johninderby

A bright light apeared in the sky late this aft. 😁

Anyway was able to test the SvBony solar finder. Soooo much better than the tiny finder Daystar provides and alignment was spot on. With the stock finder it took a bit of hunting around to get the sun showing on the finder and even then had to hunt around a bit more to find the sun. With the bigger disc of the Svbony just looking at the shadow on the ground got me close enough to have the sun showing on the disc and centerring the bright spot put the sun dead centre in the fov.  

So if you get this scope toss the provided finder and get the SvBony. 

Also had a chance to try the new Televue 25mm plossl. Big improvement over the other eyepieces I had tried. Sun is still too bright but should have the polarising filter tomorrow. As it was detail in the centre was washed out with surface detail around the edges and hints of tiny proms. 

A bit quiet for testing a new scope really 🙂. 

A little something with green writing on it. 😁

Coiled USB cable arrived from Amazon. Much neater than the old cable with no tying up out of the way needed. Well except for the velcro strap stopping the cable from pulling on the plug. Thin cable but rated for 2.4a and the Quark only takes 1.5a.

Not much chance to look at the sun today. Black clouds and the rumble of thunder  at the moment. 🙁

11 minutes ago, Greymouser said:

Could you put up a link for the pouch please? Also what dimensions is it?

Ta.

Here ypu go.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07KM9XF19/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Measurements are 10cm wide by 16cm high by 3cm thick. Seems quite well made.

At least the box won’t be wasted. Will come in handy one day for shipping something. 🙂

Didn’t really care for the tiny solar finder that came with the scope. Yes it works but could be better. Having recently bought a Svbony solar finder for another scope thought it would be much better if it could be fitted.

Turned out to be an easy straight forward job. Found an Orion finder shoe was a perfect fit on the scope and even used the same mounting screws as the original finder. 

Ordered same time and arrived at the same time. Bigger stuff came in the cardboard envelope? 

I presume Amazon packers are on minimum wage? 🤔

1 minute ago, Ags said:

😀

It’s a brilliant little bit of kit. Shame about the name. 😁

And the wasteful packaging award goes to Amazon who shipped these two little adapters in a seperate box to the other things that arrived today. 👎🏽

Power tank and case arrived today.

The Floureon 12,000mah power tank will keep the Quark going for quite a while. The “Tactical Waterproof Mobile Bag Military Phone Holder” ,as the manufacturer calls it, has loads of straps and a hook to attach it to just about anything. Will replace the usb cable with a coiled one to keep it neater.

Power tank and a phone holder to put it in. Lots of straps and hooks on the case to attach it to the tripod. 🙂

Just ordered a Bresser (Lunt) polarising filter as I found the image too bright and after googling the subject find a single polarising filter is recommended with the Quark to bring out the detail. 

With a 25mm plossl the whole disc fitted in the fov. Also tried a zoom but only usable at it’s lowest mag. Have a Televue 25mm plossl coming in a few days. Found the focusing was very smooth. The whole front end of the scope rotates when focusing. Tried a Baader helical eyepiece focuser but caused a real problem with vignetting. Could only see about a third of the suns’s disc so moving the eyepiece away from the diagonal isn’t a good idea. BTW found the fine focusing with the Baader eyepiece focuser wasn’t much of an improvement if any.

The scope will be used on the photo tripod setup for visual as it will be really convieient. The geared head handles 7.5kg so very stable with the little Quark. 🙂

Although my nice red power bank will be inside one of these mobile phone pouches. 😁

Easy way to clip the thing onto the tripod.

Good idea. I was just ordering a power bank and USB cable from Amazon. Small power bank can hang on tripod when scope used on my photo tripod. Also found a suitable case tor everything which should be here Thursday. 

8 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Curiously the one in the S@N review has a UK plug.

Dave

It seems that the bundle version has the adapters but not the regular one. Also it’s a different adapter. With all the bits I don’t need that come with the bundle that’s a lot to pay for a plug adapter. 🤔

 Fitted a carry handle to the OTA. Inexpensive one from Screwfix - Smith & Locke D Pull Handle 171mm - but quite a nice thick aluminium one. They do a few various lengths that would suit many scopes.👍🏻

Thin cloud has moved in now. 😕

Looks promising but the big problem is there just isn’t anything going on today and seeing has deteriorated as well. Oh well will try again a bit later.

It’s a 110v to 240v adapter. Surprised that they haven’t included the plug adapters as they do with the Quark eyepices.

Getting somewhere with the scope now. Thought there was something wrong with it ar first as couldn’t see the sun at all, just pure black. Changed power leads and battery to no avail. However I had been trying it with a Baader prism but when I switched to a regular dielectric there was the sun!.  👍🏻

Very sharp image but not a lot of detail so a bit of tuning required. So it’s adjust the tuning and wait a few minutes for it to settle. Normal first use stuff. 

So the prism is useless with the Quark so back to the little Mak with it. 🙂

From what I’ve read at 0.5A proms are good but not quite as good as an 0.7A  but a lot more disc detail. Having had a Lunt 60 before will give me something to compare it too.

The sun is behind a few tall trees at the moment but should be viewable before much longer and hardly any clouds so a first light is immenent 🙂

Skyatnight review

https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/reviews/telescopes/daystar-solar-scout-ss60-ds-h-alpha-telescope-bundle-review/

Checked FLO and they show the following for the Solar Scout SS60

• Micro-USB power cable and US wall charger

But for the Quark eyepiece on it’s own have the following.

• Includes 90-240VAC wall adapter with international plug adapters.

So it looks like the UK adaptors aren’t included. 😕

Fingers crossed for tomorrow as forecast not looking too good for next week.

FLO isn’t kidding. 😁