Where will you be for the Mercury Transit?

When: Monday, May 9th 2016

Where: The above map outlines the areas of the world where the Transit will be visible. (courtesy of Fred Espenak)
For more information about the Transit of Mercury from Fred Espenak (Mr. Eclipse) visit: http://www.eclipsewise.com/oh/tm2016.html

This event will be the Transit of Mercury (Our first planet from the Sun) as it crosses the face of the Sun between the Earth and the Sun. It will be seen as a very small speck even at moderate magnification.

Fred has some great books on sale that also outline everything you need to know about the upcoming USA Total Solar Eclipse. Visit Eclipse Products to browse for educational information and eclipse products.

What will you need?

In order to establish what you will need I’d like to provide a quick overview of some of the relative sizes and distances of the objects in question:
(Note: the distances provided are approximately the distance at their closest points)

Distance of Earth to Sun: 92.96M Miles
Distance of Earth to Mercury: 47.85M Miles
Distance of Earth to Venus: 25M Miles

Diameter of the Sun: 864,949 Miles
Diameter of Mercury: 3,032 Miles
Diameter of Venus: 7,520.8 Miles
Diameter of our Moon: 2,159 Miles
Diameter of Earth: 7,917 Miles

For those that were lucky enough to see the Transit of Venus it is worth noting that the relative size of the Transit of Mercury will be approximately 1/5 of the size of the Venus event @ 12 arcsecs.

The Transit of Mercury is NOT visible to the naked eye and cannot be detected through standard solar viewing glasses.

1. It is recommended that in order to fully appreciate the Transit of Mercury and be able to determine the various contact points that a 50x or higher magnification be used.
2. It may be possible to detect Mercury with as low as 8X power through a Lunt SUNocular click here. However, you would need excellent seeing conditions, excellent eyesight, and excellent stability.
3. It is probably not possible to detect the planet through a pair of SUNocular mini.
4. A tracking mount will not be required for typical observation.
5. Lunt recommend the use of 25X magnification or higher utilizing either white light (wedges and film), Cak, and or, H-alpha equipment. Given the upcoming USA Total Solar Eclipse of 2017 we would recommend that you invest in a product that will work for both events.
6. If you have any questions about products and their use for events such as transits and Eclipses please contact us at Lunt Sales.

NOTE: Never view a Transit or an Eclipse with your naked eye. Always use approved Solar Filters or Equipment.

With 2015 winding to a close, Lunt Solar System’s philanthropic arm- The Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project (www.solarastronomy.org)- took some time to reflect back on what an incredible year it has been for their global science nonprofit.

Director Stephen W. Ramsden of Atlanta, GA, USA tells us that they have had another record-breaking year with over 350 outreach events in the United States and 32 other countries providing hands on instruction in Solar Spectroscopy. Solar Astronomy, Solar Imaging and motivational appearances lecturing on science outreach and it’s importance to the community.

CBSAP has been fortunate enough to provide absolutely free Lunt Solar Systems equipment, Celestron mounts and Rainbow Symphony solar viewing glasses to new affiliates in Bosnia, Kosovo, Columbia, Costa Rica, Brazil, The Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Panama, the US and several other communities in the last year.

Ramsden says “It’s simple, give these students something to aspire to by sparking their scientific curiosity at an early age or watch them perhaps become radicalized or incarcerated at a later age….it’s up to us”. “Outreach must be done in a completely fee free manner and not reserved for just astronomy gatherings, they already know about science.”, Ramsden followed. “We have a duty as human beings fortunate enough to own this equipment to take it to the general public as often as possible’.

Lunt Solar Systems is happy to continue as the corporate partner of the Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project and keep your eyes on this group in 2016. They always have something great going on. To become part of their efforts please join their Facebook group at www.facebook.com/groups/charliebatessolarastronomyproject or go to www.solarastronomy.org

Congratulations to the lucky winners of the November giveaway.

We had several hundred entries and the winning people are:

J. Frazier
G. Hutton
R. Sandler

You will be receiving an e-mail shortly that will contain the redemption information.

Everyone who entered in November is eligible for the GRAND prize giveaway at NEAF 2016. What the grand prize is will be announced in the January newsletter. Enter every month (no more than once per month) for more chances to win this prize. Also, check back with Lunt Solar regularly to enter our upcoming image contest.

The Lunt giveaway for December will be 4 SUNoculars. We are including up to $25 in free shipping. Look for the upcoming newsletter for the promo code and submit your entry. SUNoculars make great stocking stuffers. View more information about them here.

Make sure you watch this in FULL screen… Simply Beautiful!

Lunt will begin our Newsletters starting in early November. If you have signed up for the newsletter or have registered a product you will receive the monthly announcement.
Please note that when you register a product you will receive an e-mail asking if you want to confirm your opt in on the newsletter. If you do not confirm the e-mail, you will not be added to the mailing list. (Your product will be registered either way).
You are free to opt out at anytime and will be removed from the monthly announcements.

If you do not receive the monthly newsletter and would like to be included please “click here”.

