IB20

If you do decide to pull the trigger on the 102mm f7 (any iteration), you’re in for a real treat. They are marvellous scopes. 👍🏻

I have an AZ4 and an AZ75. The AZ75 is absolutely next level and I have my perfect mount. It holds the f7 102ed like a dream (and the 125mm SM…). It doesn’t need slo-mos, the control and movement are second to none. The AZ4 is good but suffers with a bit of stiction and in comparison is chalk and cheese, higher power viewing isn’t quite as stable either. Obviously the price of the two mounts reflect these differences!

Get the 4mm TOE. My favourite eyepiece.

Here are my thoughts on it… Needless to say I’m delighted with it. I’m a visual observer but it is the equivalent quality of my fpl-53 4” Starwave ED-R albeit with increased brightness and resolution. I haven’t seen any CA and I’ve pointed it at Sirius and Jupiter. I use a AZ75 without counterweight and it’s rock solid.

Had another session tonight, again fairly strong breeze but transparency and seeing were ok. Stuck a UHC filter on a 17.5mm Morpheus and had the best views I’ve ever seen of M42. Amazing stuff. Everything I point this thing at it just excels. Very, very happy with it. It’s definitely taken the place of the 4”.

Maybe a pier mounted 7” APO refractor. AP/Tak/TEC. A real bank account/credit card ruiner.

It’s fine, honestly! I went from an 8” dob to a 3” refractor, then a 4” and now a 5” (now own 6 scopes 😅). Expensive but very enjoyable, I’m in heaven with my new 125mm and they all have their strengths. Also massively agree with the health benefits of observing; similar to my experiences. Glad to hear you have something that helps. 👍🏻

It’s quite breezy out but my forecast is completely wrong and I’ve had a good few hours of clear skies so have set up the 125mm SL. Checked out the usual suspects but had a thought to try out the Astronomik UHC filter as it has barely been used. Twinned with the 17.6mm Morpheus, I pointed the scope towards M42 and was flabbergasted at the improvement in what I usually see. Long elongated wings stretching against jet black skies and some dark tendrils reaching through the bright nebulosity, features I’ve never seen in my skies before. Wow, stunning, the best I’ve ever seen it and the conditions aren’t particularly great. This scope is proving to be lots of fun and quite brilliant. Had always read about the improvements filters made but has experienced it until now.

5 or 6 sessions in Jan I think, compared to 0 in December. Had nights with the 3”, 4”, 5” fracs and 8” dob. Despite all evenings being blighted by full moons, strong breezes, poor local seeing or freezing temps it was still nice to be out! Much prefer that to the month of cloud and rain we suffered in December.

I have had a good few sessions with the 125mm, albeit moonlight affected, hazy cloud, strong breezes and with fairly average seeing, but feel I can write up some findings. Initial thoughts are that the 125mm SM looks the business and is one of the nicest telescopes I have ever seen. The black carbon fibre finish and splash of anodised red looks superb. It’s delivered in an Oklop bag which I absolutely love and stores the scope away so neatly and safely, a real bonus addition to the package. The 5” in comparison to the 102ED-R is a much larger OTA, with the dew shield retracted it’s around 25cm longer I think. It hardly weighs anymore though, <1kg which for me makes carrying it, handling it and mounting it absolutely no different as I use the same tripod and mount for both. Cool down is around the same ~20-30mins, if I know I’m going to use either 4 or 5” I usually stick it out whilst I’m making dinner or some such. The OTA rings hold a handle and vixen rail either side making moving it a doddle. The rotating focuser mechanism now has an external screw to easily tighten for locking it in place, which I much prefer to the 102ed-r set-up. The R&P coarse and fine focuser is a dream and buttery smooth, these focusers are such a joy to use and with the amount of backfocus I have, I may even be able to get binoviewers working! Firstly, I must confess an issue. When it came to first light, setting up the OTA was so easy. However the dewshield was fairly tight and extending it caused the serial number plate to come loose and move to the front of the dewshield. Obviously this was a huge defect! Having not actually looked through the scope I was a bit miffed to say the least, but thought I should still test the optics. I pointed the scope at Jupiter and was delighted to see a disc showing such rich detail. Despite ordinary seeing and a receding planet, I glimpsed some excellent views, completely CA free. Next target was Rigel, my favourite double, which I’ve never seen its companion star looking so bright, a huge tick here. Clouds started to pile in so I grabbed the opportunity to view M42. Wow, a greenish tinge that I’ve only ever seen in the dob, the trapezium lovely and visible. The E star just hanging around, no bother. Seeing was a bit wobbly so the F star wasn’t giving itself up but there’ll further opportunities. So the optics were/are superb, they are on a par with the 102ED-R, which kind of now finds itself redundant. Having had these visual experiences, I knew I had to contact FLO to sort out the serial plate issue and I didn’t want a refund, I wanted the 125mm!Within three emails, Chris had arranged a courier to my house to collect the 125mm. Within 7 days I had a replacement scope, with a much easier to move dewshield, might I add. All I can say is that they made purchasing & replacing an expensive piece of kit the most straight forward it could be, so hats off. Well since I’ve the 125mm back (a different #!), I had another session on Friday despite the blustery conditions and the optics matched the last OTA. Jupiter showed me a cracking white oval in the NEB, a feature I’ve struggled to see since getting into the hobby and that E star was there again, brazenly. Sirius not quite giving up the pup but not a splash of CA seen, some atmosphetic dispersion yes, but it won’t be long until I get that pup! Similarly with the moon, despite its fullness the only colour I’ve seen is a touch of colour from the XWs I use, which I have seen in other scopes. I can’t wait to spend some more time with this scope. The AZ75 handles it with ease, the SW steel tripod is enough but I might treat it to a BB Uni28 in the near future. I really want to see how this scope performs on targets that I’ve always felt a bit underwhelmed by in small refractors - the globs, the DSOs etc. Feel like I’m going to have a great spring and summer with this cannon!

