Sun Setup

[Fedele]

Daystar Quark Chromosphere on Takahashi FC100DL and SXD2

Wau .... Despite the clouds, the haze and the partially covered sun, I wanted to try the filter and wow... for the first time in my life I saw the chromosphere in H alpha and the solar protuberances. The first time I see them live.
Still not sure how the daystar and the filter adjustment works.
I still wanted to test it as soon as I bought it and opened it. After a few minutes, however, the sun was completely covered.

What can I say ... surprising to see the Sun in H alpha. With the 25 mm ploss TV everything was ok. I was framing a portion of the record. I noticed, despite the bad weather, details of the granules and filaments, and the aforementioned protuberances.
With the 32mm vignette. and I go back to 25 mm

I must say that maybe I have not set the wheel well, but the ethalon field I have seen needs a further test and verification as it does not convince me. Before pronouncing, I look forward to a good day.

Great experience. I think the Sun will make me forget the planets ... quite boring.

[Luke]

Congrats on your setup! A good Quark in a 100mm frac is very satisfying. Not a bad time to get into solar, with hopefully plenty more action to come this cycle!

Re: tuning, I just went clockwise to see if it improved, or if it worsened, tried going anti-clockwise. Once I found the best setting, I just kept it on that setting, so hopefully you only have to do this once. Enjoy!

Oh and just to mention, the Quark's light should go green when it reaches tuning for the current setting. I am guessing yours does that and you took the photos while it was changing tuning (orange light), but mention just in case.

Edited December 8, 2021 by Luke

[Highburymark]

A good start! Although they are capable of spectacular views, Quarks are as individual and variable as fingerprints. So what others have experienced may not apply to your Quark, particularly regarding  bandwidth, image consistency across the fov, build quality etc. 25mm is a powerful eyepiece to use with a 900mm refractor, and in the U.K. I would normally expect it to be too much for our seeing. Try experimenting with different powers (I found a 40mm plossl was my most used EP when I had a Quark), and see how the tuning affects resolvable detail of prominences and surface features. As there is already a 4x barlow inside, it’s a good idea to start with lower powers. And best advice of all, find something dark to cover your head and block out all light when at the eyepiece. It dramatically improves the view.