Thousand Oaks Hydrogen-Alpha?

Has anyone had any experience with the Thousand Oaks hydrogen-alpha setup? I saw it mentioned in Astronomy Magazine and a set of the filters goes for under a grand. I'm sure the resolution is not as good as Coronado, but it seems like a tempting way to get into hydrogen-alpha, past a PST.

Steve

Hello:
I've used one of these a lot on a 7" Meade Maksutov. The one I've used has a clear red filter that goes over the front of the scope and a tunable etalon that plugs into the focuser. I've found that it's quite touchy and finicky, and when it does work, the images don't have the contrast of a Coronado telescope. The filter bandpass is very sensitive to the tuning of the filter (a fraction of a turn of the scew will take you through the Ha line) and where the object is in the field of view. For example, a prominence that is visible at the center of the field may be invisible if the image drifts to put the same object at the edge of the field of view. While I've never done a side-by-side test, my impression is that the Coronado filters did give better images, with better contrast, were easier to use and less finicky.

Cheers
Mike Connelley

Steve:

I owned one years ago and was not happy with its performance. They are basically prominence filters. The bandpass is too wide to show surface details so the Sun's disk will be a blank red disk (except for any sunspots).

I've owned both the Lumicon and the Thousand Oaks filters and neither came anywhere near the performance of the PST.

Unfortunately, other than the PST - there isn't any "inexpensive" way to enjoy sub-angstrom, h-alpha solar views. You'll have to go with a Coronado or Daystar if you want more than a PST.

Tom