Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Use this section to discuss "standard" Baader/Coronado/ Lunt SolarView/ Daystar, etc… filters, cameras and scopes. No mods, just questions/ answers and reviews.
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Calavera
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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by Calavera »

yea will try it with the Skyris when the sun comes out again... Today I just put my Canon G9 behind the zoom ocular but the results wasn´t that good as I hoped for... But visually it gives all one can hope for :)

but now... clouds, clouds, clouds.... :(


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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by Calavera »

Well, just checked the pictures I made today with the G9 direct through the Seben Zoom ocular and find some interesting things I would like to show here...

The camera has an maybe 6cm long objectiv which comes out of the body when turning the camera on. I just layed the camera with objective side down directly on the the backside of the zoom which seems to be in balance just without holding it. Then I turned the cam in manual focus mode and played a bit with the focuser too trying to get a sharp picture on the backside screen. Looks like I didn´t do it very good ;) but maybe enough to demonstrate...

In the first two pics with the zoom at 24mm - you can clearly see the ghost images around the main picture - but just if it loocks here as if the the main pic is washed out by reflexes too... it definitely isn´t :) it just shows how fare away the ghost images are...
Ghost-Suns.JPG
IMG_4699.JPG

The third picture with the zoom at about 12-15mm shows the combination of promineces and filament - but just can´t give an impression of the visual view of course which is crystal clear and even instead.
direkt1.JPG

Maybe interesting for someone... :)

Cheers
Chris
Last edited by Calavera on Sat Nov 14, 2015 9:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by marktownley »

Great results and setup!


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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by Solar-Cologne »

Hello,

sorry, i found this thread to late.
I think, somebody here knows Markus Ludes from APM-Telescopes.

I tested side by side his brand new selected solarscope 60 with my selected APM/Lunt 60 BF1200 without Pressure-Tuning.....

Who is the winner ?
My Lunt60, Markus was amazed and he said, why I sold it... :D :D :D

The chef from Lunt / Germany, was so enthusiastic, when he look through this scope with the Harry Siebert Binocular, he had never seen this quality.... :D :D :D
But my scope is modified.
I can not tell more !!!

Chris,
sorry, i forgot, your demo-pictures are very good and show exactly the h-alpha problems....wouw. :bow
very good idea.

sunny Greetings :D
Achim


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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by Calavera »

Hi Achim,

if you had a LS60 better then a SV60 you are a very lucky man :)

Until now I could test two LS60´s directly next to the SV60. Both Lunts where nearly equal so I would guess they represent the standard - and both where good. But as mentioned above in SS the Solarscope could do everything just a bit better.

The biggest advantage of the SV in my opinion was maybe the more uniform view of HA-details all over the field where the lunts have a clear sweet spot - walking around while tilting the system.

When doublestacking the systems other points come in... Both systems get dimmer then in SS but more in the Lunts - so that some proms just dissapear while they stay clearly seeable in the Solarscope-Solarmax combination. To get a brighter view in the Lunt DS I use a modified blockfilter with another red glas inside. Another fix is that the blockfilter is tiltable to reduce reflexes which are more in the Lunt too.

So in the SV combo I dont need any of this fixes and just get a (in my view) perfect picture of a very contrasty sun :) and it just needs only one tiliting unit, which is another advantage.

Would be great to hear what kind of modification you are using - sadly you couldn´t talk about it ;)

Well the pics above aren´t very good of course but they nicely demonstrate that proms and filaments are equaly seeable in DS - just imagine a crystal clear and detailed view with an absolute dark background and you get an idea ;)

CS
Chris


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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by Solar-Cologne »

Hi Chris,

i know about the problems you describe.
I often see and hear it.

if you 're making doublestack, the two etalons must be rotated against each other to find the best h-alpha :!:

Today i phoned with W.Quere, the chief of Lunt/europe.
He gives me the e-mail from Andy Lunt.

I send Andy an e-mail, ask him, is it allowed that i post my tests and experiments here in SolarChat.
Now i wait for an answer.......

sunny Greetings :D
Achim


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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by Valery »

Solar-Cologne wrote:

I send Andy an e-mail, ask him, is it allowed that i post my tests and experiments here in SolarChat.
Now i wait for an answer.......

sunny Greetings :D
Achim
I expect you will not hear from Mr. Lunt.


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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by Solar-Cologne »

i will wait......


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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by Valery »

Solar-Cologne wrote:i will wait......
And why do you need to have his permission to public YOUR OWN experiments results data?


Valery


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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by marktownley »

I agree...


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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by Calavera »

Hi guys,

nice weather for watching today and with all the adapters I got over the time - I found out I could do some testing with a new combination...

So what could ever be better than a perfect Doublestack System?

Right! a Tripplestack System :D

So normaly I just wanted to sell the Lunt LS60 and the DS-Filter for it as I thought to have found the perfect 60mm system for me... but as until now nobody wanted to have it - it is still here. And now after I found out the possible combination with the solarmax filter... at least the DS filter will stay ;)

Here are some pics:
IMG_0486.JPG
IMG_0487.JPG
IMG_0488.JPG
IMG_0489.JPG

Contrast of filaments and prominences is great! well now I need an adapter to mount these two filters to the Solarscope SV60 - which should even give a little bit better picture again ;) Only downside here could be that the picture gets too dark as I couldn´t use the modified blockfilter of the Lunt. It stays interesting ;)

Cheers
Chris


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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by marktownley »

Excellent! I've just started using a triple stacked 40mm scope.


