I'm tempted to buy something like a Coronado PST for the upcoming eclipses, but it seems like overkill? It would be cool to see the prominences and whatnot, but not sure it's worth like $1.5k and an entire new scope for only that. Anyone care to comment?
#Is a dedicated solar telescope worth it?
round linden
shadow mason
I am not sure but I think buying an h-alpha solar filter for whatever telescope you already have would be way more convenient
round linden
Agreed. I'm just not sure what the easiest way is to do that. I have a RedCat 51 scope
round linden
I'm looking at a Daystar Quark H-alpha filter, but that's just as much as buying a dedicated scope, and I think I'd also need an ERF, which pushes the cost close to $2k. I don't know if there's an better way to get something comparable to a "cheap" solar scope for under $1k.
I could get a Coronado PST for like $900, so it seems weird that I have to spend twice as much to make my telescope perform as well (or better).
dense kraken
One thing you could do is purchase solar filter paper. Then you could get the circumfrance of your scope, and get a peice of carboard and make a a cylindrical shape open on both side, and attach the solar paper onto it. Then just put it on your scope, and you have yourself a solar filter.
shadow mason
One thing you could do is purchase solar filter paper. Then you could get the ci...
That's a white light filter though though, it will show you hardly anything other than sunspots and eclipses, yoy need an h-alpha for solar details
dense kraken
That's a white light filter though though, it will show you hardly anything othe...
Good point.
lavish patrol
The good thing about the daystar is it’s compatible across lots of scopes. Kinda worth it imo. If you ever upgrade to a larger frac you’ll have a significantly better setup than just the coronado
If solar won’t be your main thing and just a bit of playing around the Coronado is good. Lunt 40 is better afaik.
lone vine
I am in the southern hemisphere, so will miss out on the eclipse. A few months ago i got a Daystar SolarScout 60 (+/-862UK) that is amazing! When I use it with a IMX432 sensor (+/-15x10mm) i get a full disk with lots of details! Absolutely amazing! Even with a 25mm Eypiece the views are great. Im very happy with my purchase and now i am learning to process solar images. The nice thing about solar is that the sun changes all the time, so it never gets old 🙂 It is nice to have a dedicated solar scope, because then i dont have to tear down another rig, to do a quick solar session when the seeing is good.
Also bear in mind that the closer we get to the eclipe date the more you will struggle to find anything in stock.
round linden
FWIW, I ended up buying a Lunt LS50THa, mostly because it was the only one that was actually in stock when I was looking.
Great little scope and not too much money (relatively speaking). I kind of wish it had a longer focal range though — it took me forever to figure out that the reason I couldn't get my camera in focus was because you only have a few centimeters to work with.
lavish patrol
Nice
dense kraken
Very cool!
candid rover
Can’t use barlow with it?