John

13 hours ago, alan potts said:

Many congratulations on the new scope, sorry for being late but I have been on holiday for 2 weeks, this is the one I wish I had bought. They are superb scopes and the optics are as good as any on the market.

Alan

Thanks Alan - hope you had a great holiday

26 minutes ago, FenlandPaul said:

Absolutely stunning, John - many congratulations.  I assume this is a stop-gap to take you through the 20-month lead time for the real prize: http://apm-telescopes-englisch.shopgate.com/item/383633

 

Yep - thats the grand plan, a half metre apochromat refractor. I've just got to get an observatory on a mountain top and I'll order the scope !

My 130 would make a half decent finder for that one

25 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Fabulous first light report John, which I've only just seen as I'm on holiday in north Norfolk til tomorrow ( and no clear sky to look at at night time!).

I really do think a 5" or so apo at F9 , and of that quality, must be pretty near the perfect dream scope for frac lovers.

I'm so pleased for you!:-)

Dave

Thanks Dave

Owning these two superb scopes is like a dream for me too. I'm very lucky to be in this position, I appreciate that.

Mind you, comparing them with the Vixen and ED120 have shown that the optics on those are excellent as well. If I'm going to part with one the decision is going to be very tough indeed !

Very nice image John

After many years in the hobby I've just managed to split Antares visually this year with my 5.1" refractor at 300x and later with my 120mm at the same magnfication.

I agree with Chris - despite the brightness difference between the components, it's the low altitude that makes it awkward. If you can get a lowish and clear horizon then a small frac should do it.

I thought the secondary star looked grey-green but with all the "scintilating" going on with the primary I'd not swear to that !

On 04/07/2016 at 15:58, John said:

I feel guilty now !

I'll be getting the ED120 out again soon I'm sure. Owning the Tak and TMB LZOS have clealy shown me what a great objective lens these Chinese ED doublets have. For a mass produced, relatively low budget production item they get very, very close to the premium ones. If I was to do a value for money assessment, the ED120 would win hands down.

 

Re: the above - I've had the ED120 and Vixen ED102 out together tonight going over similar territory to that which I covered with the TMB 130 a couple of nights back.

Cutting to the chase, both scopes have performed really well and earned their keep despite their much more expensive companions. For a scope worth around 20% as much as the Tak and the TMB the ED120 in particular is an optical gem. I split Antares with it this evening although having done it 1st with the TMB 130 probably did help !

Mars and Saturn looked glorious through both scopes as well

1 hour ago, Marki said:

Oooh temptation indeed - and I could probably lift that one!

Any plans for upgrades to the APM? How does it feel mechanically (focusser etc.)?

 

It has a Feathertouch focuser Mark - not sure where I'd go for something better to be honest with you as it's even better than my Moonlites

The tube is the lightweight Kruppax version. Fit and finish seem excellent - "Vixen class" plus a bit I'd say. The dew shield is flocked inside. I've put a 9x50 RACI finder on it and an AP 2" diagonal but, apart from trying binoviewing, I can't see a lot of other room for improvements

15 minutes ago, Marki said:

Is that the Istar for sale on Astrobuysell John? Almost tempted to revisit the nearly unmanageable 150mm class again myself...I must be insane, esepcially given how little time out under the sky I've had this year!

This APM looks magnificent though! Top marks, and I look forward to reading much more about it!

 

I think it is my old Istar Mark. I wasn't aware that it had moved on to Mark Turner but then there is no reason that I should. Another interesting, but perhaps more manageable, long achromat is the 5" F/12 on sale at ENS:

http://ensoptical.co.uk/telescopes/--fr-telescopes-istar-127mm-f12-r30

1 hour ago, Timebandit said:

..... John do you think this will be it now for your frac scopes ,or will the little devil inside us all get the better of you and push for bigger aperture?

I'd still like to get another 6" but it would need to be lighter and shorter than the 6" F/12 Istar that I used to have to ease mounting.

I'm still expecting to use my 12" dob frequently when the darker nights are here.

