Unpowered Quark

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Unpowered Quark

Post by astro_al »

Hello all.

The folks over at SGL suggested I ask my question here for an expert opinion :)

I took delivery of a Quark Chromosphere a few weeks ago and have been using it mainly with an F7.5 3" refractor. Initially with a 2" UV/IR filtering in front of the diagonal but now with a 35nm Ha filter.

I read a lot about the Quarks before purchasing and I realise that they vary in specification. Over the first few sessions I determined that the best setting was fully CCW at -5. With this I could see nice detailed proms and a hint of surface detail. Moving to the 0 position dimmed the proms and didn't improve anything else, moving on to +5 gave more of a white light view.

A couple of days ago I was looking to try and see the plage that I could see on the GONG website. I had been observing the day before and was completely unaware of it. Now that I knew the position I could just about make something out but that's all. Later in the day the plage was much easier to see and the view was much better, I thought maybe because of the seeing, but in the end it turns out I didn't plug the Quark into the power source. When I plugged it in and got the green light for -5 the view was back to being the same as earlier in the day.

I have repeated the unpowered test a further three times. Each time bringing the Quark out from the house and observing without power first, so not viewing with power then pulling the plug i.e. no residual heat. Each time so far the view is better without power than with.

The general consensus on SGL is that without power I should not be seeing proms, spicules and other features, just more of a white light type view. My main concern is that if the views are better without power then I don't really have any control over the unit. I am in the UK and have used the Quark unpowered in the morning (~10 degrees C) and afternoon (up to ~24 degrees C).

If anyone can share any relevant Quark experience or insights it would be much appreciated.

This is my first post on SolarChat, thanks for reading it.

Al


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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by marktownley »

Hi Al,

Welcome to the forum. That's not right at all. Where did you buy it from? You need to send it back it is faulty.

Mark


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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by Montana »

Yes, definitely faulty. If my heater went faulty and I couldn't heat enough and my centreline was +6 or more (which didn't exist) then your etalon is working at -6 and below (which also doesn't exist). So you definitely do not need a heater for where your etalon is set for centreline. Really you need a cooler.

Send it straight back, but you won't get that one back, you will get a different one.
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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by astro_al »

Mark, thanks for the welcome and for your reply. I purchased my Quark from First Light Optics as I have always found them to be very good to deal with. I have had an initial response this morning which wasn't what I was hoping for, but I am sure it will get sorted.

Alexandra, thank you for your insight. That makes perfect sense to me and it is good to hear that someone else has had a similar issue and got it resolved.

My point to the vendor and manufacturer has been that if the heater isn't needed at all then it cannot be as designed so must be faulty. Hope to get it resolved soon.

Regards

Al


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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by astro_al »

Just hear back from FLO. The Quark is going to be collected on Monday so that they can test it and replace if faulty, which is great news as I feel confident that working unpowered is pretty definitive.


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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by marktownley »

FLO are good guys and I recommend them, I had a faulty quark and it went back no quibbles or questions. I always recommend them as a retailer.

Let us know how you get on with your new Quark and share images here too!


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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by astro_al »

Will do, although I am visual only so no images. Happy to share my (newbie) experiences though!


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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by Highbury Mark »

I have heard from one owner that he used to heat his Quark until the light changed, then turned off the heater, and he’d get very good views for a long time without power. And he was based in decidedly not warm Scandinavia.
Otherwise, the description of the views you were getting sound similar to mine - not great on surface detail but superb proms. Hope you get a better replacement.


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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by astro_al »

Highbury Mark wrote: Fri May 22, 2020 6:22 pm I have heard from one owner that he used to heat his Quark until the light changed, then turned off the heater, and he’d get very good views for a long time without power. And he was based in decidedly not warm Scandinavia.
That would drive me crazy! I would (do) really want a setting that under power shows me the best view for my unit. If I turn the power off or move away from that setting then the view should typically not be as good. That’s the way I see it anyway.


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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by astro_al »

Well, my replacement Quark should be here early next week. Hopefully there will be some clear spells so I can test it. First check will be that it needs power to be on band. Fingers crossed it will be OK.

Definitely missed my morning Ha sessions. Looking forward to getting back to it.


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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by astro_al »

My replacement Quark arrived last week and I have now had a few sessions with it. After the initial excitement of having a Quark that needed power and showed more surface detail than the one it replaced I have now noticed something that's not great. There is a linear zone of maybe 50% of the FOV that shows nice detail, but outside of that it drops off significantly. A prom in the centre of the FOV looks great, but once it moves out of the 'zone' it fades rapidly then becomes invisible. Same for surface detail. If I rotate the Quark the linear zone rotates with it. So originally moving a centred feature up and down was OK and left to right was not but after rotating the Quark 90 degrees then left to right is good but up and down isn't.

Do others see this in their Quarks?


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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by marktownley »

Doesn't sound good. Send it back and get your money back. Standard pants Quark quality rears its head again. :(


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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by astro_al »

Thanks Mark. Not sure I can go through it all for a third time. I may have to return then rethink what I spend my money on. Maybe a dedicated solar scope.

Al


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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by marktownley »

You've had a raw deal with the Quarks. What other scopes do you have?


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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by astro_al »

I don't own any dedicated solar scopes but I do have a Herschel wedge that I use with my collection of refractors. 60mm F15, 76mm F7.5, 100m F7.4 and 152mm F8. One thing I have learned from having the Quark is that I really like Ha viewing so I may have to sell a refractor or two and spend a bit more than originally planned.


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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by marktownley »

You've got a nice range of refractors there, it s a shame the Quarks didn't work, you have all bases covered with the fracs.


