How well does Lunt 60 modular telescope perform as nighttime scope?

[Solarscout]

I'm curious about how well a 60mm refractor performs as nighttime scope? Set up with the scope would be about $2.5k, but there are cheaper refractors and a much larger 10 inch dobsonian can be had for that price.

I would consider a smaller modular but is it the case thar Lunt already figured out that a 50 or 40mm wouldn't be worth it? I look at my Lunt 50 and imagine how powerful it would be as a regular telescope for viewing the moon, planets, and galaxies.

[Montana]

I'm not quite sure what you are after here and what you are comparing. A 10 inch Dobsonian you can't look at the Sun in halpha with, so there is no comparison in cost. If you want to do night time astronomy seriously why would you buy a Lunt 60? Most people have different set ups tailored to the niche area in astronomy they are interested in. A Lunt 60 is fantastic for solar but I am sure a night time person wouldn't specifically choose it for night time work.

However, if you did remove the Halpha etalon from the Lunt 60 I am sure it would be fine for casual use looking at the Moon or even wide field deep sky. I have a Technosky 65mm and I can take Moon full discs and the odd bright deep sky like the Orion nebulae, but I am not that interested, so this is basic stuff, I use it only because this is the refractor I have.

Alexandra

[marktownley]

Its a fast focus cheapo achromat, so, I would expect plenty of chromatic aberation.

[Solarscout]

Thanks, I just wanted to know of the Universal Modular Telescope is worth investing in as my primary Telescope and want some opinions

[MalVeauX]

Hi,

The Lunt 60 modular/universal is a 70mm F6 ED doublet, the internal etalon masks it to 60mm F7 when the etalon is intalled; the same objective found in the common 70mm F6 ED doublets out there right now in the $300 range. It has a good 2 inch crayford focuser. It's a good visual scope in general and pretty sharp and pretty tame CA wide open. I have tested it with a mirrorless camera attached shooting terrestrial objects with it, digiscoping, and it didn't have wild CA on things that normally provoke obvious CA. It will have CA on Venus and anything that bright.

That said, I would not consider it as a primary scope. 70mm is just not enough aperture in my opinion for night time observing visually. It would be fine as a DSO scope for wide field imaging (likely needs a flattener). But for visual it will just not show as much as I would suggest for someone as a primary visual scope at night. It will show the rings of Saturn, just small, and some good bands on Jupiter, also small, and tiny bits of things on Mars when its at opposition. It's fine on the moon, same as for solar (same angular size). It's far from a high res instrument. And it really just doesn't have the light collection for a good DSO scope visually. You really should consider at least a 4" ED frac or larger, at minimum, for a night time instrument for all subjects. Even then, a 200mm newtonian or SCT easily will do better on all subjects visually at night and are inexpensive. Even a 10" newt is pretty inexpensive and vastly better for night time use.

I have used the 70mm F6 ED for other wavelengths and its fine for visible spectrum and limited IR. It's actually poor for Cak and other near UV wavelengths, the SA is pretty bad and its obvious, even in good seeing conditions. This scope is not good for calcium. Ultimately I consider the Lunt 60 universal a dedicated HA scope basically. It's other functions would be ok for continuum photosphere imaging/visual, daytime visible spectrum, and limited wide field full spectrum DSO (but only imaging, visually its too small in my opinion for anything other than cruising the milky way or tiny peaks at planets).

Very best,

[Solarscout]

In their Universal Modular line they have 100mm and 130mm as well. Would they be more than adequate for night ? There are only a few YouTube reviews about them and doesn't say much on their night capabilities

[rigel123]

Are you wondering about how they are for visual nighttime viewing or imaging? If you are thinking of using a scope for nighttime viewing of galaxies and nebula, then get the biggest DOB that you want since aperture is king for viewing these faint objects.

[MalVeauX]

In their Universal Modular line they have 100mm and 130mm as well. Would they be more than adequate for night ? There are only a few YouTube reviews about them and doesn't say much on their night capabilities

Their larger refractors are good scopes and the larger apertures are more ideal for night use, however, the upcharge for these solar scopes massively and unjustly frankly (etalon sizes are not bigger!). Many times more than they are worth. You're better off just getting a scope for your needs that matches your goals for night use.

Taking the filters out of the modular series is just as much of a hassle as just having a 2nd scope. Also, taking those filters out always risks a fall/drop/dust/something directly to the etalons. I just wouldn't bother doing all that trying to make one scope handle everything.

If you want a modular setup that will work on anything, don't buy a scope with internal etalons. Make your own modular setup by using external etalons that simply mount on the front of any scope you want, or mount in the rear in the focuser. So much more simple and you don't constantly open and take apart the body of a scope and you can choose the base scope yourself based on all your needs.

Very best,