Which of these would you get with the Quark?

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Brett
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Which of these would you get with the Quark?

Post by Brett »

I am having trouble deciding on what scope to get with the Quark.

My two options are:

1.) http://www.opticstar.com/Run/Astronomy/ ... _10_1_1_52

However this scope will need an upgrade on the focuser if I want to use it with the quark and binoviewers. But the aperture and focal length is perfect for full disk and higher resolution.

2.) http://www.optcorp.com/william-optics-7 ... -z71a.html

This scope has a good focuser and can even be used for night time imaging if I wanted to. However, the aperture is smaller, losing about 20% resolution.

Both would probably end up the same cost in the end. Any advice?


Brett
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Re: Which of these would you get with the Quark?

Post by Brett »

I should add that I have a Baader 75mm erf which would be perfect on the William optics scope. It will probably need to go inside the tube of the 80mm though, making it slightly more complicated...


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Re: Which of these would you get with the Quark?

Post by marktownley »

Number 2 any day of the week...


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Re: Which of these would you get with the Quark?

Post by Brett »

Thank you for your advice Mark, may I ask why you would choose the WO? I also like this scope but the only thing bothering me is the smaller aperture. 20% less resolution is quite a lot. Especially when accounting for the high requirement of the 4.3 barlow in the Quark.


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Re: Which of these would you get with the Quark?

Post by marktownley »

The WO is a much better scope, optically and mechanically, it also has a longer focal ratio which will give you better contrast with the quark compared to the opticstar. You really won't find the difference in resolution that much of an issue. I've tried the quark with 70mm and 80mm scopes and resolution wise it's no biggie.

I've also seen alot of people putting these opticstar scopes up for sale second hand and listing them as good for guidescopes - go figure!


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Re: Which of these would you get with the Quark?

Post by Derek Klepp »

Brett the Erf may fit inside the dew shield with little work required just resulting in a smaller apeture


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Re: Which of these would you get with the Quark?

Post by JohnW »

I have a WO 81 mm scope and its terrific. Cheers, JW.


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Re: Which of these would you get with the Quark?

Post by Brett »

I would just like to inform everyone that I went ahead and took the advise of getting the William Optics 71 ZS scope. The Quark also arrived with it as well as a Televue 32mm plossl.

I used a Baader D ERF on the front of the telescope.

Here are some of my experiences so far:

Firstly, I have no H alpha experience so far. However, the view was really super. Flares, plages, sunspots were great. Already worth every penny.

I was disappointed with a couple of things, but I think they can be fixed.

1.) When turning the fine focus knob, the image "shifts" a little bit. The focuser is a good rack and pinion, so is there maybe a screw that I can loosen or tighten somewhere that will avoid this?

2.) I have played around with the Quark tuner settings. When the knob starts in the up position and turned clockwise, it seems that plages become much more prominent. Anti clockwise it seems that flares become more prominent. Does this sound right?

3.) It seems that eye placement is a bit tricky. Not that much, but a bit more than what I am used to. I have also noticed that the whole image does not come into focus at once. It goes out of focus somewhat at the edges.

NOW FOR MY BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT WITH THE QUARK:

4.) Luckily this can be fixed, but I am noticing a lot of dirt in the fov. Like a very dirty eyepiece. It seems that it is coming from the Quark, because rotating the quark, rotates the "dirt" in the fov. Like uneven illumination and donuts in imaging. I took the Quark out and it seems that there are definitely dust and a bit of fine hairs on the filters of the Quark. Again no biggie, I will just clean it, but it did distract a lot from my first light.

Overall, I am very happy and cannot wait to make some fine tuning improvements.


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Re: Which of these would you get with the Quark?

Post by Montana »

That's great that you had a good view :hamster: although it will be better after a clean. I'm not sure what you mean by flares and plage? both of these are the bright areas around spot groups although flares are a bit more rare. Check out this, it may help you gauge where you might be on the settings scale. All Quarks will be different so you can't copy where someone else may be happy though http://solarnutcase.livejournal.com/12257.html

Alexandra


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Re: Which of these would you get with the Quark?

Post by Brett »

Alexandra, thank you for clarifying the flare issue. Just shows how little I know about the Sun. What I meant was I could easily see all the plage around the AR's as well as the limb prominences. BTW there was one huge prominence today (It looked A or E on the Daystar website: https://www.daystarfilters.com/Prominences.shtml)

Thank you also for the link on testing the dial. The results that I got correlates in the same pattern to those images. I also noticed that by setting more to the +3 onwards direction, more of the whole fov came into "focus". Which I now see is not really focus issues, but more a blue shift issue.


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Re: Which of these would you get with the Quark?

Post by Brett »

Alexandra, I wanted to ask you about your dialing tune test. Why does the blue shift side appear as a "gradient" in your images? I realize that it is not a gradient from the optics, but it appears something like a gradient. My understanding was that blue shift would change the image uniformly. I hope you understand what I am asking...Forgive me I am new to Solar. Have lots of experience with deepsky though :-)


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Re: Which of these would you get with the Quark?

Post by marktownley »

Brett wrote:I would just like to inform everyone that I went ahead and took the advise of getting the William Optics 71 ZS scope. The Quark also arrived with it as well as a Televue 32mm plossl.

I used a Baader D ERF on the front of the telescope.

Here are some of my experiences so far:

Firstly, I have no H alpha experience so far. However, the view was really super. Flares, plages, sunspots were great. Already worth every penny.

I was disappointed with a couple of things, but I think they can be fixed.

1.) When turning the fine focus knob, the image "shifts" a little bit. The focuser is a good rack and pinion, so is there maybe a screw that I can loosen or tighten somewhere that will avoid this?

2.) I have played around with the Quark tuner settings. When the knob starts in the up position and turned clockwise, it seems that plages become much more prominent. Anti clockwise it seems that flares become more prominent. Does this sound right?

3.) It seems that eye placement is a bit tricky. Not that much, but a bit more than what I am used to. I have also noticed that the whole image does not come into focus at once. It goes out of focus somewhat at the edges.

NOW FOR MY BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT WITH THE QUARK:

4.) Luckily this can be fixed, but I am noticing a lot of dirt in the fov. Like a very dirty eyepiece. It seems that it is coming from the Quark, because rotating the quark, rotates the "dirt" in the fov. Like uneven illumination and donuts in imaging. I took the Quark out and it seems that there are definitely dust and a bit of fine hairs on the filters of the Quark. Again no biggie, I will just clean it, but it did distract a lot from my first light.

Overall, I am very happy and cannot wait to make some fine tuning improvements.
1) Yes, all focusers can be adjusted.

2) For an on band view you are looking for the darkest view of the disk itself.

3) A 32mm plossl has a 27mm field stop, whereas the quark only has a 20mm clear etalon, so, there will be vignetting which is what you are seeing.

4) Dust is incredibly obvious in a telecentric beam, you just need to keep it clean with a dust blower. Similarly, any dust on or within the eyepiece will also be very apparent.


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Re: Which of these would you get with the Quark?

Post by Brett »

Thank you for this info Mark. It answers my question from my Glatter thread as well where I asked how to judge when I am on band. I will test tomorrow and see where the disk is the darkest.


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Re: Which of these would you get with the Quark?

Post by Montana »

Brett, I have no idea why 'on band' seems to come as a gradient from bottom right, then moved to top left. I see this with a tilt etalon but I never expected it with a heated etalon. I guess you would have to ask those who know about physics and optics, maybe Daystar ;)

Alexandra


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