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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by Calavera »

Well, a interesting thing I found (but beware - I just used the system once... so I´m not too sure about that) is - that the effect of straylight and the position of the tilting systems does have a smaler influence on a triple system then on the double or single stack system - I don´t now why...

But hey - as the results are in a way better as you would expect with a further etalon - I don´t care :)

So after all this testing - here is my personal grab&go top system list:

1. - Lunt LS60THa + Lunt LS60F + Solarmax60 (triple)
2. - Solarsope SV60 + Solarmax60 (double)
3. - Lunt LS60THa + Solarmax60 (double)
4. - Lunt LS60THa + Lunt LS60F (double)
5. - Solarscope SV60 (single)
6. - Tak FS76DS + Solarmax60 (single)
7. - Tak FS76DS + Lunt LS60F (single)
8. - Lunt LS60THa (single)

Let´s see if a - Solarscope SV60 + Lunt LS60F + Solarmax60 (triple) system can reach for the first place .

...ah! and a Tak + Lunt LS60F + Solarmax60 (double) is unchecked too ;)

Will keep you informed

Cheers
Chris


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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by marktownley »

Here's an example of an image I got from my TS40 this afternoon...
ts2-bw.jpg


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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by Calavera »

Great! looks similar to the view in my TS ;)


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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by Valery »

I have tried a TS several times with 50mm etalons and never found it better than DS. No new details and always significantly darker and require much more efforts to make image any kind symmetrical.


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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by Calavera »

Hi Valery,

interesting... - maybe depends on the etalons??? I could imagine that if you´ve very well filters that cut the H-Alpha wavelength very good the third etalon will not give any advantage anymore... - but only my guess...?!?!?

I can only describe what I saw: "triple" clearly better then "double" - and that view was great! :)

The darker image I fight with an optimiced blocking filter (other red glas, and tiltable blocking element) which gives a much brighter image than the original Lunt setup - works great at double and even better at triple... But I fear if I use the Solarscope SV60 with it´s internal 20mm blocking element the image could get too dark... - I will try it out :)

Regards
Chris


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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by marktownley »

Valery wrote:I have tried a TS several times with 50mm etalons and never found it better than DS. No new details and always significantly darker and require much more efforts to make image any kind symmetrical.


Valery
Hi Valery, i've tried it before too in a number of configurations, with no real success. However this setup i've got running quite clearly does work and works well. There is minimal loss of brightness compared to double stack, I think I had an exposure of 1/50s compared to 1/70s for DS, of course I only use an ERF on the outer etalon. Really easy to shift the ghosts out of the fov too. I'm not sure there will be any new details, but it does make the details that are there much easier to see. The filaments are etched on the disk, with the whole disk seemingly being peppered with bright spots of plage, around active regions it really is very bright. The disk has a 'hairiness' to it. Here's a shot from it with an even illumination over the disk.
TS-Ha-BW.jpg
I'll certainly be using this setup from now on, next stage blocking filters ;)


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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by Calavera »

When I tried it first I wasn´t hoping to get any real advantage of the triple-setup. Then the view was just breathtaking - just the way I always hoped for visual watching - especially when theres so much action on the surface as last sunday.

Very interesting was that the prominences was very good to see too - just as on you picture... I thought they will disappear completely with three filters...


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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by Calavera »

Got my new adapter today - well this Lunt DS unit is a bit bulky... but who cares!

Now, sun! come out! ...............pleaaase!!!! ;)
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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by marktownley »

Very nice!


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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by Calavera »

Hi,

today some sun spots between a lot of clouds... but enough to do some testing and watching :)

Unfortunately the triple (Solarscope + Lunt + Solarmax) works not as good as the triple with the Lunt LS60. With the Solarview the view is just dimmer as in double stack but did not show more details...

On the other hand I found that the Lunt 60 DS unit works very well together with the Solarscope SV60 - I would say even better as the combination with the Solarmax filter... I could´t see any halos and the ghost images are much farer away from the main sun-picture as with the Solarmax. Details seemed nearly the same but this needs some more testing as the clouds was not forgiving and allowed only short views all the time.

So new hitlist:

1. - Lunt LS60THa + Lunt LS60F + Solarmax60 pre Meade (triple)
2. - Solarscope SV60 + Lunt LS60F (double)
3. - Solarscope SV60 + Solarmax60 pre Meade (double)
4. - Lunt LS60THa + Solarmax60 pre Meade (double)
5. - Lunt LS60THa + Lunt LS60F (double)
6. - Solarscope SV60 (single)
7. - Tak FS76DS + Solarmax60 (single)
8. - Tak FS76DS + Lunt LS60F (single)
9. - Lunt LS60THa (single)

It seems the results vary very much by the individual filters of every scope so I guess this list is not representativ for other scopes but gives an idea.

cs
Chris


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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by Calavera »

For those interested...

Meanwhile I gave away my Lunt LS60THa including the DS unit to finance another project. So finally in this class I go with the above mentioned Nr. 3: Solarscope SV60 + Coronado pre Maede SM60 for doublestacking. The loss is not very big - what I most prefered with the triple stack was the clearness of proms - but I found out a single pre Meade Coronado SM90 shows much more details at promineces then any tripple could ever do :)

The system was very front heavy too and it took me always some time to configurate all the components in a way they work well together... the SV60+SM60 is just a plug&play solution at about 90% of the final result.

cs
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Re: Lunt LS60 DS vs. Solarscope Solarview 60 SS

Post by marktownley »

A very interesting thread Chris, thanks! :)


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