Peter Drew

I was about to type the same advice, nothing currently on offer at this budget to suit your purpose. 😀

A good indication of what the telescope is capable of. Look forward to seeing results when conditions and activity both improve. 🙂

Post the issue on "Solarchat", I'm sure the experts on there would be most interested. 🙂

Good to swap experiences but no two Quarks seem to be the same. Getting the best out of solar Ha equipment can be quite a learning curve calling for patience. 🙂

Interesting thread. I also read the CN topic facing the same issue, I'm pretty sure the washer reinforcement option is the best way forward. I would certainly use steel rather than aluminium as I don't think the latter would offer enough stiffness. The Swift "Audubon" 8.5x44 is a well regarded binocular and well worth repairing. I look forward to hearing how it all works out as I have a binocular with the same problem that I have been meaning to repair for years. It is a 60 year old Kershaw "Monarch" 12x40 which not only belonged, from new, to my late father but was the very instrument that started me on my astronomical career, so of immense sentimental value. 🙂

I think the out of focus star image is par for a 200P. I certainly have plenty of experience with deformed stellar images due to obscurations in the light path, to produce a D shaped star would normally need a significant bite out of the out of focus disc. 🤔

Mirror defects should show up in the out of focus star image, I don't see any? Very puzzling. 🤔

General "rule of thumb" should equal the aperture. Bigger the better within reason. 🙂

The side bearing ideally should be around 12" diameter, small ones as shown will present balance and movement issues. Some rings cut from large plastic soil pipe and fitted on to plywood discs is a good DIY option. 🙂

Thanks for that. If that was an image of a star at the centre of the field then there doesn't appear to be anything obstructing the light path on axis. An image taken with the star nearer to the edge would determine whether there is something off axis causing the problem. 🙂

Cracking solar images of both events. Rain all day here.

If you haven't already done so, I would have a look at a bright star out of focus to see if there is anything missing from the diffraction disc. If there is then the orientation will give a clue as to what is causing it. I have only seen this effect through something encroaching into the light path. Or a big chip off the primary or secondary mirror! 🙂

I don't think the quality of the primary mirror would have anything to do with the problem. One remote possibility could be the secondary mirror being minimal size and the offset resulting in the light cone being clipped. Would also be interesting to try another camera. 🙂🙂

A coma corrector could be used on subsequent telescopes, a one off purchase. 🙂

Hello Nigella. So sorry to hear of this, as a past victim of this sort of thing I can identify with your distress. Fortunately is seems that you had already removed your expensive equipment. As Olly has said, fibreglass is one of the easiest materials to repair, you may even be able to buy a replacement component from the manufacturer. Oddly, once the issue was come to terms with I actually started to feel a little sorry for the perpretators knowing that this is the best that life offers them.

Edit. Double post as the original seemed to have got scrambled, had to try and remember what I had initially posted, hence probably a few differences. 😀

@Kitsunegari. I hope my post didn't appear critical of your initial input. Not in the least as my main interest in solar matters is the development of the means to observe it and any new approach is of great interest to me. I have been solar observing the Sun in Ha long before PST's arrived on the market, when they did and I purchased one I was impressed with the views for the price at that time. I was attracted to PST mods by the early pioneers but was wary of spoiling mine, as an upgrade I bought another one and made a binocular. Despite the significant improvement, what I really wanted was a larger image scale and higher resolution. I couldn't afford a dedicated commercial unit so a PST mod was the only way forward. A dozen or so mods and much experimentation brought me to where I am now with my dream setup. I bought a new 150mm F10 Istar objective, my pre-owned Bel-optic Triband ERF, PST etalon, 5mm BF and Denk binoviewers and telescope build cost me less than a 60mm Lunt. PST etalons bandpass varies between 1.0A and 0.7A depending on your luck, mine selected from several PST's is close to the better end. I have several 5, 10 and 15mm BF's but have found little difference in performance between them apart from field of view for imaging, the sweetspot doesn't change with the larger ones, in fact they seem to accentuate it. I use a 2x Barlow lens fitted to the nosepiece of the binoviewers to get to the focus but also because it seems to increase the apparent field of view, the resulting amplification means that even 40mm eyepieces provide a magnification of 150x. I have no interest in imaging myself, imager friends have tried my telescope and processed images on a par to the best achieved with similar sized equipment. Overall I'm completely satisfied with what I have and for my purposes the seeing is the only "bottleneck". 🙂

I think that's what I intended to imply Paul, if all else is equal then seeing is the final deciding factor. 🙂

@Kitsunegari. I hope my post didn't appear critical of your initial input. Not in the least as my main interest in solar matters is the development of the means to observe it and any new approach is of great interest to me. I have been solar observing the Sun in Ha long before PST's arrived on the market, when they did and I purchased one I was impressed with the views for the price at that time. I was attracted to PST mods by the early pioneers but was wary of spoiling my unit, instead for an upgrade I bought a second PST and made a binocular from them. Despite the significant improvement I eventually longed for greater image scale and resolution, not being able to afford a large dedicated commercial unit, a PST mod was the obvious way forward. A long path involving more than a dozen mods and all manner of experimentation has bought me to my current rig, a large solar telescope usable with binoviewers providing high resolution and high magnification images on a par with the best photos. I bought the 150mm F10 Istar objective new, the Bel-Optic Triband ERF, PST etalon, 5mm BF and Denk binoviewers were secondhand. In total, the complete telescope cost me less than a new Lunt 60mm. PST etalons have a bandpass between 1.00A and 0.7A depending on your luck, mine I selected from several PST's and is at the better end of the scale. I have several BF's in 5, 10 and 15mm sizes, I have found no significant performance between them other than field of view, the larger ones do not increase the sweetspot, if anything they make it more noticeable. Imager friends have photographed using mine and the resultant stacked and processed images are on a par with the best of others using comparable equipment. I am strictly visual so completely satisfied with what I have, seeing, for my purpose, is the only "bottleneck". 🙂

Most other things being equal, seeing is the most levelling aspect. I have a good C8 in Tenerife where the seeing is often excellent. During the last close opposition of Mars I was able to use 600x with a decent image though 400x was slightly better and enough. 400x on the Moon was routine. If I brought the C8 back to the UK I bet those magnifications would be halved. 🙂

This part of the cycle would have saved Galileo a lot of "grief"! 😀

I don't recognise this PST mod "bottleneck". Like Rusted I operate a 150mm F10 Istar PST mod. Surely it's a case of "horses for courses"? My interest lies with high resolution close-up visual images of solar details. I use the standard 5mm blocking filter, 2x Barlow lens fitted to the nosepiece of a binoviewer which provides a magnification of 150x with a pair of 40mm Plossl eyepieces, the lowest power I use. I can get about one quarter of the solar disc in view representing a 8 foot circle viewed from 4 feet with no sweetspot issues. If I want a small scale full disc image I have a 60mm Coronado unit. 🙂

50x per inch of aperture really only works well for small apertures and good quality ones at that. I have a 30" Dob and no way would I ever be able to use 50 x 30 = 1500x. Seeing in the UK generally sets an upper limit to about 400x regardless of the telescope type or aperture and then mainly for the Moon, close double stars and perhaps Mars when well placed. 🙂

The mount or the stormy weather? 😀

@Starflyer. Yes, a classic example of a "rusted" ITF. I too, would recommend the M Photonics replacement, they apparently give a brighter image and better lifetime. 😀