Hi Magnus
Quark chromosphere is very demanding in terms of seeing due the strong amplification factor of the internal telecentric, you need a fairly still air to obtain some decent results. Try on the morning or in the evening within two hours from sunrise or sunset respectively.
As far the imaging technique is concerned you can find many discussions in this forum that can help you effectively. This article by Alexandra
https://solarnutcase.livejournal.com/18572.html
is an excellent starting point.
For H alpha I usually stack 300 - 400 frames out of 3000 by using of Autostakkert, the raw image is then processed in IMPPG or IRIS. Be careful to shield your monitor from direct daylight, it would actually need to be well in shadow otherwise accurate focusing becomes challenging.
Why my Quark always refused to work...
- krakatoa1883
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Re: Why my Quark always refused to work...
Raf
My solar images and reports with articles on solar equipment
My solar images and reports with articles on solar equipment
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Re: Why my Quark always refused to work...
Thank you! I am only getting about 50-70 images stacked so far. I will keep on working on this. Thanks for your encouragement, and useful advice, I appreviate it.
Magnus
Magnus
Solar: H-alpha": Quark Chromosphere filter; Baader white light filters
Scopes: Altair Astro Travel ED70mm (F 420mm, D=70mm);; Skywatcher 90mm (F 910mm D=90mm); GSO focuser;;Altair Astro 60mm guidescope (D=60mm,F=225mm)
Cameras: ASI120mm-S,ASI174mm
Mount: SW HEQ5 Pro, SW EQ3 Pro Synscan (SW = Skywatcher),Vixen Polarie tracker (portable setup)
Accessory: SW Auto-focuser
Scopes: Altair Astro Travel ED70mm (F 420mm, D=70mm);; Skywatcher 90mm (F 910mm D=90mm); GSO focuser;;Altair Astro 60mm guidescope (D=60mm,F=225mm)
Cameras: ASI120mm-S,ASI174mm
Mount: SW HEQ5 Pro, SW EQ3 Pro Synscan (SW = Skywatcher),Vixen Polarie tracker (portable setup)
Accessory: SW Auto-focuser
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Re: Why my Quark always refused to work...
I had the same problem and the BF seemed to be fine, but when I looked closer with strong light, the problem has been found inside BF between two optical surfaces. The outside surfaces (reflective and red) were ok, but inside definetly somethiing wrong happend with optical layers. Hard to say if it`s typical filter degradation from concentrated ligh beam or just a mould. Replacing the filter solved the problem.
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- marktownley
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Re: Why my Quark always refused to work...
My quark blocker died too. I believe this will happen with all quarks over time, and will be exacerbated without proper ERF use.
http://brierleyhillsolar.blogspot.co.uk/
Solar images, a collection of all the most up to date live solar data on the web, imaging & processing tutorials - please take a look!
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Re: Why my Quark always refused to work...
I only say one thing .....
Why on earth should I accept that is normal that a Quark that costs 1300 euros can be not good?
Likewise, is Daystar willing to accept that some of my money is not good?
Why on earth should I accept that is normal that a Quark that costs 1300 euros can be not good?
Likewise, is Daystar willing to accept that some of my money is not good?
Last edited by fedele on Mon Feb 14, 2022 5:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Why my Quark always refused to work...
Hi,Why on earth should I accept that a Quark unit is not good?
You do not need to accept it.
For starting just do not buy one and if you bought one and it does not work send it back and tell them you want to have your money back.
I did it and got my money back but even worse ...
What about you bought a PE 0.4Å QUANTUM from Daystar and it does not work and you paid US $ 12,500.00 ¿? After placing the order you need to wait 3-4 months for delivery, then want to use and find out it does not work, send it back, get no info what is going on unless you bug them every 2-3 weeks and finally they send you a test report telling you the PE 0.4Å QUANTUM is blind and for all that a full year passes by ¿?
Yes, I also got my US $ 12,500.00 back ...
And the purchase was done after chatting personally with the owner for 4 or 5 hours on a NEAF show and finally convinced you to spend US $ 12,500.00 and then find out it is blind ¿?
Never ever again a piece of poop from Daystar ...
Rant over ...
regards Rainer
Observatorio Real de 14
San Luis Potosi Mexico
North 22° West 101°
Observatorio Real de 14
San Luis Potosi Mexico
North 22° West 101°
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Re: Why my Quark always refused to work...
At the end of the day, solar is not cheap at all. The Quark is pretty much their budget piece of kit, the only way they can do it that 'cheap' is cutting costs by sacrificing repeatability of quality. Soft coated filters are considerably cheaper than hard coated filters - soft coated fail due to thermal loading, hard coated don't. Quarks have no quoted bandwidth - this means Daystar can just churn them out regardless of the quality of the mica used.
http://brierleyhillsolar.blogspot.co.uk/
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Re: Why my Quark always refused to work...
They superficially look similar but are quite different beasts. The baader uses etalons from solar spectrum (the worlds best) and hard coated filters. Even then there are compromises - no TEC cooling, small etalons. Baader is hard coated filters so unlikely to fail after decades of use, whereas soft coated filters can fail after a few years.
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Re: Why my Quark always refused to work...
Hello Krakatoa1883,krakatoa1883 wrote: ↑Fri Jun 28, 2019 7:12 pm Finally the new BF from Andover arrived and indeed it made a huge difference, so my Quark is now returned as new. I am very happy because the etalon of my unit is good and very uniform and a degraded BF made it almost useless. The replacement BF also totally cured the problems I had with front ERFs and I can now use of my Baader D-ERF without image degradation.
I wonder what the reason might have been why the original BF degraded. I examined it under my stereo microscope without noting anomalies on any of the surfaces. I think of a possibile overheating while inadvertently using it without ERF.
The following is an image of today (2019-06-28) E limb with my Skywatcher 72ED, Baader 35nm filter as ERF and Quark. It was so hot that my Quark got tuned without current
andover new.jpg
thermo.jpg
While waiting for the replacement I made some experiments by using of a Baader 3.5nm H-alpha filter in place of the defective BF. Well, for prominences it worked fine, it actually transformed the chromosphere Quark into a prominence one, which is very useful for faint features.
2019-06-16-1253-RB-Halpha-flame.jpg
2019-06-14-0815-RB-Halpha-proms.jpg
Where did you place the 3.5nm h alpha filter? What size filter?
I would like to get a prominence view like you as well, surprised that this was possible.
Maybe a moderator can make a new topic for this, or has this already been discussed elsewhere.
Thanks,Magnus
Solar: H-alpha": Quark Chromosphere filter; Baader white light filters
Scopes: Altair Astro Travel ED70mm (F 420mm, D=70mm);; Skywatcher 90mm (F 910mm D=90mm); GSO focuser;;Altair Astro 60mm guidescope (D=60mm,F=225mm)
Cameras: ASI120mm-S,ASI174mm
Mount: SW HEQ5 Pro, SW EQ3 Pro Synscan (SW = Skywatcher),Vixen Polarie tracker (portable setup)
Accessory: SW Auto-focuser
Scopes: Altair Astro Travel ED70mm (F 420mm, D=70mm);; Skywatcher 90mm (F 910mm D=90mm); GSO focuser;;Altair Astro 60mm guidescope (D=60mm,F=225mm)
Cameras: ASI120mm-S,ASI174mm
Mount: SW HEQ5 Pro, SW EQ3 Pro Synscan (SW = Skywatcher),Vixen Polarie tracker (portable setup)
Accessory: SW Auto-focuser