Solar Observing and Imaging with the Daystar Quark Chromosphere Eyepiece

[@OlliesSpace]

Hey Jeff nice overview I've been so enjoying my time with the Quark. You have some lovely images there.

[@jeffballphoto]

Thank you so much for the kind words and for watching. I love my Quark. Hope to get it back out at Night Owl Star Party.

[@Skymarshal57]

Thanks a lot for this interesting video. It's a help because I am going to buy a Daystar Quark, too. Especially the placement of the UV/IR cut filter is now clear!

[@jeffballphoto]

Thank you for watching so glad it helped. Clear skies!

[@MountainFisher]

I put the Sun filter film on my 50mm raci finder scope with a stiff leather shadow shield to protect me from the Sun while viewing. I mounted Daystar's 60mm Scout Chromosphere telescope onto my 150 Newtonian's rings as they have 1/4-20 screws. Great viewing. Discovered with the artificial lens in my cataract surgery eye I see more than with my other eye and I can see the Ca-H filter and most can't. I had the mirrors on my old C6-N redone as O.W.L. had a sale, they refigured my primary too, get this, to a Strehl ratio of .986 and 1/12th wave, very happy with its near perfect focus. Then they aluminized my mirrors to 96-97% reflectivity. When I got it back and put it all together and collimated it I was blown away at how good my view of the crescent Moon was. Good seeing conditions so I put a 6mm and looked at Mizar. The two stars were fuzzy before, but not now. They were nice nearly spherical round stars, not mere pin pricks. I live in Southern New Mexico and the Jet Stream report said calm and up to my Bortle 2 viewing site I went with a couple of guys from the Astro Club. I took my 3.2mm ED Starfinder eyepiece at 234x and took a look at Jupiter, it was like looking through Hubble almost, it was so sharp. I then unscrewed the lens element out of my Barlow and put it in the 3.2 adding about what supposed to be half the Barlow, but was realistically maybe a third more magnification considering the distance from the small 1/8th" bottom lens. Anyway Saturn had never looked that close before except in something much bigger 10" to 12" scopes. It came back so much nicer I HAD to put a dual speed Crayford focuser on it. So for around $500+ I got Takahashi quality in a 6" reflector. Those Starfinder ED eyepieces are 62 degree fov and are excellent. I can't afford $200 eyepieces, but being in an astronomy club I've been able to even use a Mead 16" telescope at our observatory in a state park. I also used some Televue EPs and Explore Scientific really wide angle ones it was like sticking my head out of a window the field of view was crazy, but the prices were too. I bought a Sky Watcher 102mm MCT for less. (nice scope worth every penny. The extra low dispersion EPs I get from Agena for $75 are really good. That ED 3.2mm EP is great for small short focal length scopes, but it is about as much as my scope can handle. I learned to never grab the Newtonian with the front dust cover off if I didn't want to re-collimate the secondary mirror. Flexes those vanes just enough to knock it off a little, just an FYI.

[@jeffballphoto]

Thank you for the wonderful report. Sounds like you have things really optimized for deep space and solar viewing. You live in a wonderful part of the country. Clear skies.

[@MountainFisher]

@@jeffballphoto Clear skies except through summer with its monsoons. There were very few clear nights all summer. I missed the Lunar eclipse because it was raining. lol

[@charleskaross5278]

Great presentation and comments on the various pieces of equipment used - you have definitely mastered the art of solar observing and imaging. Looking to get started with a Genesis SDF that has been hiding in the closet for far too long... Charles in S IL

[@jeffballphoto]

Thank you so much for the very kind words, Charles.

[@AstroQuest1]

Nice and informative video Jeff! I have had the Quark Chromo for a couple years and planned on doing a lot of work with it but got side tracked. However this summer, solar imaging will be my goal. I have an ASI178 but may upgrade to the ASI174 mainly because the faster rate and larger pixel size. Interestingly I saw couple other videos where the presenters said Global vs. Rolling shutter did not make much of a difference. Awesome images! Cheers Kurt

[@jeffballphoto]

Thank you so much, Kurt. Good luck this summer. The Sun is still putting on a show.

[@Aerostar509]

Great work as usual Jeff, I really enjoyed the animation of the solar prom. Tim

[@jeffballphoto]

Thank you so much for watching Tim. Clear skies.

[@Daniel_DP83]

Great Video Jeff! I hope we can see soon more of your sun photos! Since a few days i use the Quark GEMINI from Daystar :-)

[@jeffballphoto]

Thank you Daniel. Hoping to image the sun again soon. Enjoy your quark Gemini!

[@jeffballphoto]

@@Daniel_DP83 Daniel any camera should work if you have the right back focus available. Not sure what that should be with the Canon. If you have a 1.25” extension tube you may try it in front of the camera to reach focus.

[@janetwillson3502]

Wow! Very informative and helpful.