I've always thought that the ED doublet Synta / Skywatcher refractors had excellent optics for their relatively low cost and being able to compare the ED120 to more exotic alternatives seems to bear that out. I recall that the glass used in the objectives is sourced from Japan and I'm sure that I read somewhere that Canon (who make Tak objectives) were involved in some way in the design of the Chinese ED doublets. I've also recently been reading that Synta took particular care with the design of the 120mm ED objective including aspherising some of the curves.

5 hours ago, Telescope40 said:

 

....The SW 120 turning into a Dust catcher now as 3rd placed after the 130 and Tak. 

 

Regards   John

I feel guilty now !

I'll be getting the ED120 out again soon I'm sure. Owning the Tak and TMB LZOS have clealy shown me what a great objective lens these Chinese ED doublets have. For a mass produced, relatively low budget production item they get very, very close to the premium ones. If I was to do a value for money assessment, the ED120 would win hands down.

Ok, some really excellent views from that session.

Mars: Not it's most interesting face this evening but as good an object as any for a 1st light. Nice dark details visible around the paler plains in the centre of the disk. I quickly found that this scope supports high magnifications without breaking sweat. 250x - 300x showed a sharp and contrasty Martian disk.

Saturn: Easily the best views I've had of the planet this opposition and despite it's low altitude, at times rivalling some of the best views I've ever had of Saturn. With the low altitude I didn't expect to see the C or Crepe ring much in evidence but the 5.1" refractor showed it beautifully. Ring structure was very sharply defined, Cassini Division a sharp black cleft all around the disk with the latter having a lovely 3-dimensional look to it. With careful examination the cloud belts around the disk were showing structure and the S edge of the main belt was distinctly uneven and undulating as it wrapped around the curve of the planets disk. All this at 300x as well

Antares: Now this is a 1st - I managed a clear split of Alpha Scorpii . This star is really low down from my home and I just get a 30-40 minute glimpse of it between houses and trees. The star showed some colours from atmospheric diffraction but the 5th magnitude secondary star just around 2.5 arc seconds from the 1st magnitude primary was clearly defined. Never managed that one before !

Vega: Superb star test. No false colour whatsoever inside, outside and at sharp focus. A very similar presentation to the Takahashi FC100DL, except brighter.

Epsilon Lyrae: At 300x you could park a car between the pairs of stars here. The subtle tonal difference between one pair was clear as well.

Delta Cygni: Wonderfully split and very obvious. This pair can be a challenge for a 4" refractor but this 5.1" just makes it so easy.

Lambda Cygni: Wafer thin split of this tight pair. 400x eased them from a touching pair to that hairline split of blackness. Again the best view I've had of this pair. My ED120 can't quite split this one but the extra 10mm of aperture seems to do the trick.

Zeta Herculis: Again this marvelous scope provided my best ever view of this really challenging pairing. Just that much more definition of the secondary star, tight against the primary, than the excellent ED120 is capable of.

Finished off with a couple of bright DSO's at 150x:

M13: Enough aperture and pinpoint resolution here to really show this globular off. Stars resolved right across and a wonderful "diamonds on velvet" appreance to the stars surrounding the cluster. 

M57: Nice and and bright. Very contrasty, really looks like it should. Outer rim showed uneven thickness and central darker area well differentiated.

I'm going to stop there. What an amazing scope to view through. 130mm of unobstructed aperture with a very high % of the light gathered ending up just where you want it to be. Absolutely no CA whatsoever on any target viewed tonight. Crisp, unambiguous focus even at 300x-400x. Wonderful stuff

I'm going to think about a more sturdy mount though. The Giro II and hardwood tripod copes with the 8kg OTA pretty well but it's a long tube and with the sort of power that the scope can handle the damping of vibrations could do with being a touch quicker. Might even think about a driven mount as well for a change.

The late Thomas Back certainly got the objective design right with this one and the LZOS factory were able to execute it to near perfection with their OF-1 / OK-4 / OF-1 triplet prescription.

