Nik271

I agree as long as the views are good I'm reluctant to return it, perhaps I'm worried over nothing. Inside the Quarks are so many layers of filters I don't expect it to look perfect under the harsh light of the sun. But then I replaced my Baader solar film immediately i noticed it developed small dead spots for safety reasons. I think I should write to Daystar, they should know if this is outside normal.

All images are without an eyepiece in the quark, directly at the image of the sun through the etalon. But yes I tried rotating the Plossl it had no effect.

Dear SGLers of the brightside, Can you help me to check if this issue in my new quark is normal? First let me say that in the three times I've used it the views are great, I can see prominences on the limb and filaments on the disk, with a 70/420 ED refractor. Today I tried it with binoviewers and the views were even better, very 3D. But I don't have anything to compare it with and I noticed this disturbing issue: It all started with one of the 30mm Plossls that came with the binoviewers, I decided to put it directly in the quark becuase one special thing about these Plossls is that to minimize the light path they don't have a long barrel and go 'all body in'. As a result the focal plane of the EP is very close to the optical window. I was actually hoping to maximise the field of view. But what I saw superimposed over the focused image of sun looked horrible: some fibrous mesh of strands, a bit like looking through a coarse thin curtain. There were also 4 or 5 bright orange spots, where I think coating is missing and the photosphere is leaking through. Nothing of this actually shows on inspecting the outside red window (on the eyepiece side) in normal light, it looks spotless. After I saw this issue I noticed that with my other normal 32mm and 20mm plossls I can detect slight uneven illumination in the field in the places where the bright dots are. I attach photos and a video I made with my phone camera directly at the optical window without an eyepeice in the holder. The orange blob is the sun illuminating the red window from below. I believe the fibrous things I see must be the sheet of mica in the etalon. I understand that the quarks are entry level product and there is no expectation of uniformity and I'm happy with that for the price. But what about the 4-5 orange dots, they look like mini scratches on the inside. So far they don't affect the view (I think) but I'm concerned with they could increase in the future. What do you think, is this normal quality of a quark? Does yours show similar uneveness? One easy way to check is when focused on the sun to remove the eyepiece and look at the red window as the sun disc is showing through, any defects become very noticeable. Any opinion is welcome. Nik VID_20230323_085830247.mp4

That X flare must have been awsome! Yesterday I was using a 70/420 focal length ED refractor for a portable grab and go solar set up dodging rainshowers. It allows me to view the full Sun disc even though I'm told its focal ratio F6 is not ideal for a Quark. I have a 102/716 F7 ED refractor as well, but I', waiting for a long steady sunny spell to try it out properly. The Quark will bring it to massive 3080mm effective focal length so will need good seeing for that. It is super impressive already with the small scope, I could see some filaments as dark arcs on the disc and a few prominences on the edge, which gradually changed over time. There was one fading bit which hung detached over the limb like a cloud. I'm hooked on Ha!

Cool, its great to have a confirmation! Thanks, @IB20, useful resource, now I know where to look up the past solar activity.

I was observing the Sun between clouds with my new Quark this lunchtime when I noticed a sudden brightening near a sunspot on the east side ( I think it was 3257). For a few minutes there was a bright yellow dot next to the dark sunspot and the 'swirls' around the sunspot also glowed. It was exactly at 2pm GMT. Then it faded over the course of 10 minutes. I think it was a solar flare but being new to Ha observing I'm not entirely sure. Did anybody see this, I will be interested to hear a confirmation what it was. Nik

Very nice report and a good looking scope, enjoyed reading this! Ceres will pass the 6.8 magnitude HD 108239 next week heading directly to M100. It may be possible to compare its disc with this star. At 0.8'' the big aperture may show difference in size.

I was watching this as well between 2 and 3pm UT. This being only my second Ha session with my new quark on a 100 f7 refractor. It's amazing to see these prominences evolve and change shape over the course of an hour, the energy involved must be tremendous.

As long as the garage has some sort of ventilation you'll be fine. It's mould that you should be watching for, and condensation while in storage.

The key weak point of Mak for solar without ERF is the aluminised secondary and it's baffle. Usually these baffles are plastic and glued to the corrector plate, so the concentrated heat can deform or even melt it.

