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Daystar Quark Hydrogen Alpha Eyepiece


Zakalwe

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After much deliberating I have placed my order for a Quark this morning.  I am keen to try it out for a portable/holiday set up and will think about buying a 80mm F/5 scope to go with it, that way I can take the Quark and a white light wedge. 

I have an ST80 which doesn't have a very good focuser and started to look at these two scopes (they look the same to me):

http://www.opticstar.com/Run/Astronomy/Astro-Telescopes-Opticstar.asp?p=0_10_1_1_53

AR80SF5DS-09-594x242.jpg

Or http://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/rvo-80mm-f400-achromat-refractor-ota.html

resize.php?src=%2Fuser%2Fproducts%2F8040

I am not sure if to get the best out of the Quark you need to be at the F/4 or F/9 end?

Robin

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Congratulations Robin on taking the plunge. Where have you ordered yours from? Which one did you order? The Chromosphere or Prominence? The one scope option for portability is appealing.

I suppose only time will tell how the f ratio affects the performance, but hopefully they will perform well. Initial reports from elsewhere look promising.

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After much deliberating I have placed my order for a Quark this morning.  I am keen to try it out for a portable/holiday set up and will think about buying a 80mm F/5 scope to go with it, that way I can take the Quark and a white light wedge. 

I have an ST80 which doesn't have a very good focuser and started to look at these two scopes (they look the same to me):

http://www.opticstar.com/Run/Astronomy/Astro-Telescopes-Opticstar.asp?p=0_10_1_1_53

AR80SF5DS-09-594x242.jpg

Or http://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/rvo-80mm-f400-achromat-refractor-ota.html

resize.php?src=%2Fuser%2Fproducts%2F8040

I am not sure if to get the best out of the Quark you need to be at the F/4 or F/9 end?

Robin

I somehow suspected it would be hard to resist :) I am very curious how you get on with the Quark

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Nice one, Robin. I don't know how you toughed it out for so long :grin:  An 80mm sounds very nice for the job :smiley: I look forward to seeing how you get on with it.

As Sarah says, the one scope solution appeals. We have talked for a while about switching to a single scope for hols, thinking it would mean an external single stack etalon, but I don't really like taking etalons on and off all the time. The eyepiece sounds a neater solution for our needs, and double stacked effectively to boot :laugh:  Just have to hope it really does check out and becomes the H-alpha equivalent of the Herschel wedge.

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Sarah, I ordered from SCS and went for the Chromoshpere version.

Michael, I saw these before this thread, thought it would be no good for me and then when someone mentioned it was a 1200 blocking filter and saw it was 0.4A I was really interested.  When Luke said he had ordered one, I was hopeful of seeing how he gets on and also possibly seeing one at IAS, but I suspect if I leave it until June to order it won't come in time for me to test it out and take it on my summer hols in July.

Michael, Zakalwe, I suspect Luke and Sarah will get theirs before me, but I will do a Quark v Lunt 60 DS shoot out sometime in June.

Luke, I have always liked the look of the Daystar filters, as far as I know they don't have any sweet spots and given where this one is mounted, very close to the focal point of the objective, the Etalon can be quite small, but still give good performance.  The 1200 blocking filter should be able for a small chip webcam style camera and it will make it a very nice small package.  I like the idea of the 0.4A bandwidth, that is tighter than my Lunt double stack.

My ultimate aim would be one scope about 80 - 90mm, White Light, Ha and then buy a CaK module.  I wonder if they will bring out a CaK version?  Or, I might get one of the Lunt modules.  The 80mm scopes I showed above are both around the £200 mark, they are just an achro, but that will be fine for this purpose and do feater a 2/1.25" dual speed focuser.

I do have a 100mm refractor as well that has proved good for WL, but it is a little bigger than I would like for taking to work and only gets used at home now.

Robin

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I'm close to doing similar. I was playing about with modifying my Lunt L60 to mate it to a 120mm refractor. I'm now thinking of leaving the Lunt as-is and using a Quark on the 120mm for close up stuff. I might have a chance on doing a deal on a 110mm ERF which could be mounted inside the OTA. That'd be needed if I use the Quark or mod the Lunt.

