Coronado Solarmax 60 Double Stack

This is no ordinary telescope, you cannot see planets, you cannot even see the moon - it is intended for looking at one star only - that being the sun.

The Coronado Solarmax 60mm DS is a Solar telescope that can be used to look at the sun in complete safety and also in incredible detail.

Not only can you see the sunspots but you can see solar prominences and flares erupting from the surface and the "Double Stacking" enables the surface detail to be revealed and all in "real time" .... well 9 minutes earlier that is ;-)

The scope itself is like any refractor with a right angled eyepiece that fits into a blocking filter. The objective part have two Hydrogen Alpha filters (Ha) fitted which only let through a very narrow wavelength of light - that being tuned to the sun (which is 90% Hydrogen).

At the top of the scope is another tuning device which tunes the etalon - this compensates for "visual doppler" sounds painful !! But this allows you to tune into the solar eruptions depending what direction they leave the sun. Basically, you tune in for the flares or the surface detail.

The standard scope is not cheap, having it double stacked (to reveal more detail) adds another £2000 to the price but the views are "out of this world" and you will see the sun in ways you did not think possible !

5 stars from me but it is very specialised and almost £5,000 is a lot to invest when we do not see the sun every day from the uk.

"Big"