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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by Montana »

That's a real disappointment Al, but sadly this happened to me too. After 18 months of messing about and no Halpha I gave up and got my money back. It is a pity as it would have been brilliant on my C11. I know Valery and Alfred have great success with a Quark but I simply cannot buy one. My PST mod is not working out as I had hoped either and there comes a point when you just can't spend anymore.

How much money do you have in your budget and what are the main goals you want out of a Halpha scope, visual/imaging, full discs/hi res? there must be a good alternative for you ;)

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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by astro_al »

Thanks for your post Alexandra.

It is disappointing. I went out this morning to repeat the testing and the result was the same. Changing the dial on the Quark just seems to move the good area from right to left. I can either have it in the middle (-5), which makes most sense as it covers more of the FOV, or to the left (around 0). There is no setting where enough of the view is uniform for me to be happy.

I am a visual observer that uses binoviewers 100% of the time for both daytime and night time viewing. Generally I try to stick to about a 1mm exit pupil. For white light viewing in my smaller scopes it tends to be around 50-60x. That also means a full disk which I like. With the Quark 100x is as low as I can go with my longest EPs and shortest FL scope, which is more like an exit pupil of 0.8mm. That exit pupil is OK for me with the sun but if I am honest the magnification is typically a bit too high and I would be happier if I could reduce it. I was planning on getting a shorter FL scope if this Quark worked out.

Overall I think grab and go, visual, and full disk would describe my goals the best. The only way of me having a budget in the short term is to sell one or more of my scopes which I am not against as I am really enjoying Ha so far despite the setbacks. If I do that my comfort level will be £2.5 - £3K.

Al


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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by _Zakalwe »

astro_al wrote: Tue Jun 23, 2020 8:58 am
It is disappointing. I went out this morning to repeat the testing and the result was the same. Changing the dial on the Quark just seems to move the good area from right to left. I can either have it in the middle (-5), which makes most sense as it covers more of the FOV, or to the left (around 0). There is no setting where enough of the view is uniform for me to be happy.
Have you tried starting at one end of the dial let it settle, then move it to the next stop? You normally have to experiment to find the est position on the dial where it is onband across the FoV.

It can be a pain, as it can take up to 10 minutes to settle for each click. This could take over an hour to test them all.It's one the the worst aspects of heat controlled Etalons compared to tilt or pressure tuning.

I've had two Quarks and there really was a massive difference between the two. To be honest, I hung around until I spotted one up for sale on the second-hand market. Th guy selling it was getting great results and i was lucky enough to be able to buy his Espirt 120 and the Quark he was using.

I'm not sure that I could face buying one new and having to take pot luck if it was a good one or not.


astro_al wrote: Tue Jun 23, 2020 8:58 am Overall I think grab and go, visual, and full disk would describe my goals the best. The only way of me having a budget in the short term is to sell one or more of my scopes which I am not against as I am really enjoying Ha so far despite the setbacks. If I do that my comfort level will be £2.5 - £3K.
You are describing a Lunt L60 to be honest. Highburymark had an immaculate one for sale with a 60mm double-stack Etalon for £2700 on SGL. Shame you missed it.


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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by marktownley »



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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by astro_al »

_Zakalwe wrote: Tue Jun 23, 2020 9:15 am Have you tried starting at one end of the dial let it settle, then move it to the next stop? You normally have to experiment to find the est position on the dial where it is onband across the FoV.
I started at -5 and got to +2 before I gave up. The amount of the FOV that was onband just reduced with each setting. I suppose I should try +2 to +5 just to be sure though, I can do that now over lunch.

I was hoping to make use of my existing scopes rather than buy another one, but maybe a Lunt LS60 is the way to go. I will give it some thought.

Thanks

Al


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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by astro_al »

+2 to +5 just gets worse. Below is an approximation of the issue. The centre of the green zone is the best and I can move a prom or filament up and down and the quality of the image is the same. As I move the object left or right away from the centre of the green it starts to fade as it gets to the yellow zone. Orange is basically a blank disk. So it's a gradual degradation of the view perpendicular to the banding.
Quark.png
Quark.png (20.52 KiB) Viewed 3001 times


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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by marktownley »

It's junk, send it back :(


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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by astro_al »

marktownley wrote: Tue Jun 23, 2020 5:15 pm It's junk, send it back :(
Just emailed FLO regarding a return and refund. Will give the Lunt LS60 some thought.


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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by _Zakalwe »

marktownley wrote: Tue Jun 23, 2020 5:15 pm It's junk, send it back :(
You would hope that Daystar would have gotten a grip on their QC by now. They clearly must do the minimum of quality testing on these devices before they ship them.
Bandwidth variance I understand at this price point, but having half of the FoV not working is ridiculous.


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Re: Unpowered Quark

Post by astro_al »

_Zakalwe wrote: Wed Jun 24, 2020 8:31 am You would hope that Daystar would have gotten a grip on their QC by now. They clearly must do the minimum of quality testing on these devices before they ship them.
Bandwidth variance I understand at this price point, but having half of the FoV not working is ridiculous.
Maybe keeping the price below £1000 is useful for marketing but I would personally pay a bit more if it covered the QC.

Daystar are clear that there is bandwidth variance so I knew this before purchasing. As a first time Ha observer I don't have the experience to pick out whereabouts within that variance my Quark sits so this is not that important to me. What is important to me is:
  • The unit should typically require power to come on band.
  • The bandwidth should be consistent over the entire FOV, or at least the vast majority of it.
  • The unit should have a setting that provides the best view. In an ideal world not at +-5 but that might be pushing it :)


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