After and exceedingly long delay, a shipment of Lunt Solar scopes arrived, and with dealer hat off I suspect a few of you might be interested in a quick run-down.
The overall finish (of the 60mm series) is reminiscent of the TeleVue pronto. White enamel with a single clamshell mount. The crayford focuser has a 10:1 reduction knob. Very smooth and precise. A tilt mechanism for the etalon is built into the scope, and allows for on and off band h-alpha tuning. Lunt claim 0.8A and certainly solar disk detail is evident. I would suggest however if you are going to spend the $, the double stacked option is a better investment.
The view through the 60mm H-alpha is clear and bright. Unfortunately the sun is not doing a heck of a lot right now, and the solar disk looked a little bland. No doubt as solar activity picks up images taken through these scopes will start to appear on the web.
A nice touch is the diagonal/blocking filter eyepiece holder has a male t-thread allowing direct coupling to any camera t-ring.
The Cak scope images are, well, not exactly easy to see! *very deep* blue/violet (and way outside any monitor gamut
) These are photographic/imaging scopes in my opinion. But with a camera attached, it beautifully revealed a whole new layer of Sol's atmosphere.
Interestingly, the 2.4A pass CaK module can be withdrawn entirely from the scope, rather like any star-diagonal and used on another instrument (eg Astro-Physics/Takahashi) making the system very versatile, particularly if you go for a larger aperture blocking module.
Despite the painfully long delivery times, I'd give Lunt two thumbs up
for making a very innovative range of solar scopes.
P.S. A quick example of the CaK performance can be found here:
http://www.atscope.com.au/BRO/gallery30.html
very interesting article plenty
