Jump to content

SkySurveyBanner.jpg.21855908fce40597655603b6c9af720d.jpg

The TS 65mm Astrograph Quadruplet Review


Deneb

Recommended Posts

Hi

Before I start, I have no affiliation with Telescope Servic e Gmbh. Nor am I knocking William Optics.:)

There's been some talk about this scope, especially the problems which RobH had accounted with his scope regarding Astigmatism. Well I was curious especially looking at the spec what this scope is offering for around £550 inc. Delivery plus also TS were checking the scopes prior dispatch to their customers - so I bought one :p, this is spec & blurb from the TS Site.

The TS Quadruplet Astrograph 65mm f/6.5 offers a highly corrected focal plane for astro photography and is therefore an interesting alternative e.g. to the Takahashi FS-60 or the Pentax 75 SDHF. It is fine crafted and optimal for mobile deep-sky imaging featuring a minimum mechanical length of 340 mm (with retracted dew cap). Image quality on- and off axis is perfect and the very low chromatic abberation allows a visual magnification range up to 150x.

TS APO 65 Q advantages:

-- fully corrected triplet lens group for colour-free imaging

-- integrated field flattener (4th lens) for a corrected fiels up to full-size sensors

-- optimized flattener position inside the tube for best effect

-- optimized baffles without vignetting

-- 2" dual speed focuser for high loads - no slipping, no shifting

-- 360° rotation possibilitiy for ideal framing

-- CNC tube rings

-- finder shoe (Vixen/Celesstron/Skywatcher compatible)

Now the interesting stuff, I was quite surprised with the initial appearance of the scope, it reminded me of a William Optics 66SD, personally I thought the TS version design was better. The scope comes supplied with tube rings but no dovetail. The most ingenious thing what impressed me was the rotatable focuser, somewhat different then the WO scopes, the focuser can be rotated from the position of the 2" holder thus allowing your camera to be oriented in a different angle freely. I found I couldn't do this with William Optics scopes if you had a longer dovetail fitted, as when you rotate the focuser the focusing knobs would hit against the dovetail, thus it would be necessary to unscrew the the camera & mount it manually in the correct orientation.

It is fitted with a Standard Synta finderscope shoe, that should please some people, it's nice that you don't have to buy a seperate shoe of a different design to fit something like an RDF.

The Dewshield is retractable & can be locked into position. Here's some shots of the scope in the flesh.

P1010144.jpg

The scope is supplied with a 2" Dual Speed Monorail Focuser & there is no slipping.

P1010145.jpg

P1010146.jpg

P1010149.jpg

When I bought the scope I was a bit worried that I might have to send it back due to having the problems which RobH had with his, I felt better after TS had placed the scope on an Optical Bench for testing after me emailing them about the problems they have had in the past.

P1010175.jpg

P1010176.jpg

I had first light with the scope on Friday night, due to the clouds I had enough time to do a star test. Centering the following stars into the fov - Arcturus, Spica, Dubhe & Vega, all showed a nice set of Concentric rings.

Last night was my chance to test the scope out on the camera. The following shots were taken with a 314L+ two single 5min lights, M13 in Green channel & NGC6888 in Ha unprocessed just converted from .fit to jpg. (I found out the RA Axis was a bit out of balance while I was Guiding & the focusing was ever so slightly out).

Capture_007GREENm13.jpg

ngc6888HA.jpg

The low down - Well what do I think of it ? Well even though a 314L+ was used, to test the full field something like a DSLR would suffice, something I would test in the near future. From what I understand the Astigmatism problem was prominent when the scope was used in the cold, well I'll find out in the Winter months how it performs... It would have been nice if a Dovetail was included in the package, but hay ho. So far im pleased with it.

Cheers

Nadeem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 75
  • Created
  • Last Reply

If the astigmatism problem has been sorted, then it's a great scope.

The focuser easily handled a Starlight Xpress filter wheel, off axis guider, lodestar and H18....much better than the William Optics crayfords, and I found the field to be flat with the large H18 chip.

The winter will tell with regard to the astigmatism problem though, as it was due to pinched optics at low temperatures, and was reported in a good few of these scopes, which is a great shame as in all other ways they are excellent.

Rob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You could probably cool it in a fridge for a few hours..

Peter...

Thanks Peter, im just wandering by putting it into a fridge, how long would it take for the scope to acclimatize back in the open, as I want to try to keep it in a cold state while doing another image test ?

Nadeem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Nadeem,

Thinking in the other direction, which lens is causing the problem ? Is it the flattener ?

The way I'm thinking is this - There is a Wasp device around that uses Canon 200mm f2 camera lenses. They found that the lenses would require re focusing ( nightmare ) as the temperature dropped. The solution was to wrap a dew band round them ( and some foil I think ) and keep them above the temperature they contracted at. Would a dew band in the area of the offending glass work I wonder ? You may have to experiment with the power to the band.

Rob, have you got rid of your scope ? If so you can't try this so I'm sorry if I'm too late.

Dave.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep, as a test of the problem that could do it. As a wide field fan I looked at this scope but got put off. A fix is required and I hoped a dew band would do it.

I can't find a link to the array I mentioned. Loads on the Wasps but none so far on the fix.

Dave.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've seen one of these with pinched optics here as well. It was pretty bad. According to two different retailers I know, the problem was quite simple; the last element was easy to overtighten and was accessible with the focuser removed. Loosen and away you go, or so went their version.

I really hope this is the case because the scope is attractive. The focuser is R and P, too, by the look of it?

Nadeem, the one I saw was pinched and also seemed to me not to control blue stars all that well - a bit of blue bloat. I might be wrong about this and it might have gone with the pinching. See what you think.

Olly

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for your input Olly, i look out for the Blue Bloat, only time will tell. I plan to somehow "ice" it with ice bags, becuase I really do want to see if they have really fixed the problem with Astigmatism or it will be going back...

Nadeem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice to have a new toy Nadeem :)

Are the stars round and pinsharp on short exposures? They look a little off in the pics above, almost heart shaped?

Cheers

Tim

I was hoping someone would pick this up, not to sure if it was my focussing being slightly out. When I was doing the initial focusing with the Atik I took this 5sec shot.

Capture_007.jpg

But then again i've seen these triangle star shapes in the ED80 as well.

Capturem13.jpg

Nadeem

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking closely, they do look a little odd.....Nadeem asked me to check the images before posting the thread, and they certainly didn't look like the star shapes I had, but thay aren't right....sorry Nadeem....I should have been more critical...I put it down to guiding.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Rob, I did have a problem with the guiding that was due to the RA Axis being out of balance. No problem if its clear tonight i'll check it again & i appreciate you being critical.

Do you have a any pictures of your star shapes Rob?

Nadeem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry Nadeem....I just had a look but don't have any shots on this computer....I may have some on the obsy computer at home, but I'm in Greece at the moment.

Basically though, they were unmistakeably diamond shaped.

Rob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think those tube rings were on a bit tight, hopefully tonight will be clear. I will realign the guidescope & not tighten the tube rings this time too much, just in case i've not missed something stupid...Interesting link Guy.

If not it's going back to TS...

Nadeem

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Managed to find a pic of the problem I was having....this is a crop of an area of a sub of the rosette neb, camera is an H18. The star shapes are like this across the whole frame.

It was pinched optics.....not tracking, as the mount is perfectly capable of producing round stars after at least 10 minutes with the 11 inch at F10 :)

robh-albums-tech-stuff-picture11452-rosette-280111-at65-pinched-optics.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.