Being no imager, I’m delighted this turned up through the post! 😄

😅 haha yeah so it’s like that cos I have to mount the L bracket on the saddle for the PST so everything turns 90°, not ideal but am looking into some solutions. A 5” frac seemed to become a priority though 🙃

Finally got the 125mm back, but I will expand on this elsewhere in the forum.

After purchasing an extremely lovely 125mm Stellamira refractor in mid-December, I am yet to deploy it in enjoyment. After three storms, a ridiculous amount of ground water, repeated 50 mph gusts, incessant cloud coverage and 10 days of Christmas and new year covid, will I finally be able to have a look through this wonderful looking scope that has been taunting me? Tuesday and Wednesday’s forecast are looking promising so fingers crossed… This is easily the longest I’ve had a new scope without being able to use it. For the first time, FLO’s may come with clouds has come true!

Just grabbed a quick iPhone snap of a nearly full moon in hazy skies over my parish church.

Had a micro window opportunity here but ended up watching the darts instead. Who knows if I’ll get chance to use the new 125mm before 2024, the forecast doesn’t look promising 🙄.

My Tak 76DCU came with the same focuser as the 100DC, I have to say I thought it was absolutely fine, I like you though, like a microfocuser. I plumped for the MoreBlue one and I’m very happy with it. It does stick out a bit and if you’re ocd about symmetry it might not be for you. You will need a tool to remove the Tak pinion screw though as weirdly the MoreBlue kit didn’t come with one. The focuser tube has very short travel and my Delite didn’t come to focus in the Tak diagonal, unsure if the Deloses, Deloi , Deloux? have the same focal point but depending on your diagonal, you may experience the same. The only thing I really didn’t like about the focuser was the plastic focus knobs, keeps the weight down but seemed a bit cheap.

Only saw one last night, last year saw about 15 in total. Boo, poor show. Can only assume the haze disguised a few of them.

I asked FLO about the dovetail and they said it should be fine which it is but agree, I may get a longer one. Not had much luck with BVs so far but the focused travel looks long, maybe this is the scope that’ll work with them! I’ll stick an XW on the end of it, that’ll right it. 😅

😁 Arrived 7:30 this morning! First impressions are it’s very nice aesthetic with a fantastic focuser. It is significantly larger than my 4” but not significantly heavier, probably 1-1.5kg heavier and the AZ75 handles it extremely easily! Balance is fine once the rings are shuffled towards the front end a tad. Now I just need some clear skies…

Well hello there!

Well I liked that answer better than the one I’d have gotten off the wife. 🫣

Sure did. Too good an offer to refuse and Jupiter, Orion and Sirius are and will be superbly placed in my observing location. Can’t wait to give it first light, apologies all for the impending 100% cloud cover.

Maybe I should change the title to “I have a 5” ED doublet”… 😁😁 Thanks for all the input and hurry up postie!

Tbh, I hadn’t even thought about the Askar 120 triplets. They look very nice though and only 840mm and 6.5kg… I’m not even looking at the 140s. 😅😅