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Astroboot 90mm CNC Refractor Has Landed

johninderby

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johninderby

johninderby

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Astroboot 90mm CNC Refractor Has Landed

Ordered Monday afternoon, shipped Tuesday and arrived Wednesday morning and it actually arrived within the specified delivery time of between 10:54am and 11:54am. Have to give Scopes'n'Skies 10 out of 10 on the delivery as I just chose the basic delivery at £1.50.

Bit of trepidation as I unpacked the box. Would this scope be in good condition? As I removed the last layer of bubble wrap I saw an OTA that looked brand new with not a scratch or mark on it. So far so good. Next to check the objective. Oh dear it looked a bit blotchy ;) (OK so maybe I didn't say "Oh dear":D). On closer inspection it looked as if someone had "cleaned" it with a dirty dishcloth, but fortunately there were no scratches, just the patchy surface. I removed the lens cell from the OTA so that I could clean both sides of the objective and got out the Baader Optical Wonder fluid and cloth. Three (yes three) cleaning's later the objective was flawless with no marks and with perfect coatings. Whew !!! ;) Now that the objective has been cleaned the scope looks absolutely brand new.

It's not quite as solidly built as say a WO scope, but it still has excellent fit and finish that's miles better than a Startravel 80 or 102 OTA, not to mention it's better optics and the 2" crayford focuser. With the retractable dewshield and it's light weight and it's really portable.

Did some daytime testing and the optics are very sharp indeed, and gave excellent views of trees, birds, aerials etc. Definitely as good as if not better than the Star Sky 90 I had a couple of years ago. The old Star Sky 90 I used to have had well controlled CA so this should be the same. Just have to wait for a clear evening for some further testing.

Right now I'm thinking about getting some rings and mounting it on my 14" dob as a super-finder but it would also make an inexpensive travel scope. Considering it only cost me just over £60.00 including delivery for what is effectively a new 90mm refractor with crayford focuser (all metal, no plastic) I'm very, very pleased indeed. It's a lovely little scope. :eek::D:D

Star Sky 90mm Achromatic Refractor

  • Lens diameter: 90mm
  • Focal ratio: f5.5
  • Fully multi-coated lenses
  • Focal length: 500mm
  • Rotating 2" Crayford focuser
  • Knife-edge baffles
  • Retractable metal dew shield
  • OTA weight - 1.9kg.

John

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johninderby

johninderby

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Nearly bought that one myself but was a bit concerned at the description of optics. Bargain.

Peter

Having had one before I knew it should have good optics, and as no physical damage, scratches etc. were mentioned, I was hoping it was just a dirty or smeared objective so I thought it was worth taking a chance on.

Here's a photo of the objective after cleaning.

John

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johninderby

johninderby

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First Light

A lot of cloud around but at least Saturn was visible. Saturn looked very nice and sharp through the Pentax zoom despite there being some high mist around. There was no noticeable fringing around Saturn at 77 mag. Added the Baader Neodymium filter which showed a bit more detail. Then came the 3.7mm SX Ethos which gave 135 mag and still no fringing. This proved to be the max mag that the seeing would allow tonight. Saturn was a beautiful sight, and the rings had that 3D look with the different bands being discernible.

Star testing showed a nice identical set of in-focus and out-focus Airy disks (normal for an achromat) with even and well defined rings which indicates no significant aberrations.

So while not much of a first light at least it showed the scope is a good un. :eek: If the clouds don't close over completely I'll try some lunar observing later on.

John

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Rob

Rob

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These are not bad scopes.. Its a Optics Star AR90.. I have the AR80 myself, they seem to fall into the higher end of a the Achro spectrum. My 80mm is a delight to use. Nice find for £60...

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  • 2 weeks later...
johninderby

johninderby

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Now that's what I call a finderscope :)

Well I've fitted the 90mm to my 14" OO dob using a Badder findershoe, the bottom of a Synta finder bracket, a dovetail saddle from my Skytee 2 mount, a 7" solid dovetail and ADM 125mm rings. Surprisingly I only had to add one more small counterweight to make it all balance.

Here it is with my Antares 2" erect image prism and a 30mm 2" eyepiece. I'l replace the 30mm eyepiece with a 32mm 2" illuminated reticule eyepiece later on.

John

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