Everyone is told when they’re kids never to look directly at the sun. It can blind you. It hurts. Despite that, the sun is always overhead and it a constant source of intrigue in people. People have worshipped the sun, studied the sun and sneaked peeks of the sun since the beginning of history.
Now, you can safely observe the sun, in all of its ancient glory, with the Coronado Personal Solar Telescope by Meade Instruments. This innovative telescope takes the traditional deep space telescope idea and turns it on its head. Instead of viewing the most distant stars, you will be viewing the closest star and it is seriously cool.
Specs
- Type: Solar Telescope
- 40mm primary aperture
- f/10 focal ratio
- 400mm focal length
- 3.2lbs assembled weight
The Personal Solar Telescope (PST) has been a labor of love by Meade Instruments for many years. It includes everything you need to safely view the sun and they take that safety very seriously. Everything about this telescope is meticulously designed to keep your eyes safe while providing you a good view of the sun.
Check Latest PriceAn Interest As Bright As The Sun
In order to consider purchasing this product, you must have a very deep interest in the sun. It does not do anything else except for view the sun. It does that extremely well, but if you do not have an interest in that, this is not your traditional telescope.
Now that, that is out of the way, for what it sets out to do, the Coronado Personal Solar Telescope does it very well. The aim of this telescope is to provide detailed, contrasted images of the surface of the sun straight to your probing eyeballs.
Meade has crafted a super safe and foolproof solar telescope. All of the parts and pieces that keep your eyes safe from baking are all safely and securely placed inside the body of the telescope so it is impossible for you to mess with them, or in a truly horrible situation, forget to put them on before looking at the sun.
This is a big plus over other solar upgrades and solar telescopes on the market. Some products claim they can be added to your existing telescope but that puts a ton of inherent risk onto the user to make sure everything is properly installed and working before risking their eyesight. You do not have to worry about any of that with this telescope.
All of these components are highly scientific. They work by filtering out all of the harmful rays that your eyes are super sensitive to and then it runs the bright sunlight through some more optical wizardry to give you a neon image of the surface of the sun. It all works through micrometer filters, hydrogen-alpha bands, and other highly technical things.
What is important to know is that it all works flawlessly.
If you are interested in learning more about solar telescopes, we have a guide that will answer the questions you may have.
What Will I See?
With the Coronado Personal Solar Telescope, you will get a condensed and focused image of the solar disc within the eyepiece. This will allow you to see things such as sunspots and the uneven surface of the sun itself.
If you tune in at the right times you will be able to see solar flares and magnetic loops that sometimes appear on the sun’s surface. These can be truly spectacular sights that the average astronomer just doesn’t get to see very often, if ever. It brings the elusive images of the sun that were only accessible to professional astronomers to the amateur.
The images are crisp and interesting. Looking at the sun at different times of the day, different days of the week and different seasons all yield slightly different results because the sun is everchanging. However, that is all you can view with this telescope is the sun disc.
Meade Instruments Coronado PST Overview
The Not So Bright
As cool as the Coronado Personal Solar Telescope is, there are some warts that need to be addressed. First off, it is fairly pricey because it is a highly technical niche product. Most models run around $600 but can stretch close to $1000 in some instances. This means you really have to have a passion for the sun in order to take the plunge. Otherwise, it is hard to justify the price.
Secondly, it does not come with any accessories other than a single eyepiece. The 18mm black Plossl eyepiece is probably more than enough for the novice or dabbler but they don’t give you any other options to play with. This telescope does not even come with a tripod or mount of any kind. It says you can mount it to a camera tripod but after dropping a few hundred bucks I don’t want to set this specialized telescope on my camera tripod so you’ll have to get a telescope mount for it as well.
Lastly, some users have reported receiving poor customer service from Meade Instruments in regards to their products. Meade has been going through some tough times as a company these past few months and filed for bankruptcy. While I don’t anticipate this being an issue for most people, I thought I would point it out if you are someone who interacts with customer service regularly.
Verdict
If you are a telescope collector who likes to obtain and use a variety of different telescopes this would be a cool addition to your collection. Also, if you have a true passion for the sun and all things solar disc, it really is a cool piece of equipment. If you are a normal backyard astronomer who thought this telescope looked cool while you were browsing, I would pass. For the price, you really need to have a true interest in the sun or you will not get your money’s worth out of it.
It is cool though. Really cool.
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