152MM TechnoSky Refractor

[Ewan]

Placed this order back in August with Rupert at Astrograph & it turned up end of last week.

I had to wait a while for the scopes to arrive with Rupert & the D-ERF filter from Baader is a special order item so this also had a fairly long lead time.

I will take this opportunity to thank Rupert for his patience towards my impatience, I had at one point expressed a concern over the fact that the scope didn't come with a hard case, this was an error but Rupert has indeed supplied a hard case that it can be stored in when not in use. I like to store all my scopes in cases where possible as I feel they need the best protection possible.

Anyway I thought I had better do a mini-review on the new additions, please remember I have not had a chance for a first light of scope or filter.

First off if anyone if here is thinking of buying a 150mm + refractor these things are BIG !, I knew it would be quite a step up from the 80mm but even I was surprised at how much larger they are.

As you can see in the images (lighter is for scale purposes) it is quite a lump, the scope is pretty front heavy as expected but not overly so.

The focuser is 3" in size which I really like as I have seen some images with a 2.5" used, the general appearance of the focuser is exactly the same as my Altair Astro 80mm APO with a fine adjuster of the same colour as well.

It is an F5.9 & 760mm when dew shield is closed.

I have it on good authority that the cells used in these are the same as used in the 152mm Lunt solar scope, I am no expert on these matters but that would be good to know.

I know it will suffer in the correction department but for visual use it should be awesome, AP wise I am looking forward to trying mono Ha images of a lot of targets, the main use will be for Solar which I am hoping should produce some amazing images.

The Baader filter appears to be very well made indeed, nice solid build & mark free across the faces of the filter, not much else to say about it other than it weighs approx. 1.5Lb.

Sorry I cannot say much more but not having actually tried it out yet I would be lying if I said it worked great, as soon as I manage a few images I will be sure to post them for SGL.

ATB

Ewan

  

  

  

[Peter Drew]

Very nice looking scope. What are you going to use for the rest of the solar Ha rig?.    

[Ewan]

Very nice looking scope. What are you going to use for the rest of the solar Ha rig?.    

I have a Quark Chromosphere & my trusty DMK21 mono ccd, it should do the job just fine I hope.

[David Smith]

Looks the business Ewan. Look forward to seeing how you get on with it.

[kev]

Boy thats chunky and well built. Let the neighbours know or someone will think its a rocket launcher!!

Sent from my iPhone so excuse the typos!

[Peter Drew]

Excellent Ewan, I look forward to seeing the results.  

[Ewan]

Looks the business Ewan. Look forward to seeing how you get on with it.

It's those Solar shots I am most looking forward to Dave, lets hope it was worth the wait.

[David Smith]

Combined with that erf and your Quark prominence it should be quite spectacular. Just need the Sun to show up now.

[kev]

Thats the beauty of Ha and solar continuum filters. No CA. 8-)

Sent from my iPhone so excuse the typos!

[Ewan]

Thats the beauty of Ha and solar continuum filters. No CA. 8-)

Sent from my iPhone so excuse the typos!

Exactly why I bought this Kev as I should be able to grab some pretty good detail with this setup, I am wondering how it will cope with the 460EX doing Narrowband.

[Stardust]

looks very nice hope you get chance to try it out soon, been cloudy for so long now.