The expense of the Lunt, Solarscope or Coronado upgrades just could not be justified, so despite the misgivings, and catching a stunning glimpse through one last Kelling, I was now leaning towards the Quark. There was some talk of problems, but whatever they may have been look like they may have now been resolved. It really did look like a really nice (and a fairly cheap) option. I have seen many images taken using this device on the Web and social media. This (According to their literature and Web site) can be used on any suitable refractor. But they’re not cheap.ĭaystar. These do a reasonably “cheap” at ~ £1,000 (by that, I mean when compared to a dedicated solar scope) Quark device. These filters look extremely good and can be used on ordinary refractors.
#What does a quark look like upgrade
Just watch out what if you are buying second hand.Īgain, looking at all the costs, any upgrade was eye-watering! So if you are buying a new instrument, it should not be affected. This manufacturing fault has now been resolved. They did have a problem with “rusty” filters at one point. I have not had much experience with these, although they have had some great reports. So with this in consideration, what options were open to me?Ĭoronado. So I’d like to keep the Lunt if possible.
#What does a quark look like full
This enables me to capture full disk solar images, not an ability I would really want to lose. Two for the disk, two for the fainter prominences. The 60mm has a fairly wide field of view, just under the solar disk, (if two images are taken).įull disk image taken using four images. I would have to trade my existing Lunt in to help fund this. I could get a bigger one, but the price is now looking at over £2,000, most likely well over £3,000 and upwards for a reasonable upgrade. I really enjoyed the view using Hydrogen Alpha (I’m not a fan of Calcium scopes), so started to look seriously at what Ha options were available within a reasonable budget. Whatever I decided to do, it would need to be within reasonable cost restraints and those costs would need to make the upgrade worth doing and give me the boost needed. Something like this is well down in my list of other priorities, so I had to investigate all options and costs and see what each option would give me. Like many people, there are far too many other things to spend your money on, like bills, car maintenance and other wish lists. Whichever way you looked at doing it, whatever the upgrade, this looked like it was going to be very expensive.
When my new research started, I was amazed at how much price of solar equipment had gone up enormously since the time I bought my Lunt. So at this stage I started to look at potential options. So just over a year and a half later, despite the Lunt being a star performer, I started to yearn for a little bit more from my solar images (as you do!). One of my first images with the Lunt solar scope. So much so, that I really got the bug for our ever-changing nearest star, much more than I ever expected. My solar journey started well over two years ago when I decided to get a dedicated 60mm Lunt Solar telescope with a pressure tuner.įrom the very moment I started to use it, both visually and imaging, I was totally blown away with the view and results. So I thought solar viewing / imaging would be a good option for continuing some sort of observing going throughout the summer. I have long looked for something to keep me more active during the summer, when night skies are rare. Here’s my experience so far from using the Quark solar filter. If that is the question, what is the answer?