QUARK Chromosphere and William Optics Z61?

[Paul Anthony Brierley]

Just testing the water here, and you’re opinion’s are very much appreciated.

I have a William Optics Z61 that I was using for Astro imaging. It is a fine telescope for that purpose. But I now want to go back to my roots. And use the MK1 eyeball again. I have been using the telescope visually this afternoon in between rain, and was very impressed at the optical quality. So I know that I can use it for birding as well as night-time observing.

But I really wanted to combine this telescope with my Quark Chromosphere and a UV-IR filter. But I am a little nervous to point the telescope at the Sun, in case the heat does any damage.

Are there any Solar Observers out there using a telescope such as this?

[Sally Russell]

Hi Paul, I would have thought that your Quark Chromosphere and WO Z61 will work very well together indeed. The scope has an air-spaced, rather than an oil-spaced, doublet so you don’t have the worry of unfiltered sunlight passing through and potentially causing deterioration of any lens oil. In theory you don’t need to use the UV/IR cut filter with apertures up to 80mm, but seeing as you already possess it, then personally I would still use it, as it won’t degrade the image at all but will still bounce some energy straight back out of the system rather than allowing it all into the Quark.

The advantage of using your Quark with a 61mm aperture scope is that you will be able to get a full disk image of the Sun with a decent amount of surrounding field. I can just get a full disk with my 70mm F6.8 scope plus Quark, but it fills the field such that I cannnot see all the proms at the same time! Bigger apertures will only ever deliver a chunk of the solar disk – I get a solar ‘quadrant’ when using the Quark on my 130mm F6 scope (which I stop down to 110mm, and use with a UV/IR cut filter).

Hope this helps.

Sally

[Andy Wilson]

Hi Paul,
I successfully use a Quark Chromosphere with a Williams Optics 66 and 81mm refractors for visual observing. I use a UV/IR filter.
While this works, it isn’t quite a quick grab and go setup as I have to wait for the Quark to reach the right temperature and sometimes tweak it to get the view at its best.
Best wishes,
Andy

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