Mak 150/180 + Quark Combo any hope?

[rank]

Hello people,

Total beginner here, who needs some help

I have started looking around for both, planetary and Alpha-H scopes, both strictly visual.

 

Was set on Celestron 8 Evo, but, was recommended to give  Mak150 or 180 a go, instead, for the planetary.

For the solar, LS50 or 60 from Lunt is the best I can possibly afford, but, having seen all the images, made with them, have to say, I'm far more impressed with the images, people are getting using Quarks.

 

Today, I noticed  the following on Daystar's page for Quark Combo:

"Maktsutov owners who operate at a native ~F/15 focal ratio do not need to reduce the aperture of the telescope, but must use front mount energy rejection to prevent overheating of the optical tube assembly."

As I understand, reducing the aperture is one of the main reasons, Quark is not popular with SCT telscopes.

Ideally (despite all the talks about the importance of having a dedicated telescope for each task) in my situation, having one telescope to do both would be just perfect.

 

So, any hope here? Since the Combo edition is more flexible, due to not having a barlow built-in, will it be possible to get  both, the full disk and detailed image of the prominence, by changing the barlow?

 

Thanks for any input!

[Stu]

I think one big issue would be the cost (and availability) of a full sized ERF for the mak.

I have no experience of Quarks and Maks, but the results with refractors can be amazing. One issue with them is lack of consistent quality though, you either get a good one, or you don't!

[Moonshane]

A full aperture baader erf for a 6" scope will set you back about €1000 new. Plus the quark of course so not a cheap route.

I'd stick to fracs for Ha personally.

 

[Peter Drew]

Allthough the combo Quark doesn't have a built in Barlow, the fact that you need to use an off axis aperture will raise the effective focal ratio so you will be no better off than using a similar aperture refractor and a standard Quark. Quarks are primarily designed for use with refractors and as they don't requiire an apochromatic refractor you might be best considering a SCT and an achromat refrator to cover both bases.  

[rank]

Thanks guys, 

Pretty much as expected, no miracles. I actually only checked the price of the 160mm filter and it's a big turn off, not to mention the larger size.

Seems that the most cost effective solution would be a 80mm refractor, which doesn't require the front mounted filter.

Daystar posted their refractor/quark combos: http://www.daystarfilters.com/80/80.shtml

Sad it's still in pre-order, the price seems just about perfect.

Any one knows what 80mm refractor it actually is?

[Steve Ward]

Looks like the Revelation 80/480 to me ... which in turn looks like a WO  80/480.