Quark Chromosphere

[Al.Grant]

I have finally managed to get some time to try out my recently arrived Daystar Quark Chromoshere.  

 

So far I have managed 3 short sessions with the Quark and seeing conditions have not been the greatest for any of them but I just couldn't miss the opportunity to make the most of the gaps in the clouds.  I will be using the Quark with my Equinox 80 Pro on an HEQ5 Pro mount, initially I'll just be doing visual but once I get a bit more time I'll be trying imaging with a DLSR and ZWO ASI120mm.

 

 

The Quark needs a power supply (5v 1.5Amp) and first off I ran into some issues with the 'Daystar' 30Ah solar powered battery pack that I purchased.
The unit was absolute garbage!  It wasn't 30Ah it was only 10, the solar panel is little more than a useless gimmick and the front leds seem to have a mind of their own!  This battery pack has now been returned  (I am in no way convinced that the one I got sent was a Daystar product!)

 

My first opportunity to use the Quark came late afternoon, even taking account of the less than ideal seeing conditions the view was less than I'd hoped! It soon became apparent the battery pack wasn't doing its job.  The led initially turned green but soon dropped to yellow and stayed there.  The Quark can still be used with  the led yellow, but the views will be far from optimal.  So although I could see surface detail and proms, I was a left a little disappointed.

 

I could also see dark shadow areas around the edge of the Quark.  These moved when the Quark was rotated but not with the eyepiece, I have to say that I found this a little worrying!  

 

2 days later and I've got hold of a Rav in-car usb charger that can provide 3 x 5v 2.4Amp outputs.  It's not a portable battery pack, but as I'm already using a leisure battery to power the mount I may as well get power from there. At 110Ah there is more than enough juice in the tank!

 

My next 2 attempts with the Quark were a totally different story!

The usb adapter gets the Quark led green within 10 mins and once on the Sun .... time stopped!  Even though conditions still weren't ideal, I was hooked!  The detail on both the surface and the proms were impressive and although I don't have a dedicated 50 or 60mm Ha solar scope to do a side by side comparison, I was very happy.   Better still there were no signs of the shadow areas around the edge.  I have been told that some very slight shadows around the edges can be possible, but my last 2 outings with the Quark I've not noticed any.

 

I was up this morning and got a good 1 .5 hours viewing before coming in to work.

I've only done visual (with a 40mm ep) so far, so no images to post.  

 

I'm using these websites to get an idea what features are currently visible on the sun.  The fact that there are images a couple of mins and a few hours old is useful to see how some features are changing.
http://halpha.nso.edu/
http://gong2.nso.edu/products/tableView/table.php?configFile=configs/hAlpha.cfg

 

 

With no images of my own to give an idea of what I was getting all of the areas indicated below were easily visible once I got my eye in using a 40mm ep and the default centre tuning position.   I've not tried tuning +/- yet to see what difference this makes.

 

So it was pretty much all the major features, however the darker area to the bottom right was not really apparent although a couple of dark/light spots near the thicker end were in view.  A couple of the fainter features not marked were visible after I looked at this image and went back to the ep and knew what I was looking for.  Maybe it was down to the fact that there was just so much to look at, that I missed the fainter features first off.

 

So, my initial worries from the less than satisfactory 'first light' are almost forgotten and after 1.5hrs of Ha viewing and 3 cups of Peruvian coffee, I set off to work with a grin on my face.   The good thing is that viewing conditions on each occasion were not ideal, so I'm hoping things can only get better.  

 

Next steps: (apart from lots more viewing)

 

> Both the 1.25"  40mm ep's I'm using are probably not the best ones for the job, so a replacement may be sought.

> Make a start on some imaging with both DSLR and ASI120mm

> I'd like to get a view through a Lunt50 or Lunt60 to compare views.

 

 

 

Al

Edited May 27, 2015 by Al.Grant

[Johnnyaardvark]

Nice report Al. Glad things are working out and the early disappointment was just down to a few teething problems.

I am quite tempted by a quark myself so will continue to follow your progress with interest.

Best wishes

Steve

[philjay]

Good one Al. I was observing and imaging yesterday and agree the conditions werent condusive to steady seeing. Dedpite blue skies images were boiling.

The filament bottom right needed some tuning on my lunt to pick it out so when you start tweaking the tuner things like this will come in.

Welcome to Ha solar, its infectious :-)

Edited May 27, 2015 by philjay

[BAZ]

I am glad you got the power issue sorted out. You are not the first that have had problems with these power packs, I wonder if Daystar know about this?

[Al.Grant]

Got another run at the sun this morning before leaving for work.

Saw 3 or 4 bright areas around one of the active regions (I think it's AR12356) which faded over about 5 mins.

New to this Ha stuff but think they may have been 'Ellerman Bombs', can anybody confirm this? or could just have been flares.

I was slightly tuned away from the centre.

 

Checked on this site - NSO/GONG - and ran the video back over a few mins and it matched very well with what I saw.  

Grabbed this Short video  from that site which shows what I was seeing.

 

That site is the best one I've found so far that shows both current/recent Ha images that reflect very well what I see visually through the Quark

 

Still very impressed with level of detail I can see on both the surface and proms.  Hoping to get some imaging done on my days off.

 

Al

Edited May 30, 2015 by Al.Grant