4 replies to this topic

[oscaro]

I am on the fence about getting a Lunt 100 or 130. I spoke to a person that uses the Lunt 100 and asked him if it was worth it to get the 130. He said if my area had good seeing conditions often then yes otherwise the 100 is more forgiving.

Is there a website that would have historical data for seeing conditions in Columbia, MD?

Thanks
Oscar

[MalVeauX]

Hi,

 

You can look at predicted seeing conditions via Meteoblue or similar resources.

 

https://www.meteoblu...-states_4352053

 

Or you could explore building a solar scintillation monitor (SSM):

 

https://www.cloudyni...ty-geeky-stuff/

 

https://www.cloudyni...ther-ssm-build/

 

This would be helpful either way and would give you real data for your location to help support the large purchase.

 

If you disregard everything, I would say a 100mm is a safe purchase for virtually anyone unless you're in extreme climate areas (very high elevation, super cold all the time). Neither are full disc instruments really, so keep that in mind. Even if seeing is poor for the image scale, you can always under sample and get usable data. These are not that large of apertures to get too worried about a 30mm difference.

 

Very best,

Edited by MalVeauX, 17 April 2024 - 05:33 PM.

[ButterFly]

Here is ClearDarkSky's Climate history for Ashton Observatory at Johnson Farms.  It's close to Columbia.  Change "key" to "ct" and use the rest of the link for other sites.

[oscaro]

ButterFly thank you that was quite helpful!!

[xonefs]

Hi,

 

You can look at predicted seeing conditions via Meteoblue or similar resources.

 

https://www.meteoblu...-states_4352053

 

Or you could explore building a solar scintillation monitor (SSM):

 

https://www.cloudyni...ty-geeky-stuff/

 

https://www.cloudyni...ther-ssm-build/

 

This would be helpful either way and would give you real data for your location to help support the large purchase.

 

If you disregard everything, I would say a 100mm is a safe purchase for virtually anyone unless you're in extreme climate areas (very high elevation, super cold all the time). Neither are full disc instruments really, so keep that in mind. Even if seeing is poor for the image scale, you can always under sample and get usable data. These are not that large of apertures to get too worried about a 30mm difference.

 

Very best,

Just curious why would you say the 100 is not a full disk instrument? The full disk would fit on many chips just fine. I have been considering one with this in mind to use with my 533. 

Edited by xonefs, 18 April 2024 - 05:55 AM.