[@jeffballphoto]

Thank you, Janet. Great to hear from you. Hope all is well. Hope to see you under a dark sky soon.

[@xe1zlgg]

Nice.. thanks for share

[@jeffballphoto]

Thanks for visiting. Have a great day.

[@geoffc1862]

I find a simple way to slew to the sun, with a quark in place, is to use the histogram from the camera. I know I can get close by using shadow, as you do, or an almost goodly polar aligned rig. Using Sharpcap, I up gain and exposure until the histogram shows a peak coming in at around 2 or 3%. From then it's chase the light, edging slowly ENW or S.

[@jeffballphoto]

Thanks for the tip. I will give it a try.

[@geoffc1862]

@jeffballphoto Obviously adjusting gain etc downwards as the light levels increase....

[@ebrahemmh]

And please some tutorial on how to edit your pictures and make the animation. Thanks

[@jeffballphoto]

I will look at doing that in the future. Here is a link to the video I used for reference from @chucksastrophotography. I modify a few things in the process, but this is a great guide. Hope this helps. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jInMm5WgoMifg8U

[@charlielemley8319]

Great video, Jeff. I think this one should only cost me about $1800!

[@jeffballphoto]

Oh Charlie. Too funny. Thanks for watching and the kind words. Well…you will love it and it is great for outreach!

[@bhastro9959]

Nice explanations and very nice flare capture. At 12:54 you say your are capturing "10 second videos". But in Video mode the Asair the maximum individual exposure is only 1 second (and you also say you are capturing at ~16fps).. Please explain. It seems possible that you capture (automatically?) a large number of 10 second duration Avi videos (each with many very short exposures) then you stack the data within each individual video then animate the stacked images. I would love to know how you do this.

[@jeffballphoto]

The goal is to give the software as many frames as possible to filter out the sharpest frames during the best seeing and stack those frames. Prominences are not very bright relative to the chromosphere and require increases in gain and/or exposure times. If I capture 10 seconds of video at 16fps, I can then input the percent of frames for the software to evaluate for stacking the best frames. Hope that helps.

[@bhastro9959]

@@jeffballphoto - Thanks, very helpful, and I think you confirmed my guess, except that it appears that you collect a large number of these short videos manually, not automatically, then separately stack the frames of each minivid, then compile these (correctly ordered) stacked successive images into your "animations". A lot of work (especially if you personally choose all the best frames in each minivid) and difficult to make long animations..It would be very nice if Asiair would do this whole process automatically!

[@jeffballphoto]

@@bhastro9959 would LOVE for ZWO to automate this!

[@lifesbetteronaboard]

Quality content! Thank you, I learned a lot!

[@jeffballphoto]

Thank you!

[@janetwillson3502]

As always, a very informative video. Have you used the Quark with your AP 130?

[@jeffballphoto]

Thank you, Janet. No I haven’t. I need to get an energy rejection filter for the front of the scope. But I should do that. In moments of good seeing it could be wonderful.

[@janetwillson3502]

@@jeffballphoto since you were using a monochrome camera, how did you process the images?

[@jeffballphoto]

@@janetwillson3502 ZWO has an app that can help with initial processing. You can apply color to monochrome at any point, even in the ZWO app. I may do a video on this if I have time. I blend prominence and chromosphere images in Photoshop. Each image requires two different exposure parameters in the video grab. Hope that helps.

[@janetwillson3502]

@@jeffballphoto Thanks!

[@Dennis-ku2ur]

I just watched your video and found it fascinating. You did an excellent job of explaining every detail, especially to a lay person. I was completely immersed in every aspect of the telescope and the solar attachments. But I do have one complaint. I hated the background music. I use headphones and its too loud and once the music and snare drum gets into your head, it's difficult to maintain concentration on your voice track. The music is completely unnecessary and very distracting. Sorry for complaining, I would really have loved to have watched the video all the way through, but had to give up. Mid 70's and don't have all that much patience any more.

[@jeffballphoto]

Thanks for the feedback.

[@craiglowery4427]

Great video. Do you take flat frames during your captures

[@jeffballphoto]

Thank you so much. No flat frames were used.

[@gamingbygrace3551]

Excellent video! What resources did you use to learn this?

[@jeffballphoto]

Thank you for watching. I reference @chucksastrophotography channel here on KZbin in my description with a link to the video explaining how to process solar images for animation.

[@gamingbygrace3551]

@@jeffballphoto Thank you I did not see that

[@nelsonsaarni3904]

at 12:32 you had a bogie. could be a bug, could be a satellite?

[@jeffballphoto]

Really nice catch, Nelson. Unfortunately, I wasn’t capturing video at a higher frame rate. It looks like it is moving in a pretty straight line. The movement across the frame is less than 1 second at 13 fps. Thanks for bringing it to my attention and thanks for watching. Have a great day.

