H-Alpha setups

[bomberbaz]

OK I confess I know little about this side of astronomy. I know there are Lunt pst's, Daystar quarks and white light filters.

However just surfing around l found this website, http://www.thousandoaksoptical.com/halpha.html

They have what looks like a quark and also a front filter. Is this the same as a quark or something different. It does not appear to need a power source!

[DRT]

Hi Steve,

Yes, that is similar to a Quark but is designed for slow refractors and SCTs whereas the Quark is specifically for medium to fast refractors and (I think?) does not work in an SCT.

As you are not far away from me feel free to get in touch one sunny weekend and you would be more than welcome to pop down the M1 and take a peek through the Quark, the Lunt 50Ha, Baader 2" wedge and Lunt 1.25" wedge all side by side

Derek

Edited April 10, 2016 by DRT

[Dave In Vermont]

The Thousand Oaks front-end white-light foil gives you an orange-coloured Sun, rather than the white of the Baader-Foil one's. Some people have stated these don't show as fine details than the Baader, But I haven't noted a difference - other than a pleasing and more natural-appearing Solar disk. It's also not as blindingly bright as the Baader-Foil. It's what I use and prefer.

I have one for my ST80, which is my scope for use on the Sun. And the Transit of Mercury on May 9th. This sun-filter also works fine with the Baader Solar-Continuum - though the insipid green-colour it causes quite a bit of getting used to. But granulation on the Solar disk does stand-out slightly. I rarely use it though. And won't on the up & coming transit.

Your milage may vary -

Dave

[Moonshane]

Seems interesting but you seem to have to reduce aperture vastly which equates to less detail.

you are welcome to look through my pst mod too

[bomberbaz]

Thanks for the offer Derek, I may take you up on this. I find solar a bit of a minefield and govern the dangers I am very cautious. 

[Peter Drew]

Or mine.  

[DRT]

1 minute ago, bomberbaz said:

Thanks for the offer Derek, I may take you up on this. I find solar a bit of a minefield and govern the dangers I am very cautious. 

You are right to be, Steve. All too easy to either burn your eyes out or burn all your money buying the wrong thing!

I tend to be home at weekends and if the sun is out so are the scopes so please do get in touch if you want to take a look.

[bomberbaz]

Just now, Moonshane said:

Seems interesting but you seem to have to reduce aperture vastly which equates to less detail.

you are welcome to look through my pst mod too

Have seen the thread Shane but as yet not read it. Must be getting long now :-) 

 

Just now, Peter Drew said:

Or mine.  

Forgot to ask about solar when there Saturday ASD you obviously have one, silly me. Maybe this Saturday then :-) 

[Moonshane]

As long as you follow basic precautions and use the correct gear, solar is safe. Trust me, all of us that do it are careful and keen to both observe and retain our eyes in good order. 

[bomberbaz]

I was looking at a Herschel wedge but I am stuck now given all the options so will wait until I explore all the options. Actually not sure that I don't have a small piece of baader fitler left for the upcoming transition. 

[John]

I've owned a PST but solar viewing has never really grabbed me for some odd reason

I currently use a Kendrick white light filter (it uses Baader Solar film) with either my 102mm or 120mm ED refractors. That approach seems to show the white light features quite nicely. I did think about investing in a Herschel wedge for the upcoming transit of Mercury but with solar activity on the wane overall for a while I'm going to stay with the filter I think.

If I got a bit more serious about solar observing I'd probably go for one of the Lunt LS50's rather than take the risk of a Quark, given the well documented issues that a number of Quark owners have encountered.

 

Edited April 10, 2016 by John

[bomberbaz]

8 hours ago, John said:

I've owned a PST but solar viewing has never really grabbed me for some odd reason

I currently use a Kendrick white light filter (it uses Baader Solar film) with either my 102mm or 120mm ED refractors. That approach seems to show the white light features quite nicely. I did think about investing in a Herschel wedge for the upcoming transit of Mercury but with solar activity on the wane overall for a while I'm going to stay with the filter I think.

If I got a bit more serious about solar observing I'd probably go for one of the Lunt LS50's rather than take the risk of a Quark, given the well documented issues that a number of Quark owners have encountered.

 

Must have missed that John, can you elaborate!

[John]

37 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

Must have missed that John, can you elaborate!

Have a look at this:

http://www.scsastro.co.uk/

I believe FLO have reservations about them as well.

 

Edited April 11, 2016 by John

[knobby]

39 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

Must have missed that John,borate! 

That looks very interesting

I beleivr

Cant Seem to edit ...

Meant to say, apparent quality varies a lot sometging

Edited April 11, 2016 by knobby

[knobby]

[bomberbaz]

Think one can safely say that quarks are no longer on my potential shopping list anymore.

[Floater]

I, too, had a lot of grief with Quarks. The retailers (Widescreen Centre) were excellent. Daystar were not.

Cutting a long story short I had many weeks of frustration and, in all, returned three units - the final return saw me refunded for the original price. The postage costs and hassle remained mine to swallow. Initially, it seemed that Daystar had been inundated with orders building up to a solar eclipse and that quality control had been allowed to slip. However, that excuse wore thin after the replacement units continued to show defects, time and again. Daystar seemed to be playing fast and loose with the truth and I was pretty annoyed with them and had a lot of sympathy for the retailers.

I now have a Quark - which works very well - that I bought from a fellow SGL member on his assurance that it performed to standard and which came with a letter of assurance from his retailer.

One of the things that occurred to me was that someone who had never viewed in Ha before buying a Quark filter may not be aware that they were being 'sold short'.

Daystar came up with what was potentially a great product ... and then blew it with shoddy manufacturing and appalling post-sale service. So I would second and emphasise the warning 'caveat emptor' ...

 

[Peter Drew]

One of the occasions where buying secondhand could be the best bet.

[DRT]

I bought mine new a couple of days before the article linked to above was published. I got lucky!

It is a great pity that these things have developed such a (well deserved!) poor reputation as when they work they are fantastic and completely blow away something like the Lunt 50Ha in terms of visible detail and magnification capability at a similar price.

That said, I'm not sure I would ever buy a Daystar product ever again given the tales of woe about their after sales service. Quite shameful for a company who produce such expensive toys.

[Floater]

Ain't that the truth, Derek.

This is a company who have ...

Uh oh. Maybe best not go that way. Have to maintain standards, etc.

I'll just hang on the tail of your 'great pity' line. The Quark filter was a great product; an innovation; it had an edge on competitors; it was launched at a prime time. Now how could that fail?

A respected enough company's reputation shredded quick-time.

[DRT]

Perhaps the biggest problem of all is the lack of competition in the Ha market?

Lunt, Daystar, PST... Where else do we go? I'm not shackling the others in the same stocks as Daystar in this particular product/price bracket but if there is limited competition for the consumer's hard earned money there is little incentive to excel when it comes to customer service. 

Perhaps Carlsberg should make Ha scopes ;-)

 

 

[Floater]

5 minutes ago, DRT said:

Perhaps the biggest problem of all is the lack of competition in the Ha market?

Lunt, Daystar, PST... Where else do we go? I'm not shackling the others in the same stocks as Daystar in this particular product/price bracket but if there is limited competition for the consumer's hard earned money there is little incentive to excel when it comes to customer service. 

Perhaps Carlsberg should make Ha scopes ;-)

 

 

Probably ...

[Floater]

Duh? Don't know what I did to get that format.

[DRT]

25 minutes ago, Floater said:

Duh? Don't know what I did to get that format.

Looks fine to me, but I'm on my second double Talisker so I might not be the best judge ;-)