Recommend me solar and Ha filters for my scope.

[sheeny (Al)]

That's probably because I don't have a current one. I thought there might be enough detail of the solar rig on the ED80 when I shot my spectroscope set up, but no. I'll have to take some new shots. Unfortunately, ATM the weather has gone real bad again, so it'll have to wait for a fine day.

FYI I have my ED80 and C11 side by side on my NEQ6. The L200 spectroscope is on the C11 with a modified flip mirror/beam splitter on the C11 so I can image or use the spectroscope and guide.

Al.

[Derek Klepp]

Baz I started off with a 60mm scope and now have a 100mm Lunt. The eyepiece views are astounding.In all honesty a 60mm scope would be a good entry point or 60mmPre-filter + a blocking filter for your current scope.Like anything you get aperture fever but after 100mm portability comes into it. If you intend to image good results can be had from any scope.If you trawl through the forum sections you will see many pics with many scopes. Paul Hease, Peter Ward and Al have Coronado Variants while Matt Wastell,Ted an myself have Lunts, and others PSTs(Coronado).My only recommendation is that if at all possible have a look through one first.Also as advised you may want to check out the Solarchat site .
Hope this helps a bit.
Derek

[barx1963 (Malcolm)]

I recently had the opportunity to see my Coronado SM60 side by side with the SM90. The 90 is a big beast, if portability is any way important and you go the dedicated solar scope road, and you go Coronado rather than Lunt, the 60 is the go.

Malcolm

[bloodhound31]

Thanks a lot gents.

Portability is the least of my concerns as I'm a big strong lad, plus it will probably be going in the observatory and stay there.

I think I need to weigh up the trade-offs between budget and image quality.

Bless ya's!

Baz.

[Paul Haese]

I have just gone through this process again as I am upgrading from my 60mm to a larger scope. I decided on a 80mm Lunt but still have reservations on if I should get a 100mm but I cannot be assured of having it by the eclipse.

What I found is that prices for filter sets are more costly over a certain size rather than a dedicated scope. As pointed out it has a lot to do with full aperture etalons rather than narrow etalons in dedicated scopes. Basically buy the biggest you can afford, but I reckon by a dedicated scope.

The other thing is that Ha light is monochromatic. That being the case you need a monochrome sensor for imaging. Using a colour camera on a monochrome system is pretty much a waste of time. You need to do a lot of work to get good images and these images will never be as nice as those produced by a mono system.

With Ha imaging you don't need to have double stacking to get great detail. For viewing double stacking can make a huge difference unless as Dereck has pointed out that you have a 100mm scope.

[Poita (Peter)]

I would check out the SMF90 and BF15 package, it gets you 90mm of aperture and you can currently pick it up in the states with shipping included for USD$2900.
Add another 300 for GST and that brings you in at well over $1000 less than the Lunt LS80, and you can get it now rather than waiting.
Worth a look if you already have a refractor of 80mm or larger. That $1000 saved can go towards a PGR mono camera.