Quark - Lack of Surface Proms

[Pingster]

Ive had a quark for over 2 years now. 

Took it out today. Proms looked fantastic.

But i relized... the quark or at least mine does not provide the surface "dark cracks" ive seen on dedicated solar scopes. I know these are infact proms on the disc surface appearing as "cracks".

The only surface detail is like this photos but x3 less contrasty.

Is it even possible to see the black cracks like in this photo?

Im refering to visual thru the eyepiece.

[Stu]

The features you are talking about are called filaments; basically proms in front of the solar disk rather than to the side.

The Quark, assuming it's a decent one, should be more than capable of showing these. I don't think there are any decent filaments visible at the moment, have you ever seen them in the Quark during the time you've had it?

[xtreemchaos]

you should beable to see filament good, don't know if theres any today, it was very cloudy here today I was only able to catch the proms. charl.

[Pig]

The Quark does show them, there just has not been any around on the days we have had clear skies in the UK ? There have been quite a few in the last couple of years.... do you have the prominence version of the Quark? 

[Pingster]

Ive got the chromo version. 

I hope to see the cracks soon. As ive used the quark about 20 tomes in total and never ever seen them.

Ive seen awesome proms on the edges everytime 

[Pig]

By your description of your views in your initial post it sounds like your Quark is fine,?20 times in two years is not what I would call a lot of use so maybe you just need to be a little more active ? (no pun intended)

[Owmuchonomy]

A filament appeared and grew slowly during today around lunchtime close to the Southern edge of the face. 

[Highburymark]

Observing today with my Lunt LS50 - also with double stack filter - the solar disc was entirely without detail - no filaments or active regions at all. Nada. Zilch. Not a sausage. So not a good day to judge surface performance of any solar set up

[Peter Drew]

Tuning is also important, the position for prominences is not necessarily the optimum for filaments. I'm not a Quark owner but I have seen it mentioned that the adjustment for tuning a quark is a little coarse compared to other systems making it a little more difficult get exactly the best tune.     

[Davey-T]

Some nice proms today that may turn into filaments in the coming days.

Have a look at Alexandras post on Quark tuning.

Dave

 

[Pingster]

Thanks for the replies,

Stu, ive never seen them with my quark ever. 2 years ago i went to the star party in Norfolk and some folks kindly let me view thru their double stack solar scopes. The cracks looked amazing, yet ive never replicated it on my quark yet.

Its good to know its possible and that its a surface feature thats does not always happen.

Owmuchonomy, i think i saw that actually. It was the only dark feature on the sun, a tiny dark crack. At the time i thoight nothibg of it as it was so small compared to what i have seen in double stacks. 

So that very positive news. I look forward to trying again tomorrow and bag my first big surface prom!

Thanks for all the replies ?