Quark problems solved

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krakatoa1883
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Quark problems solved

Post by krakatoa1883 »

Hi to all

In this topic viewtopic.php?f=10&t=20849 I explained my troubles with Daystar Quark chromo: it refused to tune properly when used with my f/5 refractor and an UV/IR cut as ERF before the diagonal. In an attempt to overcome the problem and to prevent heat from entering the tube during high resolution imaging I purchased a 110mm front D-ERF from Baader Planetarium. Compared with UV/IR cut filters installed on the diagonal the results with the D-ERF were even worse: a magnificent red disk completely devoid of any detail except for sunspots :cry: (a very calm Sun indeed, not disturbed by internal currents but without details). Turning the knob on the Quark had only a limited effect. 700 Euros (D-ERF + cell) thrown in the trash.

Puzzled with this behavior, I decided to dismantle the Quark to investigate the problem because I had no intention to send it on the other side of the world for service. After a short battle with the torx head I opened the unit and checked the heating system. Well, it works fine although it seems that my Quark needs only limited heating and for best performance the knob shall always be on the left side.

Finally I removed the internal "telecentric" Barlow and inserted the Quark (only BF + etalon in the original barrel) into the Baader VIP Barlow: voilà, all problems solved :D

Don't ask me how this happened, I have still to understand, but not only my unit works better with this Barlow compared with the original one and the front D-ERF doesn't cancel details, even all my long focus eyepieces also perform extremely well with no vignetting. In this configuration the VIP provide an amplification of about 4x but comparing the image in the eyepiece with the one given by the telecentric it seems to me that the latter provides something more than 4.2x (or 4.3x) declared by the manufacturer.

As it can be seen from the picture below the system results to be quite long, however, I am now experimenting with shorter distances between Barlow and eyepiece and I am also trying to replace the VIP with a 2.5x Powermate that I already used with a Combo Quark with very good results.

I must say that my problems with Quark eyepiece are probably related to my specific unit only and are not general, so I am not recommending to anybody to modify the Quark assembly in the above sense.

Thanks to all that responded to my previus thread.
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Last edited by krakatoa1883 on Mon Mar 27, 2017 10:47 am, edited 1 time in total.


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Re: Quark problems solved

Post by marktownley »

Thanks for the update!


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Re: Quark problems solved

Post by Montana »

That's great!!
I sent mine back to get my money back instead ;)

Alexandra


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