What is the DayStar Quark Chromosphere?

A hydrogen-alpha solar filter built as an eyepiece: it slots into the telescope where an eyepiece normally goes, with a camera or a 1.25 inch eyepiece behind it. DayStar builds a two-element 4.2x telecentric Barlow, a 12 mm blocking filter and a 21 mm clear aperture into it.

Which telescopes does it suit?

DayStar states the best performance on f/4 to f/8 refractors. I have used it on a 115 mm triplet, on 60 mm refractors and on the Askar 50P; it does not suit Schmidt-Cassegrains or Dobsonians, and DayStar makes the Combo Quark for slower telescopes.

Do I need an energy rejection filter as well?

It depends on the aperture. First Light Optics' guidance: with less than 80 mm of aperture, for brief sessions without a tracking mount, it can be fine to use no energy rejection at all; under about 120 mm a screw-in UV/IR cut filter can go in front of the diagonal; larger telescopes need a red or yellow glass energy rejection filter on the front.

How long does the Quark take to warm up?

It runs from USB power, 5 V at 1.5 A, with a wall adapter in the box, and I find it can take about 20 minutes before the view of the Sun is right.

Chromosphere or Prominence version?

DayStar's advice: the Prominence version for a brighter, wider bandwidth, the Chromosphere for more surface contrast, and filaments show only in the Chromosphere. Every frame on this page is the Chromosphere.

What took the eclipse frames on this page?

A Player One Apollo-M MAX mono camera behind the Quark on my ToupTek Hope D60, on the ZWO AM3N. Each frame is the best 30% of one recording, stacked, then sharpened and coloured; the raw against finished slider shows the stack before that.

Does the whole Sun fit in one frame?

Almost. In my eclipse frames the Sun spans about 1,235 pixels, a little more than the 1,104-pixel height of the camera's frame, so the top and bottom of the disc fall just outside.

What have I not tested on the Quark Chromosphere?

I have not measured the Quark's bandpass, and I have not tried it on a Schmidt-Cassegrain or a reflector.

DayStar Quark Chromosphere review: the Sun in hydrogen alpha

Where does it rank on our leaderboard

Nine of the 13 filters on my board, against price
Rank	Filter	Stars for Your Buck	Recorded UK price
1	Scorpio HSO 3nm	100 out of 100	£448
2	Laida HSO 5nm 1.25″	94 out of 100	£154
3	SVBONY SV220 Ha OIII 3nm	92 out of 100	£249
6	QuarkStar Chromosphere	76 out of 100	£1,149
8	Altair Ha OIII 4nm	74 out of 100	£399
9	Altair Solar Contrast Booster Filter	73 out of 100	£80
10	ZWO LRGB	70 out of 100	£332
12	Optolong L-Ultimate Dual-Bandpass 3nm	43 out of 100	£216
13	ZWO HSO 7nm Narrowband	32 out of 100	£734

Contents

01 Where does it rank on our leaderboard
02 Specifications and features
03 In use
04 From the video
05 How good is it? Here's what I captured
06 Raw against finished
07 In my words
08 Watch it in my videos
09 Should you buy it?
10 Questions and more about this review

In 30 seconds

Stars for Your Buck 76/100

Reviewed 30 Nov 2025 Updated 25 Sep 2026

Rank: #6 of 13 filters
Verdict: Damon recommends

Written by Damon Scotting 3 min read

Buy it if

You own a small refractor and want the Sun in hydrogen alpha without buying a dedicated solar telescope.
You image the Sun with a mono camera and want filaments, plage and eclipses in detail.

Skip it if

Your telescope is a Schmidt-Cassegrain or a Dobsonian.
You want a view the moment you set up: it needs power and time to settle.
You only want sunspots in white light at the lowest cost.

“The power of the Sun available in one simple eyepiece.”

Specifications and features

DayStar Quark Chromosphere reviewed #6 of 13
Recorded UK price	£1,149
Type	Hydrogen-alpha etalon eyepiece, Chromosphere version, with a built-in 4.2x telecentric Barlow
Bandpass	Generally 0.5 Å or below for Chromosphere; no specific FWHM guaranteed
Lines passed	Hydrogen alpha, 656 nm, tunable by plus or minus 0.5 Å
Peak transmission	not recorded
Sizes	1.25 inch and 2 inch snouts, 1.25 inch eyepiece holder, 21 mm clear aperture
Thickness	Not applicable
Coating	AR coatings optimised for 656 nm
In the box	The Quark, a 1.25 inch eyepiece drawtube, a wall power adapter, a USB power cable and a Twist-Case

