What Solar Telescope To Buy

[loc46south (Geoffrey)]

Hi I'm looking to buy a Solar telescope, budget around USD$2,500 - main use at this point is photography. Would appreciate advice from those in the know.

Geof

[Paul Haese]

You might be able to get a 40mm Coronado for that, and perhaps a single stacked 60 Lunt with large blocking filter. A bit more money and you can get the DS which will give you more detail.

[casstony]

http://www.luntsolarsystems.com/imaging-package.html

Lunt products perform at least as well or better than Coronado, Lunt provides better support, and their products are more robust. One minor point - you don't need a finder with the Lunt solar scopes, simply center the front cell shadow on the clamshell (saves a few bucks).

[loc46south (Geoffrey)]

Thanks - It looks like Lunt is the way to go - Coronado is Mead and after having firsthand experience of their products and customer service I would rather avoid them if possible. Looks like the imaging package will fit the bill. Will e-mail Lunt for further details.

Geof

[rat156]

Well I have a solarmax 40 scope and it's great.

I have also found Meade products to be great, and outside of the US their service representatives are the best. They get a poor reputation from the US because they have a "return to Meade" policy for fixing scopes. Now I don't want to drag this one completely off topic, but I can't let either of these comments go by without a correction. Some Meade scopes, like some of anything mass produced will have faults. It's the way the company handles the faults that makes the difference, Bintel are the service guys for me and they are fantastic, so don't just dismiss Meade with the claim that their customer service is crap, it isn't.

A friend of mine has a Lunt scope and he's happy with it as well. I find focussing the SM40 to be a PITA as it has a helical focusser, the Lunt has a Crayford, which should be more user friendly and could even be motorised.

So don't dismiss the Coronado just because Meade owns the company, that'd be like not buying a Ferrari because it's just an expensive Fiat.

Cheers
Stuart

[loc46south (Geoffrey)]

Hi Stuart - My experience with Meade Products left me out of pocket by over $8,000 - I'd never touch their products again - but moving on Lunt is the way I will go - I have a SW ED100 Pro with a Motorised Moonlight that I don't use now - it seems I can buy filters for that and convert to solar without much difficulty. That is the immediate option I will look at.

Geof

[casstony]

I didn't intend to completely dismiss Coronado Stuart, I had a PST and it was a very nice little scope; I sold it at a cheap price which was a great deal for the buyer, but for a new purchase Lunt is clearly the way to go. I haven't heard of a single instance of Lunt filter oxidization whereas Meade has had the infamous 'rust' problem with their blocking filters (both the full aperture pst filter and the rear blocking filters) and, as you said, the focuser is better on the Lunt. I've had great support from the dealer (Sirius Optics) and good support from Lunt; I had to be pushy with Lunt because their products are so popular your request can be lost in the pile - phoning directly works best.

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Coming in late on this thread....
Over the last three years I've bought a PST ( x6), SM40, and now own two SM60 filters which I have double stacked with a BF15 on my ED80.
The PST's have all been modded to 80mm ( ERF/ Vixen) and are performing well above expectations.....
I'm very impressed with my SM60DS and the imaging results speak for themself...see the solar imaging thread for some examples.
What more can I say???

Ken