There is NO Giveaway prize for March.  However, you do have one more chance to enter to win the Grand Prize Giveaway taking place at NEAF 2016!

Entering is easy.

Each month Lunt will provide a promo code somewhere in the newsletter. This code may be in the newsletter itself or in the “read more” section. Simply click the promo code (or the designated click here) which will open your e-mail.  Add your name, the promo code and click send.
The promo code will change every month.
This month our promo code is NEAF 2016.
Each month Lunt will pick winners at random. The winners will be notified by e-mail and provided with a redemption code. The winners will also be announced on our website.

Each year at NEAF Lunt will draw one lucky winner for our Grand Prize. Entries from each month will be placed in the drawing. Enter every month for more chances to win.

Terms and conditions:

Only one entry per person per month please. Enter each month for your chance to win again. Duplicate entries will all be removed.
If the prize is a gift certificate, the certificates have no cash value and cannot be redeemed for cash.
All entries for each month will be added to the Grand Prize Drawing at NEAF 2016.
*The prize can be changed at anytime for the following month’s drawing.
*The drawing can be modified or removed at Lunt’s discretion at anytime after the current month’s drawing has been completed.
No purchase necessary, void where prohibited.

Make sure you check back often for more news and special announcements from Lunt Solar.

Where will you “Find Your Corona©”…

With less than 2 years to the Solar event of our lifetime it’s not too early to start making plans for this event. It will be viewed by many millions of people and the ONLY place worth being is along the path of totality.

I have mentioned the 2017 eclipse to many in passing and often get the same reply..”If it’s going to be 95% where I live, I’ll just stay home to watch it..” The fact is that you will experience a partial eclipse which is a common event. But if you have the opportunity to experience the wonder of totality by travelling a little way across the USA, your should do it! Don’t be left out.

You can imagine that a company like Lunt Solar is very much looking forward to this event. We are ramping up production and bringing on new and exciting products that will allow everyone to view the eclipse from first contact to last.

Over the next couple of weeks we will be adding products such as eclipse glasses, solar binoculars, do-it-yourself solar filters, eclipse books and collectables, and educational products and services to our eclipse area. We will be sending out a monthly newsletter that will include exciting content from educators and eclipse experts. Sign up for the newsletter in the eclipse section. https://luntsolarsystems.com/eclipse/

Lunt have developed a comprehensive business plan for the next 2 years. Part of this plan outlines investment opportunities to those that are interested. An executive summary of the investment plan will be available online soon in the upcoming “Investor Relations” area, or by contacting Lunt at [email protected] . Please put “Eclipse Plan” in the subject line.

Visit and like us on the Lunt Facebook page Lunt Solar Facebook and JOIN IN on upcoming Solar news and events.

An “almost” pocket sized instrument that allows you to view and safely study eclipses, planetary transits, and sunspot activity.

Savio was kind enough to send in an image taken thru one of the special edition single stack LS75F’s.
The image was taken via one of David Leong’s 15 year old students, and although the filter had only just arrived, the initial shots are very good. I am looking forward to seeing just how good these images will get after a little practive with the filter..
The image was taken the the Lunt 75F mounted on a TMB 80-480 with 2X Barlow, and a DMK21AU04.AS
Unfortunately we sold out of these special edition 75s. There has been many querries for doublestacking the several we sold, and from people who have recently heard about the filters and were looking for availability..
Lunt Solar will be offering limited edition filters throughout the year. These filters will be announced in the upcoming community area of the website (coming next week). Our next special will certainly be a popular one. But, once their gone, their are gone.. At this time there are no plans to release the LS75F Un-obstructed as a standard product and we are not accepting orders for future limited runs 😉
I will be updating the status on the much anticipated LS152T later this week…

Inside Tucson Business Magazine is a local business oriented weekly publication in Tucson.

They recently came out for an interview and a chance to look thru some of the Lunt Solar scopes. Here is the beginning of the article…..

“Of all the beauty in nature that people take notice of in a day, the largest thing in our solar system may be the most ignored: the sun.

Mothers have always warned their children not to look directly into the sun – and for good reason.
In all of its massive power and size the light given off by the huge burning ball of gas is enough to cause serious eye damage.

For those who don’t want listen to their moms’ advice, Lunt Solar Systems is happy to oblige…….”

To read the entire article click here: www.azbiz.com

Image courtesy of Eduard Garcia..

This image is one a few that were sent in by Eduard Garcia-Ribera a few days ago.

Our thanks goes out to Eduard for providing excellent images taken thru an LS100T.

Many may recognize this active region of just a short while ago. We certainly hope that the images will continue to be sent in as the Sun becomes more and more active..

To see more images by Eduard and/or to submit your own images for our photo gallery please visit the Lunt Solar Image Gallery at https://luntsolarsystems.com/galleries.html

We look forward to, and really appreciate, these amazing contributions… Thanks!

We’re back in the office !!!

I hope everyone had a chance to view the Sun at would be about 2:30 thru 3:30PM (Arizona Time).

