SolarChat!

Hello
Own a Lunt50, for a couple of weeks now, which has been pretty good on the prominences, but, when used visually, lacks the details of the surface.
Just Yesterday, a Daystar Quark filter was shipped to me, which I'm mainly planning to use on a 102mm refractor.

I'd be really interested in possibility of using the Quark on the Lunt scope, to bring out the surface details.
Suspect, it might be impossible to reach the focus in Lunt's stock form, due to the short focuser travel and Quark's 4.2 Barlow.

So what could be the possible solution?
Bare in mind, I'm quite new to the astronomy and just got my first 2 scopes (Lunt and 102mm refractor) 2 weeks ago

Thanks!

Ok guys, to those interested if it works, it does!
Tested Today, with the 21.5mm eyepiece (least powerful I have).
Removed the Lunt's B600 filter and used my Skywatcher's diagonal instead.
Needed around 1.5 inch more out focus, than the Lunt 50 allows.

Anyway, the visual image is incredible, comes much closer to the post processed images. All details are popping out and become alive.
The image is quite dark, with 21.5mm, I presume, going down to 32-40mm would help a lot.

Sadly, no images of the Sun to post, I don't have any astro camera.

Very good! I missed this original post. Glad it works well for you. My choice with a quark is a 32mm plossl, others prefer the 40mm, either will offer more image brightness.

I was just checking some cheaper plossls (SPL) on aliexpress, which seems to have very good reviews since I want to know first, which size I prefer the most. Later, when I know for sure, I will get a premium piece.
Since I'm planning to use the Quark on my F/5 102 refractor, as well, I decided on 32 and 25 plossls for now.

On my F/5 102 mm refractor and Ouark I prefer 40 mm plossl.

Thanks man, I will think about ordering a 40mm piece as well.
Was under the impression, since F/5 has a smaller magnification factor, 32mm should work similar to 40mm on the slower refractors.
Have you tried stopping your scope down, to say 70-80mm, to get closer to the recommended F/30?

No I did not.

Guys, as it happens, my Quark's barlow lens is pretty bad, with a large scratch on it and multiple other spots of unknown nature.
http://i.imgur.com/ryJo5UG.jpg

Whe used alone, Quark doesn't have any visible issues. But, doublestacked on Lunt scope, I can see multiple particles, covering the whole picture.

Someone suggested me, to remove the barlow altogether, since, as Daystar states, the only reason for the barlow is to focus the light into separate wavelengths to the etalon.

Since the Lunt probably does about the same, do you think, the barlow can be eliminated from the combo?

The "barlow" is not a barlow, it a telecentric lens system required for the Quark filter to work properly. See:

See: http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/56508 ... try7685464

You might get a reasonably good double stacked filter image without it, but on the other hand it might not be able to reach focus. A standard "telecentric" barlow such as a TeleVue 2.5x Powermate barlow might help, and perhaps be OK, but likely will not be nearly as good as the OEM 4.2x telecentric.

Thanks mate,
Waiting on the Daystar's response, before trying anything else.

Hello,
Daystar won't help you, unless you send them the whole Quark ( and you will wait several weeks, if not months). If they will find out that you unscrewed the telecentric lens from the body, they will void your warranty (and they might threaten you with lawsuit, as they did to me :-( ). Simply throw away the QUARK telecentric or use a 2.5x or 4x TV Powermate. The 4x PM has the same thread as the Quark body ( connecting the 2" aluminum nose-piece).

Thanks man, guess x4 powermate is the only option now.
Question is, once you screw in the powermate, instead of the Quark's telecentric, what about the blocking filter?

Andover sells the blocking filters to Daystar for Quark. For x4 Powermate you can buy a larger 25mm BF 656FS02-25 for $233 and mount it into a 1.25" filter mount . This can be mounted into a 2" (M48) thread on the front end of the x4 powermate. You will get larger filed , no vignetting for your camera.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/photon_ch ... 644159956/

Thank you.
25mm filter sounds tempting, but, I'm strictly visual and don't do imaging, so not sure, if it is worth spending extra on it, or is it?
Can Quark's own BF filter be reused with the x4 Powermate, if so, will it require an adapter?

x4 Powermate has an approximate 17mm diameter input negative lens, the 12.5mm original Quark BF will vignette this aperture, so using the larger 25mm Andover BF is somewhat better solution. If you want to save money, you can reuse the 12.5mm BF, but you need to make a mount for it which will hold it securely (that is very important !!! if you are going to use it for visual observing) and it will be probably quite expensive too. It is of course doable. I am doing most of the time (99%) imaging and therefore the security of the BF mounting is not as critical. FOR VISUAL WORK TRIPLE SECURE ALL FILTERS!!!

Thanks.
Now it's pretty obvious, that Daystar not interested in sending the replacement telecentric lens.
Are the any cheaper alternatives to the x4 Powermate, I can possibly use instead?

Also, If I replace the telecentric lens wit the Powermate or any alternatives, can I possibly use my Lunt's BF600 diagonal, instead of the Quarks filter?
Because, in Lunt scope, the filter comes after the etalon, where as in Quark, it's mounted in front of it.