Daystar Quark

[Piero]

On 17/05/2018 at 23:04, FLO said:

[...]  so FLO will stock Quark and will fully support it so you can buy with confidence. 

 

Thanks Steve. 

 

Having full confidence in FLO, if you guys will stock Quark I will get one.   

... so now the question... when will you start selling them, approximately?   

[FLO]

9 minutes ago, Piero said:

Having full confidence in FLO, if you guys will stock Quark I will get one.   

... so now the question... when will you start selling them, approximately?   

Ah. Yes. Well.  Since starting this thread FLO became a Tele Vue dealer so we are a little distracted at the moment.  All the eyepieces and several accessories are in stock and listed at our website but there are other Tele Vue products (scopes and mounts) here on our shelves that haven't yet been added.  We also have more Takahashi to add.  It will be a while longer before we are ready to Quark.  Sorry. 

[Ewan]

Where to start .............? FLO, I have to say first off most of the comments seem to be 'visual' related which I don't do, imaging is what the Quark is best used for I feel, but just my opinion.

Warning..........long post sorry.

Had my Quark a few years now which I think (yes brain is older now) I bought from Altair, paid £850.00 for it while away camping with the family.

Already owned an 80mm AA & @F6 thought it would be a good match, when it turned up I noticed it had CHROMOSPHERE QUARK anodized around the top red rim, so far it's been faultless & a joy to use. The only 'issue' so far has been Newton Rings (easy to sort) & when it's very hot out & I have been imaging for a good few hours the unit appears to take a little longer going GREEN when tuner adjusted, hardly ever but yes it did happen.

When I 'tested' Dave Taylors for him this week I noticed his had nothing anodized on it.

Cheaper just to anodize one version, maybe, I havn't seen a 'latest' edition chromo version to know for sure. This could be an issue if they get muddled up at Daystar or the resellers, or you send your chromo unit back & they accidently send a prom version in it's place. The only markings I could see were on Dave's box that the unit came in.

Anyway as most on here will know I image with my Quark & the captures always appear to be pretty contrasty & quite even across the frame. Centre line seems the best setting so far & the unit tunes as it's meant to. If I do test the tuner I don't bother stepping + or -1 at a time I turn it to whatever I fancy & let the unit do it's stuff, not much use if you had to wait 50 minutes to get to -5 ? 

Dave uses a 35nm Ha filter where as I use a 135mm D-ERF, clear glass gives 125mm, the 152mm scopes me & Dave use are F5.9 but using this ERF gives me F7.2 * 4.3(Quark) = F30.96., Dave's would have been F25.37.

 I have seen images captured at a lot less f ratio & up to F45 & there wasn't a lot in any of the images, F30, Daystar say, is optimal.

Straight away when I imaged with Dave's unit the disc was over exposed & proms very evident, all with NO Gain used, the same settings with my unit gave a chromo disc view but I had to use Gain, so something is not quite right there. The prom preview detail caught with Dave's unit was better than with mine but mine is a lot better with chromo detail. The seeing was terrible but with Daves unit on my rig I had to try totally new settings to get anywhere.

As an example I used 6Ms Exp, 0 Gain & 0.5 Gamma to get a surface capture with Dave's unit. My 'standard' surface setting with my Q are 6Ms Exp, 15000 - 17000 Gain, Gamma 1, so with Dave's unit Gain appears to be almost not be needed. There are a lot of variables to consider ie , ERF, F Ratio, Camera, Camera power supply, Quark power supply, tilt, ghost image (ie tilt erf or filter) the list goes on.

A few things here though, I have never used a 100% true 0.5 Angstrom rated Quark (that i know of) so cannot say for sure mine is at that bandpass or Dave's is, if it's mine then Dave's has got to be 0.6+ but if it's Dave's then mine is tighter ie 0.4 - 0.3 Angstrom. Either way that is a little hit n miss to be fair.

I can now see why Daystar do a Prom version (if that's what the views appear to be) & I would be tempted to buy one of those as well.

IF i didn't already own this Quark BUT could buy this Quark now at the current price, would I buy it again............................you bet I would.

Seeing images from PST's, Lunt's & Solar scopes I have to say the Quark can deliver the goods & solar imaging is a joy to do, as I've said before the Quark opens up the 'solar imaging doors' (visual too) to the masses but you don't want the same doors slammed in your face because it doesn't perform. These units if stored correctly & looked after could last up to 15 years before a service needed, Daystar also do a great 'upgrade' deal on these as well from what I have read.