In use

From the video

Four frames from my video

The full disc in hydrogen alpha, from an hour-long time lapse

Sunspot groups and plage in hydrogen alpha

The partial eclipse of March 2025 in hydrogen alpha

The Moon's limb against the chromosphere

How good is it? Here's what I captured

Three captures of the Sun

The eclipse at 18:30, DayStar Quark Chromosphere

Integration: the best 30% of one recording
Field: 0.69 x 0.47 degrees
Telescope: ToupTek Hope D60
Camera: Player One Apollo-M MAX
Mount: ZWO AM3N
Target: Partial solar eclipse, 12 August 2026 (18:30)
Type: Partial solar eclipse in hydrogen alpha

The eclipse at 18:39, DayStar Quark Chromosphere

Integration: the best 30% of one recording
Field: 0.69 x 0.47 degrees
Telescope: ToupTek Hope D60
Camera: Player One Apollo-M MAX
Mount: ZWO AM3N
Target: Partial solar eclipse, 12 August 2026 (18:39)
Type: Partial solar eclipse in hydrogen alpha

The eclipse at 18:48, DayStar Quark Chromosphere

Integration: 900 of 3,000 frames
Field: 0.69 x 0.47 degrees
Telescope: ToupTek Hope D60
Camera: Player One Apollo-M MAX
Mount: ZWO AM3N
Target: Partial solar eclipse, 12 August 2026 (18:48)
Type: Partial solar eclipse in hydrogen alpha

Raw against finished

In my words

The 3 targets, the unprocessed side against my finished image, each with its integration, the camera and the palette:

Partial solar eclipse, 12 August 2026 (18:48): 900 of 3,000 frames of light, Player One Apollo-M MAX, DayStar Quark Chromosphere, the stacked frames with no sharpening and no colour
Partial solar eclipse, 12 August 2026 (18:30): the best 30% of one recording of light, Player One Apollo-M MAX, DayStar Quark Chromosphere, the stacked frames with no sharpening and no colour
Partial solar eclipse, 12 August 2026 (18:39): the best 30% of one recording of light, Player One Apollo-M MAX, DayStar Quark Chromosphere, the stacked frames with no sharpening and no colour

“This is going to allow me to view the Sun in a very specific frequency of light, which will showcase how truly violent our Sun is.”

From my 42 Wonders video

“By taking multiple videos over the period of an hour, I can create a really cool time lapse of our Sun, which perfectly illustrates how active it really is.”

From my 42 Wonders video

“I have a very specialised eyepiece that allows you to see the Sun's chromosphere. It views it in a very specific wavelength of light, hydrogen alpha to be specific.”

From my eclipse Short

Watch it in my videos

What OUR SUN Looks Like Through a $500, $1M, and $1B Telescope – 42 Wonders (EP 7) · published 30 November 2025 · 12:02 · Watch on YouTube · 13,323 views, 683 likes on 2 Oct 2026

Jump to

4:52 Our Sun, the final wonder
5:09 The Sun in white light through a smart telescope
6:15 The DayStar Quark Chromosphere
6:34 An hour of the Sun in hydrogen alpha
6:41 A partial eclipse through the Quark
7:00 The Moon's mountains against the Sun
7:15 A professional observatory's view
8:58 Solar imaging as a hobby

Check out more videos on the DayStar Quark Chromosphere

CHECK OUT THIS INCREDIBLE VIEW of Our SUN?!

12 Aug 2026

Should you buy it?

76/100 Stars for Your Buck

Pros

It lets me capture incredible hydrogen-alpha images of the Sun from my back garden with ordinary telescopes rather than a specialised solar telescope.
I have used dedicated solar telescopes such as the Coronado PST, and they produce really good images, but the Quark on my normal telescopes gives very similar results and is far more finely tunable.
It has a built-in magnifier, like a built-in Barlow lens, which means you get some very detailed views of the Sun.
On a bigger telescope such as my 115 mm refractor it gave incredibly sharp shots, sharp enough for time lapses of the Sun changing through the day.

Cons

My one real issue is how long it takes to reach thermal equilibrium: it is powered over micro USB and can take around 20 minutes before the Sun shows in proper detail.
It does not work with Schmidt-Cassegrains or Dobsonians; it is built strictly for refractors of roughly two to five inches.
On the Askar 50P with the Player One Apollo-M MAX it fitted the whole Sun in one frame, which is what everyone wants, but the quality was not great.

