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Telescope and Mount Recommendation

 

The ranger (Austin) in North Carolina that we work for their annual statewide star party is interested in getting an entry level solar telescope. Does anyone have suggestions?
?
Do you think this one is better than the Coronado PST?
?
If neither, can someone recommend one near the $1000 price point? I see High Point has a good selection but I'm not sure which is the best one to recommend to them.
?
Does anyone know a good tracking mount to use with it? The club has the iOptron Cube and it works great. Unfortunately it has been discontinued or I would recommend it. I think they would rather have an easy to use tracking mount than manual but I am sure that Austin would be interested in any recommendations we can give him.
?
Thank you!
 

Tough one at 1000 price point for scope and tracking mount. Why a tracking mount though??

On Wednesday, April 16, 2025 at 12:32:33 PM EDT, Shawn Loescher via groups.io <shawn.loescher@...> wrote:


The ranger (Austin) in North Carolina that we work for their annual statewide star party is interested in getting an entry level solar telescope. Does anyone have suggestions?
?
Do you think this one is better than the Coronado PST?
?
If neither, can someone recommend one near the $1000 price point? I see High Point has a good selection but I'm not sure which is the best one to recommend to them.
?
Does anyone know a good tracking mount to use with it? The club has the iOptron Cube and it works great. Unfortunately it has been discontinued or I would recommend it. I think they would rather have an easy to use tracking mount than manual but I am sure that Austin would be interested in any recommendations we can give him.
?
Thank you!
 

I saw a 50mm Lunt on cloudynights foor $650


I use a Skywatcher AZGTI?with mine and it does decent.? I know they have a version that is only for solar tracking, It's called the SolarQuest.? Supposedly?you just plop it down, level it and it uses GPS to know where it's at and it uses a solar sensor to track.


On Wed, Apr 16, 2025 at 12:32?PM Shawn Loescher via <shawn.loescher=[email protected]> wrote:
The ranger (Austin) in North Carolina that we work for their annual statewide star party is interested in getting an entry level solar telescope. Does anyone have suggestions?
?
Do you think this one is better than the Coronado PST?
?
If neither, can someone recommend one near the $1000 price point? I see High Point has a good selection but I'm not sure which is the best one to recommend to them.
?
Does anyone know a good tracking mount to use with it? The club has the iOptron Cube and it works great. Unfortunately it has been discontinued or I would recommend it. I think they would rather have an easy to use tracking mount than manual but I am sure that Austin would be interested in any recommendations we can give him.
?
Thank you!
 

Shawn. Does he want it for personal use or public use? There is no reason (unless you really want one) to have a tracking mount on a solar scope as I personally would not leave it exposed on the sun for extended periods no matter who makes it. If for personal use, he can get by with an alt az just fine (the sun is a bit easy to locate :) ). Saves some money.

PSTs are a thing of the past, somewhat, as I have no idea who sells or services then now, if anyone. I would be very wary of a used PST purchase as they all deteriorated to the point of not working after a few years.

You certainly don't need aperture for a solar scope. For an Ha scope the narrowness of the band pass is the critical function. Do you want to see proms or surface details? Surface requires tighter band passes (more money). Daystar is a well established company as is Lunt (His father was the founder of Coronado). The Daystar uses a slightly different system or at least used to.

One thing they all have in common is that they all are persnickety and can be difficult to share the view with the public under some circumstance. If just for general public viewing, white light is much easier to deal with.

On Wednesday, April 16, 2025 at 01:45:29 PM EDT, Will Kiff via groups.io <modok4@...> wrote:


I saw a 50mm Lunt on cloudynights foor $650


I use a Skywatcher AZGTI?with mine and it does decent.? I know they have a version that is only for solar tracking, It's called the SolarQuest.? Supposedly?you just plop it down, level it and it uses GPS to know where it's at and it uses a solar sensor to track.


On Wed, Apr 16, 2025 at 12:32?PM Shawn Loescher via <shawn.loescher=[email protected]> wrote:
The ranger (Austin) in North Carolina that we work for their annual statewide star party is interested in getting an entry level solar telescope. Does anyone have suggestions?
?
Do you think this one is better than the Coronado PST?
?
If neither, can someone recommend one near the $1000 price point? I see High Point has a good selection but I'm not sure which is the best one to recommend to them.
?
Does anyone know a good tracking mount to use with it? The club has the iOptron Cube and it works great. Unfortunately it has been discontinued or I would recommend it. I think they would rather have an easy to use tracking mount than manual but I am sure that Austin would be interested in any recommendations we can give him.
?
Thank you!
 

One last note. Daystar does use a power heater on their filters if that is any consideration, which it may not be. Some Lunts require heating too under certain ambient temps. Roy can address that as he has had to deal with that issue, if it matters at all. Coronado never required heaters due to a different design.

On Wednesday, April 16, 2025 at 12:32:33 PM EDT, Shawn Loescher via groups.io <shawn.loescher@...> wrote:


The ranger (Austin) in North Carolina that we work for their annual statewide star party is interested in getting an entry level solar telescope. Does anyone have suggestions?
?
Do you think this one is better than the Coronado PST?
?
If neither, can someone recommend one near the $1000 price point? I see High Point has a good selection but I'm not sure which is the best one to recommend to them.
?
Does anyone know a good tracking mount to use with it? The club has the iOptron Cube and it works great. Unfortunately it has been discontinued or I would recommend it. I think they would rather have an easy to use tracking mount than manual but I am sure that Austin would be interested in any recommendations we can give him.
?
Thank you!
 

Sorry for the confusion. The $1000 price point was just for the solar telescope. This telescope will be used for public events.
?
Thank you for everyone's insights so far.
 