Maybe FLO could try a 'test' order from Daystar, sale or return. FLO test them in real world conditions on a suitable 'average' test platform when it's sunny, bang goes winter then, or wait to see if a customer returns a unit because they couldn't see 0.3 Angstrom detail but thought they would, can of worms springs to mind. This can happen with most things you buy these day's & things don't always turn out as they should but you makes a choice as they say.

I hope FLO do go on board with Daystar, maybe iron a few conditions out first if possible, if you do guys I wish you all the best ? 

Btw I have to put something straight on here as I keep seeing it mentioned & the 'details may not be quite correct'.

A reseller (no names here) kept posting on various forums that they dropped Daystar because of QC when I heard from Daystar explaining that the reseller had taken no fewer than 20 units apart in the hunt for good one's & cherry picking, then sending the other units back. I have never printed their name, nor will I, but please remember there is always two sides to a story. On the whole my experience has been very good so far.

Atb

 

[DRT]

1 hour ago, Ewan said:

I have to say first off most of the comments seem to be 'visual' related which I don't do, imaging is what the Quark is best used for I feel, but just my opinion.

I sold mine recently after two very good and satisfying years of owning it for observing through it. Pop it in the focuser of an Altair 152 F5.9, open a cold beer or two, sit down and enjoy the view and the sunshine. Easy living, and much more relaxing than worrying about those angstroms, pixels and endless hours of processing ? 

Just my opinion, of course  

[xtreemchaos]

you all know how I feel about Quarks, so I leave you with what my grandmother used to say " Charlie boy if yea never sling your hook yea will never catch a fish"  my grandfather use to think different he would go fishing with dynomite back on the Stepp. charl.

[Ewan]

2 hours ago, DRT said:

Easy living, and much more relaxing than worrying about those angstroms, pixels and endless hours of processing ? 

Just my opinion, of course  

There is that side of it Derek but I can't stand there for ages looking through a tube at such a dynamic sight & not capture it, sorry mate I'm a solar imaging addict ? 

Atb

[Jonk]

2 hours ago, DRT said:

Pop it in the focuser of an Altair 152 F5.

That's my next step if I can push myself to press 'buy' at £870 ?

[DRT]

2 minutes ago, Jonk said:

That's my next step if I can push myself to press 'buy' at £870 ?

It's coming home,

It's coming home,

It's coming, Altair's coming home... ?

 

Go on - you know you want to!

 

[Jonk]

I very much do want to! Even sold your old 102 F11 to help me towards it.

Altair are awaiting stock at the moment so that's helping me haha.

Do you have the red one? Any chance of a photo with the quark fitted?

That will / won't help me at all!

[xtreemchaos]

I must say for the record I enjoy vis as much as imaging, the view is much better than my fast images, and often I find my self stuck to the EP watching in realtime that I don't leave much time to image, theres nothing like a nice active region through the ep to warm the cockles of your heart. charl.

heres mine at rest seeing derek wont show us his but mine isn't red and hasn't grown into a 152 yet but I live in hope ?

 

[DRT]

6 minutes ago, Jonk said:

I very much do want to! Even sold your old 102 F11 to help me towards it.

Altair are awaiting stock at the moment so that's helping me haha.

Do you have the red one? Any chance of a photo with the quark fitted?

That will / won't help me at all!

I sold my Quark last month to help pay for a Tak and my Altair 152 is currently in A&E waiting for a brand-new (red?) tube.

You will find pictures of them if you search for DRT+152+Quark ? 

[AdeKing]

46 minutes ago, Jonk said:

 

I very much do want to! Even sold your old 102 F11 to help me towards it.

 

And I'm enjoying the 102 f11 very much thank you. ?

[DRT]

1 minute ago, AdeKing said:

And I'm enjoying the 102 f11 very much thank you. ?

Glad to hear it is doing the rounds  

[Joseki]

Are Quarks still coming to FLO? I don’t suppose you’d be starting with them during the depths of winter ...

[FLO]

1 hour ago, Joseki said:

Are Quarks still coming to FLO? I don’t suppose you’d be starting with them during the depths of winter ...

Sorry about that. We are behind on adding a number of new products - you will see why in a week or two ? 

in the meantime please email for a price and ETA. 

[Joseki]

Ok, thanks, no rush ?