Jupiter and Venus in the same field of view. Clouds parted over Oxford at about 5pm and stayed clear for a whole hour. The two planets were easily visible with naked eye from 5:45pm. I quickly set up my grab and go Skymax 127 on AZ5. With a 20mm 68 degree Svbony EP at x75 both planets were fitting in the extreme opposite edges of the field. Seeing was poor, just managed to resolve the gibbous shape of Venus and the two main belts of Jupiter. Clouds duly arrived 15 minutes later.

Just found this: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/details.cgi?aid=5074&button=recent Leibnitz Beta is now officially Mons Mouton.

Yes, it is still quite dim: mag 9.5 on average according to AAVSO. It should start to get brighter in the next couple of months but undortunately for us in the northern hemisphere it will disappear from the evening sky. Perhaps we can catch it when it is brighter in the pre-dawn sky from October.

Right now Sirius B is East-North-East of Sirius A, so it looks that you got it, @IB20, congratulations! Under good conditions it can be done with small scopes. Personally I've seen it with 180mm Mak, 127mm Mak and lately with a 100mm refractor, including last night when I saw just occasional glimpses of the Pup in moments of stability. Your observation of it with a 76mm scope is very impressive, especially from the UK where it's only 20 degrees in altitude at best.

Third one with Calvius is pretty good, the other two look too soft. Maybe focus/seeing issue? Theoretically a 100mm scope should resolve the largest craterlet A of Plato.

Here is my effort from this morning, 6am. Single shot with Canon 250D and Sigma 200mm F2.8, 25 seconds at 800 ISO, then tweaked in the photos editor. Used my trusty EQ5 with a RA motor for basic tracking. Tried stacking but the comet is too fast now and gets blurred after only a couple of minutes. Looks great with binoculars too!

Fir the next week or so the comet gets closer to the north celestial pole so it's actually visible all night, the lowest it gets is about 20 degrees in early evening. I had a look this morning and it looked as bright as m13, so definitely visible with binoculars from almost any sky.

Same here in Oxford, the clouds cleared for a little while and the big sunspot showing amazing detail at x90. Tried using a oiii filter and noticed a little improvement but not much. Only wish the sun was a bit higher to avoid the heat plumes from the houses across the street.

I find with carbon stars, the more I look at them the brighter and redder they seem to become. It's easier with bigger aperture of course!

It's quite low from the UK and often gets lost in the murk, the transparency has not been good lately. I can just about see it in 20x80 bins. Best views so far have been with my Skymax 127 and 24mm Hyperion EP.

Closest approach is on the night of 1 February, at about 0.3AU from Earth. Currently it's expected to reach mag 5, so should be visible naked eye from a dark location. Ephemeris here: https://cobs.si/cobs/comet/2323/

Decided to resurrect this thread as now is a great time to observe R Leporis. I had a look at it on two nights this week, first time was with 20x80 binoculars and it was pretty hard to spot, next time it was with my 127 Mak and the deep red colour is very striking. You will need a clear southern sky as it never rises more than 25 degrees from the UK. In January it transits at the very civilised time 9-10pm and the best way to find it (for me) is by doing a star hop from Alpha to Mu Leporis and continuing 3/4 of their distance further. Currently the magnitude of R Lep is about 9.5, so it is hard to spot in binoculars but the crimson red comes out very well in a small telescope. I'm attaching a finder chart courtesy of AAVSO (the numbers next to the stars are their magnitudes up to first decimal place):

I managed to have a look today at about 6:20am. Despite the moonlight the comet is easy to spot in binoculars. It has brightened quite a bit from last time I saw it, I estimate it is mag 7 now and clearly elongated. I didn't see the tail, perhaps because there was a bit of haze reflecting the moonlight and the sky was too bright. Looking forward to the next few weeks, especially around the new moon.

When you have a big sensor, 1.25inch opening does not illuminate a full frame sensor for example.

I see, if carbon stars is what you are after there are some more carbon stars in Gemini, e.g. TU Gem is 2 degrees north of M35 and NQ Gem is 2.5 degrees east of Kappa Gem. Both vary around mag 7-8, which is relatively bright for carbon stars. And in Taurus there is Y Tau (mag 6-9) which is 2 degrees west of Zeta Tau.