Highburymark

I can get 5.37x with a TV55, adapted to 67mm with a night vision lens, in my Tecnosky 60ED! Haven’t tried it to be honest. But I have used the little scope with an APM 20mm 100 degree for 18x, which is stunning under the right skies. Does show some field curvature of course.

Indeed. Rather wish I was up there. Would be nice to get away from the Earth for a while.

Magnificent image. I wonder if this was chosen as a galaxy-rich area to provide an impressive backdrop to the star, or is that just a random section of cosmos?

It’s fine - I used a DC with the Quark for a while, though no specific benefit from using a fluorite apo for solar Ha. You might just as well use a well figured achro. But if you’re looking to just have one scope for nighttime and solar, Quark will perform well in the F/8 DZ.

I really like the Maxbright II. On axis views won’t be noticeably (if any) better than your current pair. But you’ll get clicklock eyepiece holders (which retail for £60-£70 each on their own), a wider field of view, and T2 connections - together with the option to use Baader’s excellent GPCs, which minimise the light path, and makes sure you can reach focus with practically any set up. But all of that doesn’t guarantee that merging will be easier - only if you can determine that the eyepieces are misaligned with your WO pair. Was it high power eyepieces you were using?

Just be aware they are the etalons that didn’t make the grade for Daystar’s more expensive ranges. There is a lot of variation in examples. On average, they will show a less uniform view, with less contrast on surface details, than other options. But there are also good ones out there - some really excellent.

Agree - a very appealing design. The 82mm is actually marginally slower than the old 80mm Equinox, which used FPL53. Colour control with the Equinox was pretty good for a fastish scope. Will be interesting to see how this one matches up.

That looks better! Making sure you are on band is quite difficult with many etalons, which show variable detail across the FOV. Proms tend to be better at wider bandwidths - 0.7A, while filaments are better around 0.3-0.5A. The easiest indicators of being on band are the darkness and contrast of filaments, and the brightness of plage around active regions. It’s a gradual learning process with each Quark. As Peter has said, no two examples are the same.

Just on mounting, the Skytee 2 should carry this scope without any problems, as long as the tripod’s up to the job. I use a Gitzo 5-series carbon fibre tripod and a Skytee, and it supports my TSA-120 (with heavy triplet optics) very well indeed. With Herschel wedge and binoviewer it must be pushing 9-10kg - Skytee with ADM clamp is rock solid.

Can’t believe I’ve been edited!! 🤣🤣

After you click on one of the GONG images, press the right facing arrow (play) direct under the image. It will quickly load several hours’ worth of data. Then press the word ‘play’ at the top of the image. It will show a video at full speed - then just press ‘slower’ a few times. Bob’s your uncle, [removed word]’s your aunt, and everyone’s a coconut.

Ps, as ever nice pictures Stu - very good for a phone.

If you load the video on GONG and press ‘slower’ a few times, you can see the dramatic speed of the prom’s disintegration - even in slow motion it’s over in a flash. As I said on the other thread, it’s the first time I’ve seen moving plasma in real time on this scale.

Good idea Pete. For anyone who hasn’t tried it, there’s a replay feature on GONG which gives a useful recap of recent activity

Around a third of the entire structure fell back to the surface in about 15 minutes Stu - could clearly see the motion. Now that whole section has disappeared. Never seen such movement on such a scale.

Well - I’ve just witnessed something I’ve never seen before - the vast prom on the south east limb has just shed part of its structure (maybe 4x earth sized?) - which fell back to the Sun’s ‘surface’ in clearly visible motion - the whole event happened over just a couple of minutes! Never seen anything that size move so quickly before.

Thanks for the report Paul. Today is also spectacular!

Today is one of the most active discs I’ve seen in eight years of Ha observing. Magnificent proms, but the filaments continue to be spectacular too. So much to see if you get chance.

My shortest eyepiece pair for binoviewing are 11mm Delites. No problems merging. Never tried anything below that. I mostly use BVs for solar Ha, and like to use several pairs of eyepieces for each session (often swapping between 11mm/15mm/18.2mm and 25mm), to move from full disc to individual features. I like to be able to manipulate magnifications easily. With the Baader BV, a combination of 1.7x GPC and AP Barcon works well, but I pretty much always put the Barcon after the diagonal, using T2 spacers to adjust power. With the Zeiss Apo, I’ve tended to just use a 2.6x GPC fixed to the diagonal, and use different eyepieces to move between 60x and 140x - so again haven’t much experience with barlows before the diagonal/on the telescope side. Have read lots of CN reports of Barcon/Baradv working well in that format though. So far very impressed by the 4x Powermate for lunar - getting about 160x with best 25mm eyepieces on the Moon with Zeiss BV.

The worst were the Baader MkV, then WO/OVL which are possibly made on the same production line. It didn’t bother me much tbh, but am sure you’d be happy with the Maxbright II. Might even be worth asking Baader about it - they are very good at responding via the website.

Yep - no polarisation with the Zeiss pair. They are slightly sharper at high magnifications, and don’t need a barlow/gpc to correct aberrations, but the difference with the Maxbright II is subtle, at least that’s my experience so far. I have a lot more testing to do with a 4x Powermate I’ve bought recently, which is superb, and a great way to ramp up the power. But I’ve had five pairs of BVs now (WO, Baader MkV, OVL, Maxbright II and Zeiss Apo), and the on-axis views are similar. The biggest contributing factor to poor views with binoviewers is not how much they cost - it’s how well they’re collimated.

I’ve never used the older smoothside TV Plossls, but the current 11mm TV Plossl is pretty comfortable - no problem with eye relief at all. Presume the old 10.5mm will be similar.

Even the expensive MkV Baader binoviewer shows strong polarisation, so as Gerry says, it’s a common feature with prism binoviewers. I haven’t noticed any with the Maxbright II though. More generally, although the WO BV is excellent, the Maxbright is a very nice upgrade - wider fov, clicklock EP holders, T2 connections with option to use GPCs. Just difficult to find in stock at the moment.

The Zeiss wipes are ok for light cleaning of eyepieces but as advice above - there are much better options for more challenging jobs like cleaning objectives and mirrors. Zeiss wipes are great for travel though.

The lovely little Lunt 50, no longer of this parish, and the equally nifty Tecnosky 60ED. Looks even smaller in use with my 6ft 5ins frame draped over the eyepiece.