I consider it a good purchase: it opens up a completely different avenue of astrophotography without you having to replace your whole setup.

Who the Quark Chromosphere is for

Owner of a small refractor

Buy

DayStar says it performs best on f/4 to f/8 refractors, so a small refractor you already own becomes a hydrogen-alpha solar telescope.

Solar imager with a mono camera

Buy

A mono camera behind it and the best frames of each recording stacked bring out filaments, plage and sunspots, as in the eclipse frames on this page.

Eclipse chaser

Buy

A partial eclipse in hydrogen alpha shows the Moon's cratered edge against the surface of the Sun.

Schmidt-Cassegrain or Dobsonian owner

Skip

It is built for refractors; DayStar sells the Combo Quark for Schmidt-Cassegrains and slower telescopes.

Wants to observe straight away

Skip

It runs from USB power and can take around 20 minutes to settle before the view is right.

Beginner on a tight budget

Skip

A white-light solar filter shows sunspots for far less money; hydrogen alpha is the step after that.

Three alternatives I have reviewed

Questions and more about this review

Reviewed by

Damon Scotting

The Telescope Man Verified

BSc (Hons) Physics with Astrophysics and Cosmology, Loughborough University PGCE / QTS, University of Nottingham

About Damon About Damon Damon Scotting is The Telescope Man. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Physics with Astrophysics and Cosmology from Loughborough University and a PGCE with QTS from the University of Nottingham, and taught physics in secondary schools before becoming an astronomy creator. He is a contributing writer for BBC Sky at Night Magazine and the author of 42 Wonders of Our Night Sky, and his photograph of the galaxy M100 with the dwarf planet Ceres was Highly Commended in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2024 competition run by Royal Observatory Greenwich. He has appeared on the BBC's Blue Peter. More than 750,000 people follow his astronomy channels on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, and he has reviewed more than 140 telescopes, mounts, cameras, filters and accessories hands-on for this site. More about Damon · How I test · Damon's book

I review all kinds of gear: most of it I buy, some is gifted and some is loaned, and all of it is reviewed the same way. How this site is funded

Eight questions, answered

Questions about the DayStar Quark Chromosphere

Reviewed 30 November 2025 ·Updated 25 September 2026

I review all kinds of gear. Most of it I buy, some is gifted and some is loaned, and all of it is reviewed the same way: no company sees or approves a review before it is published. Shop links marked Ad are affiliate links: I earn a commission when you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. How this site is funded

What is the DayStar Quark Chromosphere? A hydrogen-alpha solar filter built as an eyepiece: it slots into the telescope where an eyepiece normally goes, with a camera or a 1.25 inch eyepiece behind it. DayStar builds a two-element 4.2x telecentric Barlow, a 12 mm blocking filter and a 21 mm clear aperture into it. The specifications ↓
Which telescopes does it suit? DayStar states the best performance on f/4 to f/8 refractors. I have used it on a 115 mm triplet, on 60 mm refractors and on the Askar 50P; it does not suit Schmidt-Cassegrains or Dobsonians, and DayStar makes the Combo Quark for slower telescopes. In use ↓
Do I need an energy rejection filter as well? It depends on the aperture. First Light Optics' guidance: with less than 80 mm of aperture, for brief sessions without a tracking mount, it can be fine to use no energy rejection at all; under about 120 mm a screw-in UV/IR cut filter can go in front of the diagonal; larger telescopes need a red or yellow glass energy rejection filter on the front. The specifications ↓
How long does the Quark take to warm up? It runs from USB power, 5 V at 1.5 A, with a wall adapter in the box, and I find it can take about 20 minutes before the view of the Sun is right. The specifications ↓
Chromosphere or Prominence version? DayStar's advice: the Prominence version for a brighter, wider bandwidth, the Chromosphere for more surface contrast, and filaments show only in the Chromosphere. Every frame on this page is the Chromosphere. What I captured ↓
What took the eclipse frames on this page? A Player One Apollo-M MAX mono camera behind the Quark on my ToupTek Hope D60, on the ZWO AM3N. Each frame is the best 30% of one recording, stacked, then sharpened and coloured; the raw against finished slider shows the stack before that. The raw stacks against the finished images ↓
Does the whole Sun fit in one frame? Almost. In my eclipse frames the Sun spans about 1,235 pixels, a little more than the 1,104-pixel height of the camera's frame, so the top and bottom of the disc fall just outside. What I captured ↓
What have I not tested on the Quark Chromosphere? I have not measured the Quark's bandpass, and I have not tried it on a Schmidt-Cassegrain or a reflector.