[@lagonda8]

Hi! Why don't you use front mounted D-ERF? You would keep the heat out of the scope. Having uv/ir block just in front of the Quark you are letting heat inside the OTA. How much nm does your Optolong blocks? Where do you save your files? On your phone or on AsiAir? Btw, we recorded the same prom. Nice work. :-) Best regards.

[@jeffballphoto]

Just a decision to use less equipment. Using Optolong UV/IR. I have saved files on thumb drive/ASI AIR and on laptop via ASI app on Mac.

[@lagonda8]

Thank you for the information. And for great videos. :)

[@jeffballphoto]

@@lagonda8 thank you so much for the kind words and for watching.

[@mauricezundel2333]

Hello, congratulations for this very explanatory video, I have a SharpStar 94EDPH and my salesperson recommends an ERF filter (90mm up to $350) at full aperture and a UV-IR cut filter in front of the Quark for an aperture greater than 80mm? do you have a URF flter in front of your full aperture? thank you

[@jeffballphoto]

Thank you for watching. Please do what you think is best on the ERF. I followed the instruction in the Quark manual. I do not have a front ERF on my 92mm. I use a UV/IR as shown in the video. Take care.

[@mauricezundel2333]

@@jeffballphoto thank you very much for the answer Best regards

[@ebrahemmh]

Thanks for the video... I have the Chromosphere quark, I use it with William Optics gt 71 and some times with televue 2× power mate... So to make sure I understand well if you turn the dial to the right do you increase or decrease the wavelength? Another question, I see a lot of dust and a spots in my no matter how much I clean everything, please make videos on flat frames calibration... Many thanks

[@jeffballphoto]

Thank you so much for watching. That sounds like a very nice setup for solar observing. I am going to try and paste the tuning knob explanation from the Quark manual below. I hope this helps. I really need to play with tuning more, but my day observing time is limited and there always seems to be a cloud ready to cross the Sun when I observe. Begin Quark manual: A knob is provided to adjust the center wavelength of the filter. Turn the knob counter clockwise to lower the wavelength towards the blue by up to 0.5Å. Turn clockwise to raise the wavelength towards the red by up to 0.5Å. Each click of the knob is 0.1Å. Tuning is required on tele scopes with “droop” of th e focuser, be cause even very slight tilts will effectively lower the center wavelength of the filter. Turn the kno b clockwise 2-3 clicks and wait 5-10 minutes to see if the view is improved. Additional tuning can be performed, just keep in mind that after every adjustment of the knob the filter must settle in temperature for approximately 5-10 minutes before your change becomes effective. Tuning can also b e used to observe Doppler shifted feature s moving towards or away from you. A feature moving towards you will be brighter in blue (counterclockwise) wing shift ,away from you will be reddened (clockwise knob tuning).

[@ebrahemmh]

@@jeffballphoto yesterday I did a quick test... If you turn it all the way counter clock you will get more contrast and you can see the sun Chromosphere better than clock wise..

[@jeffballphoto]

Oh and I don’t use flats at all. I haven’t had any problems with dust spots.

[@TOPROLLER7]

Your grins tell me everything

[@fernandorivera2395]

Have you tried the Sodium D, Magnesium or Calcium H Quark eyepieces from DayStar Filters?

[@jeffballphoto]

No I haven't.

[@paulodetarso1807]

Can I use this with a newtonian telescope using an area reduction on the front of It?

[@jeffballphoto]

No. Daystar indicates this is for the specified refractors. Please see Daystar website.

[@Azzy_Mazzy]

Do you have to use a plossl eyepiece? Personally i like wider views

[@jeffballphoto]

You do t have to. It is the eyepiece Dave at Highpoint recommended and he knows his stuff.

[@puuxexil]

I've used solar film to safely observe the sun. I have a 102 triplet apo and I'm very nervous about pointing it at the sun without something in front. Will my lenses be OK?

[@jeffballphoto]

Please see this link about appropriate use of the device. www.daystarfilters.com/Quark.shtml

[@Daniel_DP83]

if you use a daystar quark until 80mm diameter you dont need a filter, 80 to 120 you should use a UV/IR Cut filter, over 120mm you need a D-ERF filter, otherwise your telescope can damaged!

[@paulodetarso1807]

Is there an image problem with the off axis due to the position of the front hole out of the secondary mirror?

[@jeffballphoto]

There is no secondary mirror in my image configuration. Only a mirror diagonal.

[@ShevillMathers]

The background music makes it difficult to hear the narration, especially getting on in years and the hearing is not what it used to be. I am a lot more interested in the narration and learning of others experiences. Thank you for making your presentation and sharing it.

[@jeffballphoto]

Thanks for the feedback.

[@felixzeng997]

non USA person 😂

[@janetwillson3502]

I love the music and even bought it on iTunes.

[@jeffballphoto]

@@janetwillson3502 thanks Janet.