it seems that my Quark is not reaching the working temperature

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it seems that my Quark is not reaching the working temperature

Post by axion »

the green light does appear after a while if the filter is on my table (not connected to anything but power), during a real observation when the filter is connected to the telescope it seems to fail to reach the working temperature and the green light does not come... what could be the reason for this?

I use a DayStar 100mm ERF (yellowish) as the first element facing the sun
then the OTA (106mm aperture, f/5)
then 1.25'' baader UV/IR cut filter attached to 1.25'' diagonal
and finally my Quark H-alpha eyepiece filter

I guess it could be too hot inside the filter either due to the ambient temperature (it was not hot though, ~30C) or it is too much solar power is coming inside. My quark could be faulty or, most likely,

Am I doing something obviously wrong?

- Roman


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Re: it seems that my Quark is not reaching the working temperature

Post by Merlin66 »

Roman,
Could be it reached "operating" temperature without the heater....
What did the views look like?


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Re: it seems that my Quark is not reaching the working temperature

Post by axion »

the air had too much turbulence (it was noon and it was hot), it was hard to focus. I posted below a single not processed frame and a gif-file with 20 consecutive frames.

-R
Attachments
about 20 frames
about 20 frames
solar_8.04.19.gif (17.83 MiB) Viewed 5178 times
a single frame
a single frame
SUN_120015_0130.JPG (895.79 KiB) Viewed 5178 times


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Re: it seems that my Quark is not reaching the working temperature

Post by marktownley »

Hi Roman

I've found certain USB cables just aren't up to the job either, maybe try another one, What is your power source - wall wart power supply or battery?

Nice image btw, it looks like you're quark is a good one. You will get better images by reducing exposure so about 70% of the histogram is filled. Also 100mm/f5 is rather fast and won't help with the midday seeing, try stopping down to 70mm, I think you'll find contrast increases significantly.

Mark


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Re: it seems that my Quark is not reaching the working temperature

Post by axion »

thank you, Mark.

I will try different cables and also check if the green light appears with the covered telescope (as for dark frames). The power source was a standard wall outlet.

Thank you for the exposure advise - yes, for the frames posted the histogram was almost 100% filled. I am glad the the frames look okay, at some point I should learn how to select the best frames (not manually) and how to stack them.

The f/5 question. Effectively it is f/21 with the 4.2x barlow inside the filter. On top of it I can either reduce the aperture of the ERF or use an additional 1.6x extender to make it f/30 or so.

R.


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Re: it seems that my Quark is not reaching the working temperature

Post by krakatoa1883 »

Hi Roman

If your Quark is exposed to sunlight while observing it may become too hot for tuning. For example my one needs only a modest heat input and works best at -5 position. Under the Sun it reaches tuning without any power supply and if connected to the mains the light remains orange. Try shielding the device from direct sunlight and see if tuning improves.

You can also improve images by increasing the focal length of the scope with a weak amplifier as a 1.6x or 1.7x binoviewer corrector in front of the Quark.


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Re: it seems that my Quark is not reaching the working temperature

Post by axion »

Thank you Raf!

I do have a good 1.6x extender and it is on my list to try next. Thus you confirm that the ambient temperature may be a problem... is not it strange for a solar filter to not work under sun light, xD. But I understand, of course.

Why longer focal length helps to improve the image? The angle of incidence will be smaller? That is why they recommend f/5 to f/8 range?

R.


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Re: it seems that my Quark is not reaching the working temperature

Post by krakatoa1883 »

Quark's etalon needs a f/30 light cone to work properly, better around f/40, so increasing the f/ratio (possibly without reducing aperture) should produce better results. Try different setups and see which one works best.


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Re: it seems that my Quark is not reaching the working temperature

Post by Merlin66 »

Roman,
When the Quark was initially released, I seriously considered purchasing one... but had some concerns about the high ambient temperatures we experience here in Oz - above 40 deg C is not unusual.
I contacted Daystar at the time and was told - yes could be an issue, and to request a Quark which came on band at a higher temp.
I decided against purchase due to the risk.
More recently I made another request and received the following reply from Tiffany:

"" The Quarks on band temperature range is 100 to 120 degrees. We try to ship higher temperature Quark filters to areas that are known for its hotter climates. We also found is the Filter is covered from direct sunlight it helps staying on band in extreme heat.""

Hope this helps.


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Re: it seems that my Quark is not reaching the working temperature

Post by axion »

Thank you Raf and Merlin66 (Ken?), it does help a lot!

Roman.


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Re: it seems that my Quark is not reaching the working temperature

Post by mdwmark »

You have a few thing going on that you need to look at.
1) at F/21 the center wavelength has shifted blue( same as tilting the filter). The HW is also broaden out to about
1.3Ang if you started at .7Ang.
2) your using a yellow ERF, so you will be getting a lot more heat into the scope then if you used a red ERF. This will heat the filter off band quicker.
3) You will degrade the image if you add another barlow in series with the one that came with filter.
4) Your best bet is to stop the scope down to get a nice F/30-34. Have the setting on the filter set at its lowest setting and let the solar image heat the filter. If it doesn't come on band visually, then give it some help with the heater on the filter.
What will usually happen with a strip heater controlled filter is that it will drift into the red wing or farther over time(sometimes within 10 minutes depending at what temperature the etalon needs to be at, to be on band). Then just move the scope off the sun till it cools down and start observing again.
Mark W.


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Re: it seems that my Quark is not reaching the working temperature

Post by axion »

Thank you so much, Mark W.! there is a lot to learn about for me and it is definitely more serious than I expected. Roman


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Re: it seems that my Quark is not reaching the working temperature

Post by krakatoa1883 »

Getting f/30 by reducing the aperture will produce a faint image unless observed at the lowest possible magnification. Instead try to increase the f.l. with a good amplifier, there is no image degradation, I did it many times with my Quark and it works fine. Changing your yellow ERF with a D-ERF could also help.


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Re: it seems that my Quark is not reaching the working temperature

Post by axion »

I will try to follow the both advises and compare the results. Thank you! Roman


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