A very nice prominence has been evolving all day, swirling and changing shapes. I have been testing since early this morning and have really enjoyed watching the transformations. I suspect that this is a precursor to an active region that is going to be rotating around in the next day or so 🙂

At about 3:oopm, it lifted off the surface and continued to move further and further away. I was amazed at how far it was from the Sun’s surface, and yet was still very bright.

Upon setting up an LS60T/PT, I was able to see why.

An extremely thin tail was still “feeding” the cloud from the surface. By rotating the PT, you could actually follow the tail from the surface of the Sun thru the sky and into the suspended cloud of gas.

At 3:30pm I noted that the tail had broken, and as you would suspect, the gas cooled quickly.

It is certainly a reminder of the “good old days” that are quickly coming back, and we are all looking forward to the decade of 2010 which will be better known as the decade of Solar Maximum..

Lots of blogs to get entered. I am just finishing up the Community Area of the new site and will be importing the current blogs into the new format.

Some very exciting news is brewing for the solar enthusiast, so keep posted to the news and events section which will now be updated every few days..

For those who have googled “what’s an etalon?” the returned results outlining complex looking optical equations, mathmatical relationships, and technical references probably didn’t do much to answer the question. Unless you are an Optical Physicist of course. (I love that stuff)

An etalon refers to an interference type filter typically used in Solar Telescopes because of the desire for an ultra narrow bandpass.

An etalon is probably one of the simplest designs for an optical filter utilizing some of the most precise optical specifications. Due to it both being simple and the need for precision, there are many compromises that can influence the quality of an etalon filter.

An etalon is comprised of 2 flat and parallel optical surface that have been optically coated with a high reflective dielectric layer with the high reflector layer peaking at the desired bandpass point for best results. These optical surfaces are seperated by a gap. This gap can be either air or a solid material. The light resonates in the gap by internal reflection off the highly reflective layers on the surfaces. Thru interference at this gap, only light meeting the correct angle of incidence to the surface and is not “interfered with” can pass, all other light is lost.

The main parameters that define an etalon are:

Bandpass: This is the width of the curve that defines the transmitance of the filter at 50% of the total transmision of the filter. An etalon’s transmission has a broad base and a sharp peak. Typically the peak transmission should be between 80-90%, so the bandpass of the etalon will be measured between the 40-45% points. For Solar applications it is generally accepted that the lower this number, the better. Typical Solar Etalons have a bandpass of <1.0.Bandpass is a function of the gap size between the high reflector plates. The larger the gap size, the narrower the bandpass.Bandpass is also a function of the reflectivity of the etalon high reflector plates. The higher the reflectivity, the narrower the bandpass.Peak Transmission: In order to obtain good contrast it is important to maximize the peak transmission while minimizing the "out of band" transmission. To explain this statement, a surface that had zero reflectivity would have 100% peak transmission. However, because there is no reflectivity in the cavity, there is no interference, and thus, no filter (bandpass). A surface with 100% R would reflect all light before it entered the cavity, thus having zero T. The compromise is somewhere in between..Peak transmission is a function of the reflectivity of the surfaces. The higher the R, the lower the peak transmission. (in reality it isn't quite that simple)Free Spectral Range: The free spectral range is defined as the gap between the peaks of transmission plotted againt wavelength. Huh?? An etalon produces a "comb" of peak transmission across a broad range of the visible spectrum. This would be like a hair comb. One tooth of the comb would represent a peak transmission. This comb would then be missing about 12-14 teeth before the next peak transmission, or tooth. In our case the FSR is more than 10 Angstroms. This becomes important to our ability to block the unwanted peak transmissions utilizing simpler filters. The narrower the FSR, the harder it is to block the transmissions you don't want. Letting another leak transmission thru will wash out the details.FSR is a function of gap size. The narrower the gap, the wider the FSR.Optical Flatness and Parallism: Probably the most critical aspects of the etalon performance.... To put it simply, the better the flatness and the parallism, the better the etalon. The quality of an etalon is very much the function of precision polishing and gap maintainance. When it comes to the specification of a Solar Telescope I often hear the bandpass stated out as a matter of fact. However, this bandpass is typically the theoretical value of the system based on the known paramaters of reflectivity, gap size, and optical flatness. What one should realize is that bandpass is not the all defining specification of a quality system. I could quite easily manufacture a 0.3A bandpass filter and everyone would be happy.. Right?? Not if it's performance was any factor.. An etalon with a peak transmission of 40% and a FSR of 4A is quite easy to manufacture. But I assure you, you wouldn't want it in your scope. When it comes to Etalons there are typically a few things to look at.. The bandpass, is of course, of very high concern as long as all other aspects of the optical system have been addressed. An FSR of greater than 10A is required in order to prevent out of band leaks. (the camel peaking it's nose under the tent) a phrase I liked when I heard it. Peak T is also important as long as it comes with a zero baseline. Signal to noise ratio is critical because it is what makes the brights bright, and the darks dark. No-one want to see a significant orange glow in the space around the Sun's image, this simply washes out the edge details. Contrast is just as important as bandpass in my opinion. However, there really isn't any specification for contrast ratio. End of Part 1 Next: How do we make them?