saarmason

I wish you many wonderful hours at the Telementor 2 eyepieces! Truly a robust, perfectly engineered double star observing platform! I have been enjoying my T2 for over three years now and it is a wonderful Lunar observing and double star splitter platform. Jupiter and Saturn are stunning at higher powers also - during good seeing conditions. I especially enjoy using the Zeiss eyepiece turret which provides wonderful upright viewing with it's amici system. The .965 Zeiss Jena Orthos and Huygens are well suited for this longer focal length 62mm refractor and I have a 1.25 inch adapter fitted to the larger eyepiece threaded hole which I installed my trusty TV 22mm Panoptic. Such a wonderful, simple observing system in both alt az (shown in pic) and GEM position. I was fortunate, recently, and found an original 40mm Zeiss finder scope assembly from two sources (one in the USA and the other in Europe) which mounts on the back just before the turret. That addition is what makes finding doubles so much a easier. The tough part was trying to find them in those gun sights built-into the OTA. That "old school" sighting system was not comfortable to use at night. I attached a photo of the rear of my TV with turret fully locked and loaded. I didn't have a pic including the Zeiss finder scope, but this shows how well designed the turret system is with the Panoptic installed. Can't wait to view the environs of Sagittarius in the South from the south shore of Long Island, NY, in the weeks ahead with this great "school scope". Clear skies to all!

Very nice solar viewing platform! Best of luck with it.

I have enjoyed observing with many achromatic refractors over the years. Three stand out as my favorites. My all time favorite achromatic refractor is my "Old school" 🙂Zeiss Telementor 63mm / 840mm mounted on it's original solidly built GEM mounting system. Sharp, high contrast color free viewing for Lunar, Planetary (Jupiter and Saturn) and splitting double stars. I enjoy the Zeiss 4 ep turret system which incorporates an amici prism for upright viewing to match star charts. A few .965 inch Jena H & Ortho eyepieces and a 1.25 adapter to hold a wide field "modern" eyepiece which is very enjoyable in this scope. I have owned many other achromatic refractors, both Japanese and Chinese which were okay also, but this Telementor is the best of the best for a small aperture scope. Second on my list are my two Edmund Scientific Voyager 6000-esc 60mm F8 short tube refractors which incorporate the much vaunted Rank designed cemented doublet. That thick doublet was rated as "almost" as good as Zeiss cemented doublets and air spaced offerings from Japan. Nice for both daytime and night sky viewing. Can provide higher power with very slight image breakdown. Nice for Lunar, Jupiter, Saturn and doubles up to around 100x on most nights. Third is a more current Chinese built 152mm F5.9 short tube Astro Telescopes achromat from Kunming Optical. Very nicely configured 6" doublet which provides well corrected wide field views of DSO's with 100 degree quality 2" eyepieces. Nice for Lunar and planetary viewing also up to around 150X or so. Minus violet filter helps cut down on fringe color at higher power. On my WO EZ Alt Az mount system with extension pier, it is a joy to use seated in my astro chair scanning the Milky Way objects within it's viewing parameters. Love those well configured achros!

I have owned a few Apo refractors. NP101 was the largest. The views in the Televue NP101 were sharp and the wide field views awesome, but it is still only 101mm of glass. I figured that since I enjoy refractors so much a little more aperture would be a good thing. I saw a nice looking used AstroTelescope 152mm F5.9 Achromat on Astromart for a very low price and it has been my scope of choice for outreach programs and DSO observing - under good clear skies-mounted on my WO EZ-mount (with counterweight installed) in my back yard. The wide field views with 6 inches of aperture brought me into another dimension of viewing satisfaction while observing from the south shore of Long Island, NY. The summertime Sagittarius area DSO's looked so much better with this scope than the smaller apo. I didn't expect it to be that much of an improvement even without the WO minus violet filter fitted to the 2 inch diagonal. I do own a very nice 10 inch Teleport newtonian with Zambuto mirror and viewing with that is totally enjoyable during club observing sessions - and dark sky sites - until my back gives out from contorting to suit the dob dips and sways locating objects, but for ease of use - sitting comfortably while observing - the 6" achromatic refractor is amazing and comfortable - and that 6" of clear aperture pulls in almost as much light as an 8 inch dob - only sharper. I guess my point is that a reasonably priced "well corrected" larger (rich field) achromat can provide amazing and immersive viewing experiences for a LOT less cost than a similarly sized APO. This large achro will give me amazing viewing for the price of a couple of good 100 degree eyepieces. That is why Achromats are still pretty cool astronomical instruments to enjoy on clear nights. My dream scope was a large TAK, but I needed to buy a car instead 🙂. Clear skies, Geo.