Detailed information about this product's features  T-Max passband tuner
This “double-stack" Coronado SolarMax 60 consists of a brass and black 400mm focal length 60mm aperture f/6.6 refractor with dual full aperture 60mm Hydrogen-Alpha solar filter etalons in series in front of the objective lens. Double-stacking the filters sharpens a single filter’s normal <0.7 Ångstrom passband to a very narrow <0.5 Ångstrom centered on the 6562.8 Ångstrom H-Alpha line. This visibly improves the filter’s contrast on subtle features in the active areas on the solar disk when compared to the <0.7 Ångstrom passband of the standard single etalon version (#SM60107), while only marginally reducing detail in the disk-edge prominences.
In addition, true double-stacking mounts the second 60mm full aperture etalon assembly directly in front of the SolarMax 60’s normal 60mm etalon, with both installed in front of the objective lens, as is done in this scope. This is optically more effective than the dual etalon method (#SM60105) that places a smaller diameter etalon part way down the telescope tube, behind the objective lens. With the true double-stacking method used here, light rays remain parallel while passing through the two 60mm filters. With the dual etalon method, the light rays are converging as they reach the second etalon (having passed through the achromatic doublet lens at the front of the scope). This affects the spread of the internal reflections within the second etalon, reducing the sharpness of the filter cut-off and the shape of the passband.
The cost of this factory-matched double-stack scope is somewhat less than the cost of adding a complete 60mm filter assembly to a single filter SolarMax 60 yourself at a later date, as can be done. Aside from the slightly lower cost, however, this double-stack scope package pairs factory-matched full aperture etalons, which typically perform better than simply adding an unmatched second etalon yourself in the field at a later date.
The scope’s custom-designed achromatic doublet lens uses special multi-layer antireflection coatings on all air-to-glass surfaces to optimize anti-ghosting and improve contrast. These vacuum-deposited hard coatings will provide a long lifetime of detailed solar observing. The scope delivers both diffraction-limited optical performance and the extremely high contrast needed to see both subtle surface details and the full explosive power of flares and prominences. With 50% higher resolution than a 40mm solar scope, and more than twice a 40mm’s light gathering area, the very high contrast double-stacked SolarMax 60 can show you subtle details and contrast shadings that are simply invisible in any smaller scope.
The three-piece solar filter consists of two full-aperture 60mm etalons in front of the objective lens and a 10mm clear aperture blocking filter in the scope’s 1.25" star diagonal. The etalons are thermally stable, so there is no drifting off the H-Alpha line as the etalons heat up during use. (Thermal stability is a vanishingly small 0.005Å per degree Centigrade.) The 10mm clear aperture of the blocking filter portion of the H-Alpha system built into the star diagonal is matched to the focal length of the telescope to give full disk views of the Sun.
The SolarMax 60 has a manual 1.25" drawtube that extends for rough focusing. A helical focusing ring around the drawtube then provides the appropriate final fine focusing. This method provides enough back focus to allow both visual observing and afocal imaging. The 10mm blocking filter aperture allows you to use a Barlow in front of the SolarMax 60’s blocking filter/diagonal. This makes digital photography easier and allows the use of a binoviewer with the SolarMax.
A T-Max passband tuner is installed between the 60mm external solar filter etalons and the objective lens. This lets you mechanically tilt the filters’ combined passband towards the blue wing of the H-Alpha line to observe Doppler-shifted solar activity. This will let you determine whether Doppler-shifted features, such as flares, are moving towards you or away from you as they leap off the surface of the Sun. This is particularly important as this double-stacked scope provides visibly higher visibility of very subtle disk features than the single etalon <0.7 Ångstrom version. For more details, click on the “T-Max" icon above.
A 25mm (16x) Coronado CEMAX eyepiece is standard equipment with the SolarMax 60. This eyepiece, like all the Coronado CEMAX eyepieces, uses a proprietary anti-reflection multicoatings that have been optimized for the highest possible contrast during solar viewing of subtle prominence and surface detail. For closer views of solar disk details, you might consider adding a 12mm (33x) and/or 18mm (22x) CEMAX eyepiece to your system. For still higher power views, consider also adding the Coronado CEBAR 2x Barlow to your system. Like the CEMAX eyepieces, its performance and coatings are optimized for solar observing.
You can also use most of the 1.25" eyepieces in your collection with the Coronado SolarMax 60. Any good quality 50° field Plössl will work well, as a Plössl’s contrast is generally good and its field wide and flat. For optimum solar detail, however, the Coronado CEMAX eyepieces have a small, but visible, solar viewing contrast advantage over a conventional eyepiece designed for nighttime deep space observing.
A hard carrying case is standard equipment to transport and store the SolarMax 60. The scope comes with a clamshell tube mounting ring that allows you to mount the reasonably lightweight (7 lb.) scope on most altazimuth and equatorial astronomical mounts. An optional Coronado Sol Ranger Sun Finder is available to make it easy to center the Sun’s image in the eyepiece. The Sol Ranger connects to the SolarMax 60’s clamshell mounting ring.
A less expensive alternative to this double-stack scope is the Coronado #SM60105. This is a dual etalon model that adds a second factory-matched internal 40mm etalon to the standard SolarMax 60. The cost is considerably less than this double-stack version, but with almost the same level of performance. With either version, double-stack or dual etalon, the factory matching of the etalons provides higher performance than simply adding an unmatched second etalon yourself later.
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