I can't speak to the relatively new Heliostar but i think my Lunt (50mm) is well built and easy to use. A 60 or 80mm Lunt, if you swing the price, would be a great lifetime scope.

[John Nagy]

On Mon, Apr 13, 2026, 10:35 AM 'hymie!' via Howard Astronomical League <howar...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Maybe Company 7 has both and you can test them out?

I own a Lunt 60 (not the 80), and I love it.  I have the double-stack filter.

I got to use a SkyWatcher Heliostar 76Ha this past weekend.  It was
a beautiful view.  Crisp and crystal clear.

Sadly, I could not directly compare the Lunt and the SkyWatcher to
see which view was better.

From what I was told, the SkyWatcher is always double-stacked.  With
my Lunt, sometimes I will single-stack to get a brighter sharper view
of the prominences, and sometimes I will double-stack to get the
sharper solar disk detail.  (That could be a function of my inability to
tune it correctly)  With the SkyWatcher, I don't think you get that
option to remove the double-stack ... but I'm not sure you need it either.

Again, I couldn't compare the two directly.  I think either one is a
sound purchase.

I'm not sure that helped much.

SkyWatcher will soon be introducing a Heliostar 100 Ha.  Honestly, for
the price difference from the 76Ha to the 100Ha, I don't think the view
was all that much better.

--Eric B. Hymowitz


On Mon, Apr 13, 2026 at 01:15:58PM -0400, Jose Urias wrote:
> Good afternoon HAL,
>
> I would like to request for the expertise and opinions of HAL’s solar
> observer’s/imagers.
>
> I have been playing with the Coronado PST I got as a donation early this
> year and I am really enjoying solar observing and I am playing with imaging
> as well. I got the opportunity to acquire a more robust Ha dedicated solar
> scope after selling my Vespera and redcat, and I am debating between a Lunt
> 80 which I could only get single stacked for now but I like that it looks
> well built and I can add the second etalon in the future and even Calcium K
> and while light modules in the future. The other option is the Sky Watcher
> Heliostar 76Ha, which looks fantastic in paper, but I cannot help but feel
> like it doesn’t look as durable and I want it to be a one time purchase as
> this is not a part of the hobby that sees much variation and it is
> expensive as it is.
>
> I talked to Phill already and he is very into the Lunts, I just want to see
> if anyone else here has the same experience or if someone has a Heliostar
> and has a good opinion on it, I am happy to hear about it as well.
>
> I appreciate any input on this.