Sol from Dec 2

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minhlead
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Sol from Dec 2

Post by minhlead »

Today I experimented with some different fov and try to crop out the bad spot on my etalon. This fov seems to provide a much better prom view.
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Last edited by minhlead on Thu Dec 02, 2021 4:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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Re: Sol from Dec 1

Post by Montana »

The improvement each day is great to see :hamster: :bow

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Re: Sol from Dec 1

Post by minhlead »

Montana wrote: Thu Dec 02, 2021 4:02 pm The improvement each day is great to see :hamster: :bow

Alexandra
Thanks Alexandra.
I am trying to test how far I can push the Quark before throw up my hands and say "Screw this I am getting a Lunt" :))


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Re: Sol from Dec 2

Post by Montana »

:lol:


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Re: Sol from Dec 2

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Minh,
This looks great!! It's sharp and reveals nice detail. It looks similar to the great work Simon does with his Quark and I see few Lunt etalons that can match his.

How does your Quark do visually?

Two thumbs up!!

James


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Re: Sol from Dec 2

Post by EGRAY_OBSERVATORY »

Hello Minh,
That's a fine capture and processing.
Your image suggests that there is not much to see either on around the disk today - which is not far from the truth.

Certainly wait for a busier Sun, before making a rash decision, albeit of course the various Lunt arrangements are great.

(Remember of course that looking at the SDO website for the very latest captures before an imaging session, often helps to tune for the best captures)...

Best Wishes. (Patience is a Virtue)...

Terry


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Re: Sol from Dec 2

Post by minhlead »

DeepSolar64 wrote: Thu Dec 02, 2021 5:35 pm Minh,
This looks great!! It's sharp and reveals nice detail. It looks similar to the great work Simon does with his Quark and I see few Lunt etalons that can match his.

How does your Quark do visually?

Two thumbs up!!

James
Thanks James,
I do not do solar visual. Most of the part because the tropical sun here in VN is unforgiving. It's get up to 50 degree outside on summer and 35+ in winter time like this out in direct sun light. So all I can do is imaging. I took a few peek into my Quark back when I first bought it. I must say I am not experienced enough to tell how it did relatively. But I do see the proms and some surface detail. In short: it's more than what I expected to see.
I do love Simon's work. But he seems to be doing hires work only while I am looking for a fulldisk setup to compliment my Quark doing Hires. Simon's Quark seems to be of exceptional quality, I saw someone on SolarActivity Facebook's page also have a phenomenal Quark both in term of bandpass and uniformity.
I attached her Facebook's page here. You can see some of her work there which I think is on par with the most expensive double stack out there (except for the double limb)
https://www.facebook.com/rossana.miani
That is to say, there are Quark that is of exceptional quality but it's a lottery.
EGRAY_OBSERVATORY wrote: Thu Dec 02, 2021 7:45 pm Hello Minh,
That's a fine capture and processing.
Your image suggests that there is not much to see either on around the disk today - which is not far from the truth.

Certainly wait for a busier Sun, before making a rash decision, albeit of course the various Lunt arrangements are great.

(Remember of course that looking at the SDO website for the very latest captures before an imaging session, often helps to tune for the best captures)...

Best Wishes. (Patience is a Virtue)...

Terry
Thanks Terry.
I do check the Gong website every session to see what can be expected. I won't make rash decison anytime soon (my wife won't let me anyway :'(. So I think I'll have to find a way to make the Quark work before deciding to upgrade. I do want a fulldisk setup to go with my Quark's hires though.


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Re: Sol from Dec 2

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Minh,
I do remember some time back that you mentioned the extreme heat making it very difficult for you to observe visually. I bet it's nearly hot enough for you to turn off the etalon heating on your Quark and it still be in tune and work! I didn't observe once in 35C weather this year here. The hottest session I had was 34C. 50C is unimaginable here!!

You image remotely I guess.

James


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Re: Sol from Dec 2

Post by minhlead »

DeepSolar64 wrote: Fri Dec 03, 2021 7:53 am Minh,
I do remember some time back that you mentioned the extreme heat making it very difficult for you to observe visually. I bet it's nearly hot enough for you to turn off the etalon heating on your Quark and it still be in tune and work! I didn't observe once in 35C weather this year here. The hottest session I had was 34C. 50C is unimaginable here!!

You image remotely I guess.

James
I have never tried this actually. I think I might do it someday and see if I can get better performance that way.
Anyway, it's the winter here in VN and it's 23*C outside. But out in direct sunlight thing can still get really hot. My observatory still report 35+C when I open the roof.
I have a rooftop observatory and running cables inside the house and capturing from there. Sometime I remotely operating my observatory from work but solar observation requires a lot of on-site manual interaction (flat cap on/off, quark tuning, fov angle adjusting etc...) which severely limits it's remotability.
My neighbour just rebuild his house, now he's blocking my view up to 70* Altitude in the west region, I have only the East to do imaging. For solar this is not a big deal but for the DSO I am doing with my rig it is incredibly damaging. I am cónidering remotely hosting my rigs and if so I'll have to find a way to make the rig work completely remotely.
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Re: Sol from Dec 2

Post by ffellah »

Excellent image and beautiful set up, Minh

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Re: Sol from Dec 2

Post by minhlead »

Thanks Franco!


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Re: Sol from Dec 2

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Minh, You have a SharpStar 107! Nice!! A friend of mine has a SharpStar 76 and SharpStar 94. Both are very nice scopes.

Is the smaller scope also a SharpStar?

James


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Re: Sol from Dec 2

Post by minhlead »

DeepSolar64 wrote: Fri Dec 03, 2021 4:34 pm Minh, You have a SharpStar 107! Nice!! A friend of mine has a SharpStar 76 and SharpStar 94. Both are very nice scopes.