 If you already have a DS filter stephen you can just use that on the 120mm with your B1200. I will not buy a Quark as I can't see that I have anything to gain.

Its very easy to rush into buying the latest products, but sometimes you have to step back and consider whether what you already have is already better. I get great views and images with my DS unit on the front of my 120mm frac.

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Sarah, I ordered from SCS and went for the Chromoshpere version.

Michael, Zakalwe, I suspect Luke and Sarah will get theirs before me, but I will do a Quark v Lunt 60 DS shoot out sometime in June.

Same as us then Robin. Not sure if we are in the earlier batch or we may be in the same batch as you.

My ultimate aim would be one scope about 80 - 90mm, White Light, Ha and then buy a CaK module.  I wonder if they will bring out a CaK version?  Or, I might get one of the Lunt modules. 

Shhhhh Robin, don't mention CaK in front of Luke! He'll think you've got a good idea there! :shocked:
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 If you already have a DS filter stephen you can just use that on the 120mm with your B1200. I will not buy a Quark as I can't see that I have anything to gain.

Its very easy to rush into buying the latest products, but sometimes you have to step back and consider whether what you already have is already better. I get great views and images with my DS unit on the front of my 120mm frac.

Hi Allan,

Yes, I was thinking of that...mounting the 50mm DS Etalon on the front of the 120mm. The advantage of that is that I get access to a longer focal length. The disadvantage is that the resolution will be limited by the 50mm aperture.

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Yes the aperture is the restrictive component. It would work equally well with a 100mm F10 scope.

If you are considering the Quark, you will need a second ERF anyway, so you could still mod the lunt if you felt the need. I'd be interested in a comparison., but will not get the Quark just to try it myself.  Well not until I have seen a few more pics anyway.

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Yes the aperture is the restrictive component. It would work equally well with a 100mm F10 scope.

If you are considering the Quark, you will need a second ERF anyway, so you could still mod the lunt if you felt the need. I'd be interested in a comparison., but will not get the Quark just to try it myself.  Well not until I have seen a few more pics anyway.

According to the manual for the Quark you can put a UV/IR filter ahead of the diagonal for scopes over 80mm to reduce the amount of light hitting the Quark. This is just to reduce the heating of the Quark. much larger scopes have to use an ERF.

It is difficult to say what it will outperform, but it is 12mm blocking filter and bandwidth of 0.3 to 0.4A, on a 80mm or 100mm scope it should easily outperform any refractor with 50 or 60mm front mounted Etalon. I will make a comparison with against my Lunt 60 DS.

Robin

Copy of the manual attached

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2xBTIlkNnSjaFp5M3JnVlNucEU/preview?pli=1

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Yes the aperture is the restrictive component. It would work equally well with a 100mm F10 scope.

If you are considering the Quark, you will need a second ERF anyway, so you could still mod the lunt if you felt the need. I'd be interested in a comparison., but will not get the Quark just to try it myself.  Well not until I have seen a few more pics anyway.

Fingers crossed but I think that I have a lead on a 2nd hand 110mm ERF. It could be pressed into service on either a modded Lunt or Quark.

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Most of southern Europe, plenty of the US and South America and well frankly anywhere it gets warm. That is a huge chunk of the market that could be potentially disappointed by an expensive purchase.

Of course it may be nothing more than premature speculating and it could turn out to work fine.

Still I'm out.

Yea, that leaves me out. 110f in the shade is almost here for me.

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Possibly it's the last day of scs's prices at the current level.  After much deliberation, imagining the grumpy look of {my wife/the wife/my partner ? (- another thread has me confused)} at the sight of another scope or the indifference at another accessory and I've jumped ship on Lunt USA and back to the Quark (surely this isn't a sensible way to make decisions - though there are other reasons).  The 90mm scope should work well with it anyway. - I'll post a report on how it performs in my short tube achro when it eventually arrives.

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Michael, do you mean listed to buy? APM Telescopes have it for sale:

http://www.apm-telescopes.de/en/product.html?info=9867

"delivery time 1-2 months" seems like we're going to have to wait for it.

On the Darkstar website http://www.daystarfilters.com/Quark.shtml they say "Batch 1 & 2 sold out

Accepting orders for Batch 3:  Delivery from June 1, 2014"

so I'm not expecting it for a while.

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