Great views of the sun with a Lunt

Today I had the opportunity to work with (okay, play with) a new Lunt solar telescope (35mm) recently purchased by the Physics Department. I was charged with the responsibility of determining what accessories might be necessary to make the scope easy to set up and use in astronomy education. The scope is nicely made and finished --a small refractor equipped with a diagonal-- complete with built-in hydrogen-alpha (Ha) filters. Easiest for the instructor is a system that allows mounting the telescope to a camera tripod; that reduces setup time to five minutes or less. The scope came with a set of mounting rings and set screws and is attached to a base frame. The base is threaded in two places to mate with a dovetail rail but those threads are standard camera threads as well. So, while not elegant, attachment to a tripod is easy and secure.

The sky was reasonably clear so I set up the telescope outdoors, added an eyepiece, and set about finding the sun. By the way, one nice thing about the Lunt is that you can use regular 1.25-inch eyepieces because all of the solar filtration is internal to the scope! The actual hard part can be getting aimed at the sun... that's one object you want to be careful when aiming toward.

Trying several eyepieces and various focal lengths I found my ideal combination with the Lunt was an ancient Kellner 12mm. The field of view includes the entire solar disk and presents an excellent combination of magnification (33X), brightness, and clarity. After focusing and tuning the filter I was rewarded with very good views of three areas of prominences in the same quarter of the sun's limb. I briefly made out a filament on the sun's surface and saw two sunspot groups, though they were not very clear -- attributable to seeing conditions. I took the scope down and stowed my gear. The next thing I did was order the simple Tele Vue Sol-Searcher --not included in the basic telescope kit-- which will be a big help in quickly and safely aiming.

I set up the telescope one more time, at about 5:45 PM, to take one more look at old Sol. Seeing had improved and, to my delight, I could now make out structure in the prominences and, with a slight tuning adjustment, filaments and some granulation. Much better than the smaller Personal Solar Telescope by Coronado. It's a fine instrument, that Lunt, and makes me want my own!

After I receive and install the Sol-Searcher I'll be returning the telescope to Physics. Before that, I hope to try a bit of digital imaging of the sun's now-active face -- but I'll need a little camera.