Quark has arrived!!!

[Joves]

After a couple of very minor hiccups in the seller getting the Chromosphere Quark into the post, finally, here it is. Nice looking little contraption... Much like the pics of them, I guess!

Have arrived home too late to be able to point the scope sunward, so all I have been able to do is plug her in inside, more so out of curiosity at the time it takes to heat up to be on band than anything else. I'm pleased to report that the initial firing up only took 8 mins 30 seconds to get to the right temperature with it set at it's recommended start up position (dial centred and pointing straight up). For some reason, I had anticipated it was going to take about twice that long?!

I then tuned the dial 0.1A to the left (no idea which way this is taking the tuning, aside from to a lower bandpass, as I haven't even opened the book yet... I'm figuring it is pretty self-explanatory and that the correct tuning on any given day will be governed more by what the eye see's) and the little indicator turned green afer a MUCH lengthier 20 minutes. I'm imagining tuning to the left is possibly cooling the system, rather than heating it (which it doesn't have an active cooling mechanism to assist with), so perhaps tuning it to the right will see it heat and adjust to band a little quicker. I'll have to give that side of tuning the time test as well. Either way, it has taken about half the time I was expecting for the initial heat-up, so I'm not really too fussed either way, as I imagine the view will be semi-decent whilst waiting for it to get on band. Perhaps initial tuning from left to right (rather than starting mid way) will be the wiser/quicker way to go about things in future, particularly if typical conditions tend to require more sway to the left than right for the more pleasing image. Time will tell...

All in all, everything seems to be working, which is good to know. Now I just need to get it pointed skyward. Can wait to see how the view compares to what I'm used to with my PST. Will report back when I've had a chance to do so.

Aaron

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Congrats on that new piece of kit. Looking forward to first-light report

[Mark at Beaufort]

Aaron glad that the Quark has arrived. I will be interested in the comparison with the PST. Which scope will you be using?

[Joves]

Thanks guys.

Mark, I'll be tying it out for starters in the TV76. Will then see how it goes in the Orion ED 110mm with a UV/IR cut filter.

[Dude_with_the_tube]

let us know how this turns out Aaron,and some pics would be appreciated

[Luke]

Wohoo, Aaron, congrats

I will be very interested to hear how your first light goes with the TV76. My Quark should be here this week and I plan to start with the TV60, in a straight shoot out with the Solar Max 60

[Joves]

Will post some soon, Dude.

Thanks Luke, am quite excited to try it out. Hope my expectations aren't too lofty!

Positive news. Just powered it back up to middle setting and this time it only took 7 mins 55 seconds. It is possible it hadn't dropped back to ambient yet though. The real positive news is that I then tuned it 2 clicks (0.2A to an approximate 0.7A) to the right and it only took 5 mins 45 seconds to get on band. Have now clicked it back 4 clicks (2 to the left of centre) which should take it to roughly 0.3 and am awaiting the light to turn green. 5 minutes 40 seconds and counting....

I'll be curious to hear how it compares in your TV60 to your Solar Max 60, Luke... Being that I've never seen through a 60mm Ha scope.

[Pig]

Excellent news Aaron, no more pacing up and down waiting for the Quark to arrive  You just have to wait for the rays to arrive so you can split them

[Joseki]

Just paid the remaining balance on my Quark - the PayPal transaction expired since its been so long, but it's in the UK and just one postal service away . - this could be the start of a long period of cloud.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[Joves]

Well, I just gave the Quark it's first run on the sun... Kinda. I say kinda because it was from my bedroom looking out an open window but through a fly screen, as the sun was at the wrong side of my apartment by time I got home. Clearly not the best or fairest test. I was wanting to see its FOV more than anything else. As expected, the view was pretty ordinary given the conditions it was under, but some detail was definitely seen. The good news... You can get a full disk view with a TV76 using both a 24mm Panoptic and a 25mm Vixen LV. Just... but it's is definitely the full disk. Very happy about this!!

From what I could see, under said conditions, first impressions look promising. If I have any concern, if only minor at this stage, it is that I cannot get the light to go green, indicating it is on band, when dialled to the left of centre. The manual does state that sometimes conditions can prevent it from stabilising at the required temperature, but I'm not entirely sure how viewing from indoors on a mild 18 degree Celsius day could pose it too many difficulties. The reason this is only a minor concern is that, despite the light not turning green, I could see that these positions still made at least subtle changes to the detail in the view (and also the overall image brightness, it appeared) so it is obviously doing something to the angstrom setting when I tune it to the left. Tuning to the right turns green without any issue. As turning the dial to the left supposedly takes into 0.1-0.4A territory, perhaps the limitations of it reaching these levels is the answer?! I'm not sure. Either way, it appears to be tuning between 0.5-1.0A without any difficulty, so I'm at least relieved it has the potential to offer similar angstrom levels as a double stacked scope. Like I said, the view did still appear to darken and change in the 0.1-0.4A register, so I guess it's still possibly getting lower than 0.5A. Whew... That's a whole lotta ramble right there, that's for sure!!

Oh, and today I purchased a portable battery to power it remotely, which is currently charging, so I look forward to hopefully getting it out for a PROPER run tomorrow or Friday. Stay tuned...

[Merlin66]

Re tuning the Quark I believe doesn't change the effective bandwidth - always around 0.5A.....

What the tuning does do is to move the central wavelength below and above the centre of the Ha line - this allows "compensation" for the Doppler shift in filaments and proms and see activity in the "red" and "blue" wings of Ha....

[Joves]

Ah, ok.. Thanks. Guess I don't fully understand the whole angstrom thing. I thought, with them stating that each click accounts for 0.1A, that this adjusted the bandwith.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Tuning changes the centre of the band, not the width.

Good to hear you can get full disk. I should be able to get it with my APM 80 mm too

[Joseki]

Got a visit from the FedEx man this morning my battery pack wasn't fully charged, or I used the wrong cable (from my phone) so it didn't actually get on band but I saw some surface detail and proms so I'm a happy guy.

[Joves]

Thanks Michael. Yep, I was very pleased to see that I could capture full disk with this scope. I'm not sure how well the eyepieces performed, as I was obviously viewing under pretty ridiculous conditions. I could bring the image to focus ok. There appeared to be some serious ghosting around the disk, but I'm sure the fly screen probably had something to do with that... Wouldn't have been doing much for the detail or contrast, either . Your APM 80 should perform nicely, I'd imagine.

Congratulations John, that's great news that yours has arrived also. I'll be interested to hear how you get on with tuning it anticlockwise toward the blue and if you have any issues getting it on band.

I'm very pleased with the little battery pack, also. I've been playing around with it tonight after it finished charging (which only took 4 hrs, compared with it's stated 14 hr charge time) and it powers up the Quark and gets it on band beautifully. Very small and very portable, it'll make observing with the Quark a breeze, which was one of my main hesitations when I first saw that it needed to be powered.

[Joseki]

Thanks, yes I'll be giving it a proper test and try and write something useful. It should get on band fine, I tried plugging it in to the mains and the light showed orange (rather than red with the flat battery). Fingers crossed I should have an hour free to start tomorrow if the weather cooperates.

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[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Best of luck with that test