[SJAAboard] our solar scope's H-alpha filter

[Gary Mitchell]

Mark Wagner wrote:

> Gary Mitchell wrote:
> 
>>I beg to differ about those little PSTs being useful.  I looked through
>>a couple of them at Houge a while back (solar event) and was NOT
>>impressed.
> 
> That is of course a matter of opinion.  I've found views through the 
> small PSTs acceptable, especially given how relatively inexpensive they 
> are.

Yes, well, that was part of my point.  It's sort of like watching a block
buster movie on a cell phone.  Yeah sure, you can see it, and it's cheap,
but it's not like being in a theater or even a home TV.  In my opinion,
$1 to see the cell phone version is a waste of $1.  But $10 for the
theater version--you get your $10 worth.

If the club is going to have a solar scope, then let's have one we'll be
happy with.  I think our Daystar scope or the Coronado should be the
minimum we would consider having.

And by the way--the Daystar filter could be put on another scope.  The
Coronado is self contained.

>    If the DayStar required the same repair again, it would be about 
> the equivalent of having purchased a new PST, roughly, I believe.  If 
> the Etalon filter needs repair in the future, it might make sense to 
> replace the DayStar with a PST and get the warranty and ease of use. 

I would vote against that.

> Do we know what sort of warranty comes with the proposed DayStar repair?

If the Etalon filter or the block and trimmers were replaced, they'd get
the full 10 year warranty (and cost a lot more).  In this case, I don't
think they're replacing anything significant, just doing a rebuild (I'm
guessing).  So, I don't know... I assume the workmanship is guaranteed.

>>I don't remember what the bandwidth is on our filter.  Since we can
>>easily see detail in the sun's surface, it must be 0.6 Angstroms or
>>better.  So a new one would cost $2600 or more.
>>(www.daystarfilters.com/hydrogen.shtml)
>>  
> 
> In other words, about the cost of a new larger Coronado scope, right?

Yep.  But we're not facing that choice... are we?

> I don't really care which way this one goes, personally, the only time I 
> look through a solar scope is when I'm at a big star party and an owner 
> has one set up, and then I don't spend much time (my observing 
> preferences are well known).  But I had heard comments about the DayStar 
> being finicky about temperature, and possibly tuning.

I don't know what happened to ours.  It was loaned out and came back
like this.  Before then, I've borrowed the scope a couple of times and
looked through it other times--it's always worked fine for me.

> I just suggest looking at the cost of a larger Coronado compared to the 
> warranty and potential future repairs on the DayStar.  The current 
> repair cost is certainly ont prohibitive.

The Coronado probably would be just as susceptible to problems and
aging too, wouldn't it?

Gary