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First light with Daystar Quark Chromosphere - It's a good one!


Victor Boesen

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Yesterday the clouds cleared after about 3pm so I brought my Evostar 72ED outside on the balcony together with a chair and a jacket for comfortable observing and shielding from the sun.

Tuning the quark
I began tuning the quark at the extreme positons (5 steps clockwise and anti clockwise) and I noticed a large difference. With the dial tuned anti clockwise the prominences on the limb were very obvious and some filaments on the were also visible. Tuning clockwise the proms and filaments faded, however, the chromosphere revealed a lot more texture. In the end I settled at 3 steps anti clockwise which allowed me to observe proms, filaments and detail in the chromosphere all at once:wink:

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Big guns out!
After getting comfortable with the quark I grabbed my 102mm F7 TEcnoSky refractor and inserted the diagonl (with UV/IR cut filter in place!) in the 4" refractor. At this point my 14mm eyepiece gave about 219X magnification so finding the sun was a little difficult without a solar finder. I found that focusing on the prominences was the easiest and I was amazed with the detail visible in the proms. Taking the time to observe the features the contrast improved and I noticed three filements around the active region toghether with jet-like prominences on the limb. Brighter areas, together with a slight texture around and inside these, also became more obsvious as I spent more time at the eyepiece.

I couldn't resist having a go at imaging the sun with my Nikon D3300 and a T2 to 1.25" nosepiece. The video confirmed all the features I managed to observe naked eye. The contrast in the video is raised slightly, although many of the details look close to the same after a good while of observing and studying the features.

I'm very satisfied with the Quark and I believe I've received a very good unit. The FOV was very uniform with no dark, light or blurry spots, and I'm very excited to hopefully use it for the partial solar eclipse coming up!

Victor

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Looks excellent Victor. I agree, your unit seems to have good consistency across the field, and the contrast on surface features seems very good too. Nice one.

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8 minutes ago, Stu said:

Looks excellent Victor. I agree, your unit seems to have good consistency across the field, and the contrast on surface features seems very good too. Nice one.

Thanks Stu, of course I can't compare it to other H-alpha scopes (only vaguely to a PST from 5 years ago), but it does seem like a great unit and I'm amazed with the details visible. It's quite fascinating to watch the quark tune to different bands as well:laugh:

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1 minute ago, johninderby said:

If only all quarks were that good. Glad you  seem to have got a really good one. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

The quality control of quarks was my main concern when buying one, and I'm very happy I don't have any problems with mine. Thanks!

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15 minutes ago, Roy Challen said:

Your experience pretty much echoes mine, glad to hear you got a good one. Perhaps Daystar have made some steps to improve quality control.

Perhaps you're right. However, that is also to be expected when purchasing such an expensive(for me at least) item. It's really great when it works as it should.

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7 minutes ago, Floater said:

Great news! Have fun. 😎

 

2 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Excellent Victor, fingers crossed it continues to perform.

Dave

Thanks both of you! With regards to maintaining the quality of the etalon in the quark. I've read somewhere that the filter should be stored at room temperature for increased product life time. Is there anything alse I can do to maintain its quality? Except keep the dust caps on and etc.

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1 hour ago, Victor Boesen said:

 

Thanks both of you! With regards to maintaining the quality of the etalon in the quark. I've read somewhere that the filter should be stored at room temperature for increased product life time. Is there anything alse I can do to maintain its quality? Except keep the dust caps on and etc.

 I don't think so I've had a few Quarks since they were first introduced and they have developed various faults over time, with the latest one just returned from Daystar the tuner stopped working after about 18 months.

I keep mine in a foam lined flight case with the other solar imaging bits and pieces.

Dave

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23 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

 I don't think so I've had a few Quarks since they were first introduced and they have developed various faults over time, with the latest one just returned from Daystar the tuner stopped working after about 18 months.

I keep mine in a foam lined flight case with the other solar imaging bits and pieces.

Dave

Thanks, I'm debating whether or not I should add a spot for it in my peli case that I'll be storing my 102mm in. Space is limited though, so it may end up staying in its original box/case.

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8 hours ago, Highburymark said:

Looks very promising Victor. Even though the seeing looked challenging, there’s some really nice contrast around the active areas, and the filament near the limb is dark enough to suggest you’ve got a great Quark. 