Is the smaller scope also a SharpStar?

James
The smaller scope is FRA400. A premium brand of Sharpstar.
I know the owner of Sharpstar. They used to do OEM for western companies (think APM and TS Optics). But in recent years they release products under their own brand. 107 is based on APM's design (APM 107/700) which they sells for about 2/3 of the price. And the older scope from Sharpstar is really nice, great performers for their price with 65, 107, 130,140 all performing admirably.
But after stop being OEM Sharpstar's QC went down the drain with colossal flops such as the 71SDQ (95% product that went out of the factory is miscollimated. I cannot find a single one that is working out of the box). This in part due to the QC and in part due to the inhouse designing process (they cannot copy western companies design anymore).
The 76 and 94 are their newer products, developed inhouse and are plagued by the same QC mishaps. If you can find 1 in good condition then they are very nice little scopes with good prices. If not then they are trash. They learned their lesson with designing thing their own though.
FRA400 is from Askar, a premium off shoot brand of Sharpstar (perhaps the Sharpstar brand was too stink to the ones who are paying attention so they decided to rebrand). They are okay but sadly not on the same level with the 107. Using Chinese's domestic ED glass, the little scope exhibits a lot of lateral CA. The stars were pinpoint on my m4/3 sensor though. The QC is also somewhat better but still hit and miss.


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Re: Sol from Dec 2

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Minh,
It sounds like my friend got lucky with his. I have looked through both scopes and they do well. He also considered Orion, Astro-Tech, Sky-Watcher and a company outta Poland, I think. Takahashi is his favorite. He has an FS-102.

He ended up getting two SharpStars and I got a Astro-Tech AT72EDII. My Astro-Tech scope does very well, it's gives sharp views and I have not noticed any spurious color visually. I won't say it quite equals a fine Takahashi but it's sweet for the money!

https://www.astronomics.com/astro-tech- ... 3-f-6.html

James


Lunt 8x32 SUNoculars
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Re: Sol from Dec 2

Post by minhlead »

DeepSolar64 wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 5:48 am Minh,
It sounds like my friend got lucky with his. I have looked through both scopes and they do well. He also considered Orion, Astro-Tech, Sky-Watcher and a company outta Poland, I think. Takahashi is his favorite. He has an FS-102.

He ended up getting two SharpStars and I got a Astro-Tech AT72EDII. My Astro-Tech scope does very well, it's gives sharp views and I have not noticed any spurious color visually. I won't say it quite equals a fine Takahashi but it's sweet for the money!

https://www.astronomics.com/astro-tech- ... 3-f-6.html

James
Fun facts for you: that AT72 actually OEMed for AT by Skyrover. A Chinese optical maker. They are the main OEM for William Optics. A lot of WO products have Skyrover equivalent.
Sharpstar used to OEM for AT too, they made the ASTRO-TECH AT65EDQ 65MM F/6.5 ED which TSOptics rebranded as 65Q and Sharpstar themself also selling them as Sharpstar 65Q. A very fine scope. After that one Sharpstar went to the dark side and star pumping out trashy scopes.


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My gear:
Scope: SkyRover (Kunming Optics) 152mm F/6 Doublets
Mount: JTW Tridents GTR
Camera:
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Re: Sol from Dec 2

Post by DeepSolar64 »

minhlead wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 6:53 am
DeepSolar64 wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 5:48 am Minh,
It sounds like my friend got lucky with his. I have looked through both scopes and they do well. He also considered Orion, Astro-Tech, Sky-Watcher and a company outta Poland, I think. Takahashi is his favorite. He has an FS-102.

He ended up getting two SharpStars and I got a Astro-Tech AT72EDII. My Astro-Tech scope does very well, it's gives sharp views and I have not noticed any spurious color visually. I won't say it quite equals a fine Takahashi but it's sweet for the money!

https://www.astronomics.com/astro-tech- ... 3-f-6.html

James
Fun facts for you: that AT72 actually OEMed for AT by Skyrover. A Chinese optical maker. They are the main OEM for William Optics. A lot of WO products have Skyrover equivalent.
Sharpstar used to OEM for AT too, they made the ASTRO-TECH AT65EDQ 65MM F/6.5 ED which TSOptics rebranded as 65Q and Sharpstar themself also selling them as Sharpstar 65Q. A very fine scope. After that one Sharpstar went to the dark side and star pumping out trashy scopes.


He has a TeleVue 85 as well. While I like the two SharpStars I love the TV85. It's the smallest scope I have ever been able to pick out individual granules out on the Sun, something I would have thought impossible with that aperture. Naturally the Tak FS102 is a winner.

I have thought about eventually getting an Astro-Tech AT-130 EDT Triplet. The Celestron CR-6 achromat is also very attractive.

James


Lunt 8x32 SUNoculars
Orion 70mm Solar Telescope
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Meade Coronado SolarMax II 60 DS
Meade Coronado SolarMax II 90 DS
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Astro-Tech AT72EDII with Altair solar wedge
Celestron NexStar 102GT with Altair solar wedge
Losmandy AZ8 Alt/Az Mount
Sky-Watcher AZGTI Alt-Az GoTo mount
Cameras: ZWO ASI178MM, PGR Grasshopper, PGR Flea
Lunt, Coronado, TeleVue, Orion and Meade eyepieces

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Re: Sol from Dec 2

Post by eroel »

Minh:
Super nice FD and super setup.
Best regards.
Eric.


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Re: Sol from Dec 2

Post by marktownley »

Nice disk Minh, and good to see a picture of your setup too.


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