Probably the best scope I've viewed through in terms of sheer optical quality. I'm delighted with it  

I've had the scope out and ready for some time so I snapped the photo's below. I'll post some notes on my experiences with this scope later but so far this evening the scope has been rather mind blowing !

6 minutes ago, spaceboy said:

How are you finding this tripod John? Was that the one I spotted on astroboot some time ago. I was tempted myself. Apparently TS in Germany used to sell them but alas no more

It's excellent !

I got it from the Astroboot. It's the same one that comes with the huge 45/90 degree binoculars:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/helios/helios-quantum-7-25x100-binoculars.html

With the addition of a DIY plate I found that it would fit the Giro mount easily. Its at least as stable as the 2" CG5 tripod that I used before and a touch taller as well. Better looking too, IMHO

4 hours ago, Pig said:

.... two in one session is twice the pleasure

Indeed it is Shaun

Lovely scopes folks !

Interesting that Tony's scope is designated the FL102S. I wonder if Vixen were contemplating a longer FL version but never quite got there ?

5 minutes ago, DRT said:

To be  fair, I said I would never need to buy another eyepiece, not that I would never buy another eyepiece

 

As I got 3 eyepieces with my 1st scope (60mm refractor) I guess I've never needed to buy any more either ......

11 minutes ago, YKSE said:

Can we draw the conclusion "never=6 days"?

 

Astro equipment buying terminology:

"Never" = "a week or so"

"Keeper" = "until I see something even more exciting ..."

"95% of the performance of ..." = "but I rather want that additional 5% ....."

And theres more I'm sure.

We are all afflicted though .....

8 hours ago, DRT said:

I have been drooling over this beast all week and have been reading about Flourite scopes. One thing I'm confused about is the statement in the blurb about this one that the Flourite element is "at the back of the tube". Does that mean there is a glass element near the focuser? If so, does that mean these can't be used for solar viewing where the filtration happens behind the diagonal?

Sorry I'm a bit late on this Derek but I think the other posters have got it covered between them !

I have used the scope with my Lunt Hershel Wedge for a short session and it didn't explode or melt

Not being a solar boffin I'm unsure if there are any major benefits in using an apochromat or ED doublet for solar viewing though - unless it's because they are generally well figured objective lenses

I've not had enough use from the scope to attempt any sort of report on it but one thing that is noticeable right away with it is that it shows no false colour whatsoever, on any target, at any magnification and even inside and outside of focus (where most ED doublets do show a little colour). Vega was just a perfect white airey disk with 2 very fine and faint diffraction rings around it. It looked like an exemplar star test from an optical text book. Rather impressive

Great stuff Derek !

Just in time for the launch of the Ethos II range next month. More eye relief, 99.9% transmission and 125 degree field across the whole range

Thanks Gavin. That confirms my suspicions. Maybe a Delos + a Pan 24 then.

Great stuff Gavin

How do you find the 14mm Pentax XW ?. I'm thinking of completing my 1.25" XW lineup for use with my Tak FC100 but I'm a little wary of the impact of field curvature which the 14mm and 20mm XW's have I believe.

That's really neat

What's the cool down time for a 14" SCT if it's not kept close to outside temperature ?. Must be several hours I'd have thought ?

Amazing looking rig though - hope it works out

3 minutes ago, DRT said:

The blurb on Ian King's website says "The FC100 DL is only available via a one off small production run. We are limited to only a small batch and once sold the telescope will be discontinued."

Did you get any indication of what that means in terms of numbers, John?

The total production run was 100. I think Ian might have got around 5 ?. I've read that Australia got a total of 3 of them !

21 minutes ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

John that looks a fabulous scope and I look forward to your first light report. I am currently on my canal boat (10th day) so don't have good wi-fi so have not been on SGL that much. I assume you will say goodbye to your Vixen after so many years???

Hopefully one day I will have chance to view this lovely Frac but I am worried I will to buy one!!

Thanks Mark - hope you have a nice boat trip

I expect I'll keep the Vixen. It does widefield better than any of my scopes and it's just a lovely and rare scope.