Seeing was challenging, but during moments of stable conditions the detail in the prominences looked amazing. Had another opportunity to use it yesterday and there was quite a large prom visible. Looked great:hello2:

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It is me who helps buyers in Denmark when they need an opinion about their Quark filters. If the seeing is okay, it takes 5 minutes to do it. I short visuel inspection where you just point the filter towards the Sun. If there is any variations it is a bad filter. I use a 8" Baader Triband SCT or a 80mm APO to evaluate the filters bandpass, spectral uniformity, finesse and the h-alpha center line setting. I use my 0.3A SolarSpectrum and 0.6A Daystar SE Quantum filters in the process. The Quantum filter is a former ATM filter from Del Woods.  I did order a spectrographic scanning when Daystar did the upgrade. 

It is easy to do the test and give my astro friends an idea how they filters do behave.  I still dont understand the quality control at Daystar.

 

IMG_2099.jpg

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1 hour ago, Ljungmann said:

It is me who helps buyers in Denmark when they need an opinion about their Quark filters. If the seeing is okay, it takes 5 minutes to do it. I short visuel inspection where you just point the filter towards the Sun. If there is any variations it is a bad filter. I use a 8" Baader Triband SCT or a 80mm APO to evaluate the filters bandpass, spectral uniformity, finesse and the h-alpha center line setting. I use my 0.3A SolarSpectrum and 0.6A Daystar SE Quantum filters in the process. The Quantum filter is a former ATM filter from Del Woods.  I did order a spectrographic scanning when Daystar did the upgrade. 

It is easy to do the test and give my astro friends an idea how they filters do behave.  I still dont understand the quality control at Daystar.

May I ask where you fit into the Quark supply chain?
Do you test Quarks already purchased by Danish amateurs? 
Do they post them to you for your expert assessment?
What happens if your judgement is that it is a poor example?

Thanks

Edited by Rusted
Typo
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5 hours ago, Ljungmann said:

It is me who helps buyers in Denmark when they need an opinion about their Quark filters. If the seeing is okay, it takes 5 minutes to do it. I short visuel inspection where you just point the filter towards the Sun. If there is any variations it is a bad filter. I use a 8" Baader Triband SCT or a 80mm APO to evaluate the filters bandpass, spectral uniformity, finesse and the h-alpha center line setting. I use my 0.3A SolarSpectrum and 0.6A Daystar SE Quantum filters in the process. The Quantum filter is a former ATM filter from Del Woods.  I did order a spectrographic scanning when Daystar did the upgrade. 

It is easy to do the test and give my astro friends an idea how they filters do behave.  I still dont understand the quality control at Daystar.

 

IMG_2099.jpg

This could be a very valuable service indeed! Trouble is how we astronomers define quality as ‘acceptable’, and how Daystar defines it... and clearly most Quarks won’t be up to Quantums and Solar Spectrums on uniformity

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55 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

This could be a very valuable service indeed! Trouble is how we astronomers define quality as ‘acceptable’, and how Daystar defines it... and clearly most Quarks won’t be up to Quantums and Solar Spectrums on uniformity

Solar Spectrum is so far from affordable that we mere mortals must make do and mend.
I keep hoping for a breakthrough in filter technology. Graphene or printing perhaps?

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I'm not so sure that Daystar's QC is immediately at fault.  It's been my understanding that the filters in the Quarks are ones that failed to make the grade for their more upmarket versions.  The QC has to be stringent to meet the standards paid for and expected of the research grade units.  Daystar Ha telescopes employ mica chips which have to be carefully temperature controlled to work on band, hence the powered heater system.  I would suspect that Daystar have little initial control over the effectiveness of the mica chips before testing unlike the glass etalons produced by their competitors.  "Failed" chips have been assessed as suitable for amateur use at the price point but as we are aware this creates a wide performance parameter and the lottery still remains as to which part of the quality spectrum a unit resides.  It seems as though Daystar, in many circumstances, replace items that prove to be unacceptable by amateurs even at the low, by Ha standards, price of the unit.  Some areas of reported customer support do appear to be in need of improvement.  I don't own a Quark as I'm happy  with what I have but I have used a few and they are tempting.   🙂 

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Daystar says: "STANDARD SE GRADE filters are specified as: Spectral uniformity: The mean peak wavelength of all 12 mm. dia. areas shall be within 0.5 Angstrom of the full aperture wavelength measurement and PROFESSIONAL PE GRADE filters are fabricated and qualified to very high uniformity tolerances to the specification of Spectral uniformity: The mean peak wavelength of all 12 mm. dia. areas shall be within 0.05 Angstrom of the full aperture wavelength measurement." Daystar says that every Quark will meet the SE uniformity. This means that a filter can vary from minimum SE to PE quality. And will have a bandwith from about 0.5 to 0.25 A.

