Starwave 102 ed / 110 ed

[Epicyclus Dave]

Hi there

I've been looking at these scopes and i was wondering how owners are getting on with these OTA's.

For a while i've been using a selection of old M42 thread lenses with my un-modded Canon 500D ( 28mm prime to 400mm prime) , piggybacked on my Helios evo120 , 1000mm achro on an NEQ6.

I'm looking for a ED scope around the range of 600-700mm focal length for my dslr , that factors in a balance between occasional use under typical UK seeing and budget of £700.

Thanks.

Dave.

[Crunchard]

There was a thread on these quite recently. They are now advertised as "semi-APO" so whilst they may improve on your standard camera lenses, it might be worth looking at a proper APO.

[Mike Hawtin]

I have the Ikharos 102ED which I believe is the previous incarnation of the Starwave 102ED and I have found it to be a bit disappointing for imaging due to the noticeable blue bloating on star images.

[Stephen]

Based on the 80ED, I'd leave it alone. I felt even semi-APO was a generous description when it came to colour correction.

[Epicyclus Dave]

Thanks for your replies folks , maybe i should wait till after summer and try to save up for the Altair Wave 115 F7 APO , just a few months of beans on toast , heheheh

Dave.

[ollypenrice]

I've just come inside from observing the Leo Triplet in a visiting Altair 80 triplet. I was quite amazed. I've seen it in my Tak 85 and I can't recall any significant difference. The stars are tiny (and I really do mean tiny) right across the EP (we started with a 26 Nagler and went to a 10mm Radian.) The three galaxies are clearly visible, even the NGC one being unmistakable. The edge of field is, to my eyes, perfect. I'm off outside for a bit more of a play but so far I'm very very impressed.

Update; an optical engineer who is here at the moment had a good look and star tested it. He found very slight spherical aberration and miscollimation but thought they were at an insignificant level and he found the stars very tight in focus. Now this guy is a perfectionist. He made his own secondary and corrector plate for a C11 which I've just looked through. I doubt that he ever declares any optic perfect...

Olly

[Marki]

Hi Dave

I have the Starwave 102ED. Its reasonably well-built in terms of quality with a good large and robust focusser (feels like it holds my camera and eps/diagonals etc nice and securely). However, I'll agree with the previous posters - its not the ideal scope for imaging, and there are some issues with colour correction as Kheldar said. I'm not sure how much better it'd be than your current set-up. Visually I find mine pretty crisp, but frankly I'm not sure its significantly better than my TAL100rs (certainly not more than twice the price worth, anyway ). I've done very little photography with it yet, but I definitely see the blue thing that Mike referred to.

If you can live with the limitation in terms of colour correction it'd be a nice scope. If more serious imaging is your thing, then I' recommend skipping this and going for a full APO. The Altair Wave 115 you mention looks pretty nice... . Kinda wished I'd saved my pennies for that .

Good luck with your choice!

[Whippy]

Why not go for the good ol' Skywatcher ED80, add in the .85 reducer/flattener and you're well within budget with a decent scope .

Tony..

[Marki]

Much better than the skywatcher Evostar/Equinox Pro 80mm APOs, Olly?

[Stephen]

Why not go for the good ol' Skywatcher ED80, add in the .85 reducer/flattener and you're well within budget with a decent scope .

Tony..

'tis what I did

[ollypenrice]

Much better than the skywatcher Evostar/Equinox Pro 80mm APOs, Olly?

My Takahashi FSQ85ED isn't much better than the ED80 because the ED80 is a darned good scope. Gains in optical performance come rather expensively!! The triplet's focuser is certainly better than the SW and I think it will probably give even better images but it can't be by a huge amount since we all know how good the ED80 is. We are not having great weather at the moment so we haven't had a chance to image with the 80 triplet.

Olly

[Epicyclus Dave]

Hi again

Yes , i had a look at the skywatcher ED80 & Focal reducer ,they do seem to be a popular choice .

While im happy with my 400mm M42 lens , i felt i wanted a bit more F/L for some smaller dso objects .

Thanks for the informative replies , time for coffee

Dave.

[Epicyclus Dave]

i love the mental vortex with 5 scopes swirling round all shouting detailed spec data at me

[Whippy]

The problem is that decent colour correction and a flat field over a DSLR's chip isn't cheap at any focal length.

Tony..

[Epicyclus Dave]

Hi there

So i should think about the skywatcher ED80 & F/R with a possible focuser upgrade nearer xmas time, then guiding to think of after that :) .

thanks for all your input.

Dave.