DRT

Simon at Widescreen Centre emailed today to let me know that Daystar have identified/know the fault from the picture and will replace the filter under warranty. Windescreen Centre are taking care of logistics. ?

Thanks, Ken - much appreciated

Thanks for the offer - have sent you a PM

I tried three times and cannot get through solar chat's registration process. Grrrr.

Second only to the Solar section on SGL?

Thanks, Peter. I hadn't heard of that place before so will give it a go.

Sounds like a nightmare, Dave. I've contacted Widescreen Centre as I bought it from them new 16 months ago and am hoping they will offer to sort out the logistics. I'm sure they will have done it many times before and shipping it back with incoming stock might speed up the customs process.

I have had a look through the Quark this morning through the gaps in the clouds. The good news is that it is still showing lots of detail and doesn't appear to be trashed by the marks on the lens. However, when you move the field of view slowly across the disk, especially in full brightness, you can see a shadow in the shape of the pattern shown in the picture above moving across the disk. The part that is covered by the shadow is visibly dimmer and shows less detail than the clear part of the FOV. Whilst this fault hasn't rendered the device completley unusable it is certainly a degradation from where it once was.

...and be away for the duration of the summer

Cheers - I think the question in the thread title has been comprehensively answered I just hope there is a solution. Will report back when I hear from Simon. Thanks for all the replies and pictures.

Cheers, Gordon.

The Sun has decided to go in for the day so I probably won't be able to look through it until tomorrow. I used it last week and it seemed fine.

I really have no idea when it appeared, Stu. The picture isn't as clear as when you look at it close up and my first thought when I saw it clearly was that it was some sort of degeneration of a lens coating. I just found this article: http://myphotojourney.co.uk/daystar-quark-humidity-issue/ I don't want to dismantle it at no doubt my 5 year warranty will go down the tubes but it is possible there is some sort of internal moisture that is causing this.

Thanks, charl. I have sent the picture to Simon at Widescreen Centre. I found the order confirmation and it's actually only 16 months old. It's always been kept in a cool, dry place in a foam lined flight case so I'm struggling to see how it could be fungus, although that certainly is what it looks like.

I have owned my Quark for around two years and have always been delighted with the views. I have read all of the horror stories of faulty units and bad customer service but enough experienced observers have looked through my Quark to convince me it is a good one. Until today... ive been doing a little spring cleaning of my Astro kit and noticed that there was quite a gathering of dust inside the eyepiece holder of the Quark. I unscrewed the eyepiece holder and cleaned the outer surface of the red glass filter and surrounding area. As I was doing this I noticed this pattern on the inside of the filter... ? Please, if you have a Quark can you take a look and tell me if you see the same thing? Alternatively, if you were unlucky enough to have a bad one did it look like the picture above? Thanks Derek

I'm now booked - but unfortunately only for Saturday night as Friday is Mrs DRT's birthday and I need to be at work on Monday morning. Looking forward to it

You could try varying the temperature in which you are trying to remove the screws. If you have been trying when the scope is at ambient room temperature leave it somewhere cold for a while and try again, or vice versa.

I'm glad you posted that, Doug. I thought it was a cricket box and was quite confused as to why they would be popular here

This beautiful little beast arrived this morning... A big thanks to @Stu for some of the most OCD packaging I have ever had the pleasure of fighting my way through

That would be great, Shane. It might debunk another Astro-myth or confirm common belief that it's much best to have matched pairs.

That is a fine looking case, Shane I suspect that you didn't manage to buy all of those Plossls as pairs from the same batch so would be interested to know whether or not you have noticed any material difference between those that are true pairs and those that you picked-up individually? Perhaps a subject for a review thread?

Just to clarify my previous post, I wasn't suggesting that reporting it is ineffective, it is ebay that is ineffective in stopping it re-appearing on a regular basis.

It's a longstanding scam. The same kit keeps appearing in different ads and the the ad gets cancelled. I think a number of people here have reported it to eBay many times but they seem ineffective in stopping it.

My Lunt 50Ha now has a cute new focuser...

Courtesy of our friends at FLO, a beautiful little FeatherTouch for my Lunt Ha...