I do have a test sheet from my 0.6 A Quantum SE filter. It has a mean peak wavelength of 0.16 Angstrom all 12 mm. dia. areas. If you look at the data about 75% of the filter area are PE quality. The SS filter are PE quality. A note:  My Daystar etalon is an old Del Wood ATM etalon. 

In the Quark tests I will look at the uniformity and will see if there are areas what I will call completely off band. If it is somewhere in the middle of the field, it is a no go. Towards the edge it is ok. 

The biggest problems I do see is that the filter can not get on band at all. That is a return to the seller. 

The most delicate problem I do see is a lack of contrast. It is a big problem. The transmission profile of a mica etalon can vary a lot. You can se the details, but it looks like that you are using sunglasses while you look at the Sun. In my world it kills the filter. 

If you don't know about that part of the filter world, you are lost in space....

We did notice the problem many years ago in a direct test between to great h-alpha filters and a brand new Quantum 0.4A filter. We tried a lot of configurations until the only explanation was the mica transmission profile. To my knowledge the biggest problem with some Quantum filters has been in that department. 

I do the combo Quark tests with a 5x or 2.5x Powermate. The 2.5x on the Baader 8" Triband and the 5x on the 80mm or 60mm APOs. Without the Powermates with the normal Quarks. 

Denmark is a small county🙂

But most Quarks are more than okay and are a great value! I do have a Quark - a Calcium filter and its a good filter. 

 

Edited by Ljungmann
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Yesterday I received a 40mm TS-optics Plössl and I got to try it out between a couple holes in the clouds. It's easy to get the quark up and running now that I know where to tune it approximately. I expected that a larger exit pupil with the Plössl would benifit the contrast of the image and I certainly was not wrong. Filaments were a lot easier to observe and the detail around the current sunspot was outstanding.

Ingen tilgængelig beskrivelse.

The image above shows the FOV with my TecnoSky 102 which yielded great detail in the chromosphere and flares. The image was captured with my phone so the detail visually was of course a lot better. The 40mm does show vignetting because of the quark's clear aperture although it doesn't matter too much in my opinion and through the Evostar 72ED I'm able to observe the full disk which is very nice!

snapshot.thumb.png.74190b770a1a452d2fa6b88b12a8e8d1.png
Here's a single frame taken with my Nikon D3300 and 102mm refractor. Post processed in photoshop, although visibly the detail and contrast is higher than shown here.

The Plössl really shows that eyepiece selection for the quark is very important for utilising the full potential of the quark. I could imagine how much binoviewers would add to the view:biggrin: But for now, the buying stops from my side... If I wasn't already happy with quark I definitely am now! The detail is just amazing.

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20 minutes ago, Victor Boesen said:

The Plössl really shows that eyepiece selection for the quark is very important for utilising the full potential of the quark. I could imagine how much binoviewers would add to the view:biggrin: But for now, the buying stops from my side... If I wasn't already happy with quark I definitely am now! The detail is just amazing.

Yes, absolutely. Keeping the magnification down does help a lot. Glad you like the 40mm 👍

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On 20/05/2021 at 12:09, Ljungmann said:

It is me who helps buyers in Denmark when they need an opinion about their Quark filters.

Welcome to SGL 🙂 

We (FLO) have a similar arrangement in the UK. All our Daystar Quarks and Solar Scout telescopes are checked by Gary Palmer before dispatch. It has been this way for over a year. 

We don't advertise this extra layer of QC because it is something we do for our own peace of mind, not for marketing purposes. 

Steve 

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15 minutes ago, FLO said:

Welcome to SGL 🙂 

We (FLO) have a similar arrangement in the UK. All our Daystar Quarks and Solar Scout telescopes are checked by Gary Palmer before dispatch. It has been this way for over a year. 

We don't advertise this extra layer of QC because it is something we do for our own peace of mind, not for marketing purposes. 

Steve 

‘Don’t tell him Pike!’ 😉

Just joking, sounds like a very worthwhile thing to do Steve.

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