Lunt solar telescope—Day One

I picked up my new Lunt LS60THa/B1200FT solar telescope from Hands On Optics Saturday. The clouds started to lift a bit today so I had the pleasure of figuring out how to put everything together a Celestron CG-5 mount for the first time while worrying about seeing. Here it is all set up:

Click to enlarge

I managed to get in a few peeks but not one decent picture. Just as I was setting the shutter speed a big cloud moved in. I never ever got around to playing with the etalon.

I also never did get it leveled right, the counterweight seems a bit too heavy, there's a lot of play in the gears and I've got the mount pointed south instead of north. It looks like there's a few bugs I'll have to iron out. Oh, I forgot to get an A/C adapter, too.

Clear skies tomorrow. Maybe I'll get some pictures. Stay tuned...

✴