I should add that I ordered the larger filter, for no reason than Markus stated it might help out in imaging and the cost did not seem to much more.)
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Mahalo,
Colin Kaminski
Coulter 10.1" Dobsonian
TV-76/Baader Film White Light
LS60T/DS50/FT/BF1200
LDX-75
AT Voyager
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colinsk
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/17/08
Posts: 2150
Loc: CA
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Quote:
Not to rain on anyone's parade here but I personally don't see the convincing reasons to pre-order any of these scopes without "eyes-on" reports thus far. Sure, they sound like they could be great and I certainly hope that they will be but its not like you are at risk of missing the next solar maximum if you don't preorder now. And it doesn't seem like Lunt is at risk of becoming the next A-P with multi-year notification lists.
Sage words of advice. My concern was that the prices would climb to Coronado levels once the company was running.
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Mahalo,
Colin Kaminski
Coulter 10.1" Dobsonian
TV-76/Baader Film White Light
LS60T/DS50/FT/BF1200
LDX-75
AT Voyager
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