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Lunt Blocking Filters (which look like a simple diagonal under the eyepiece) are temperature sensitive. ?Lunt says they work down to 40¡ãF. ?But they don¡¯t snap on and off¨C mine works much better (I see lots more) at 80¡ãF. ?So I made an inexpensive thermostatically-controlled heater for it (see photo). ?That works great. ?Also Lunt made a heater (about $200) but it¡¯s discontinued. ?Dew heaters may be another way to go. ?Or some individual ?Blocking Filters may work well enough (or the climate is warm enough) not to need heat. ?Ted Forte can address that as his Lunt (same model as mine) uses no heater.
?
Roy
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On 04/16/2025 2:50 PM EDT jimcoble2000 via groups.io <jimcoble2000@...> wrote:
?
?
?
One last note. Daystar does use a power heater on their filters if that is any consideration, which it may not be. Some Lunts require heating too under certain ambient temps. Roy can address that as he has had to deal with that issue, if it matters at all. Coronado never required heaters due to a different design.
?
On Wednesday, April 16, 2025 at 12:32:33 PM EDT, Shawn Loescher via groups.io <shawn.loescher@...> wrote:
?
?
The ranger (Austin) in North Carolina that we work for their annual statewide star party is interested in getting an entry level solar telescope. Does anyone have suggestions?
?
Do you think this one is better than the Coronado PST?
?
If neither, can someone recommend one near the $1000 price point? I see High Point has a good selection but I'm not sure which is the best one to recommend to them.
?
Does anyone know a good tracking mount to use with it? The club has the iOptron Cube and it works great. Unfortunately it has been discontinued or I would recommend it. I think they would rather have an easy to use tracking mount than manual but I am sure that Austin would be interested in any recommendations we can give him.
?
Thank you!

IMG_4276.jpeg

 

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I don¡¯t use a heater for the Lunt blocking filter*.? I store it inside the house over the winter nights and wait until the temperature breaks 40 before setting up. ??It almost never stays below 40 later than 9 a.m.

?

I¡¯ve noticed that I have to adjust the tuning as the temperature rises (if I¡¯m observing for longer than my usual hour) but I can¡¯t say that I¡¯ve noticed an improvement in performance at higher temperatures.? I¡¯ve always just assumed that the higher sun altitude was responsible for any improvements seen through the day. ?But I suppose it could be the temperature, the two do generally rise concurrently.

?

Ted

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*I don¡¯t use heaters on ANYTHING anymore (eat your hearts out). Dew isn¡¯t a problem here where I¡¯ve seen humidity below 15% on occasion.? I do still have some connectors for dew heaters and my dobs still have heat cord wrapped around their secondary mirror mountings.? It¡¯s a fun conversation starter ¨C which usually starts with ¡­ what the heck is all that?

?

From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Roy Diffrient via groups.io
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2025 2:32 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [BackBayAstro] Telescope and Mount Recommendation

?

Lunt Blocking Filters (which look like a simple diagonal under the eyepiece) are temperature sensitive. ?Lunt says they work down to 40¡ãF. ?But they don¡¯t snap on and off¨C mine works much better (I see lots more) at 80¡ãF. ?So I made an inexpensive thermostatically-controlled heater for it (see photo). ?That works great. ?Also Lunt made a heater (about $200) but it¡¯s discontinued. ?Dew heaters may be another way to go. ?Or some individual ?Blocking Filters may work well enough (or the climate is warm enough) not to need heat. ?Ted Forte can address that as his Lunt (same model as mine) uses no heater.

?

Roy

?

On 04/16/2025 2:50 PM EDT jimcoble2000 via groups.io <jimcoble2000@...> wrote:

?

?

?

One last note. Daystar does use a power heater on their filters if that is any consideration, which it may not be. Some Lunts require heating too under certain ambient temps. Roy can address that as he has had to deal with that issue, if it matters at all. Coronado never required heaters due to a different design.

?

On Wednesday, April 16, 2025 at 12:32:33 PM EDT, Shawn Loescher via groups.io <shawn.loescher@...> wrote:

?

?

The ranger (Austin) in North Carolina that we work for their annual statewide star party is interested in getting an entry level solar telescope. Does anyone have suggestions?

?

Do you think this one is better than the Coronado PST?

?

If neither, can someone recommend one near the $1000 price point? I see High Point has a good selection but I'm not sure which is the best one to recommend to them.

?

Does anyone know a good tracking mount to use with it? The club has the iOptron Cube and it works great. Unfortunately it has been discontinued or I would recommend it. I think they would rather have an easy to use tracking mount than manual but I am sure that Austin would be interested in any recommendations we can give him.

?

Thank you!

 

I started with the Lunt 40 and the Sky Watcher Sky-Watcher AZ-GTI ¨C Portable Computerized GoTo Alt-Az Mount.

The Lunt 40 is $750 and the mount is $450.? I really enjoy it.? They make a double stack for it also that can be upgraded later.

Kind regards,

Patrick?

On Wed, Apr 16, 2025, 12:32?PM Shawn Loescher via <shawn.loescher=[email protected]> wrote:
The ranger (Austin) in North Carolina that we work for their annual statewide star party is interested in getting an entry level solar telescope. Does anyone have suggestions?
?
Do you think this one is better than the Coronado PST?
?
If neither, can someone recommend one near the $1000 price point? I see High Point has a good selection but I'm not sure which is the best one to recommend to them.
?
Does anyone know a good tracking mount to use with it? The club has the iOptron Cube and it works great. Unfortunately it has been discontinued or I would recommend it. I think they would rather have an easy to use tracking mount than manual but I am sure that Austin would be interested in any recommendations we can give him.
?
Thank you!
 

Thanks for the information Patrick.

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