It's arrived (along with the rain of course) - TS152

[johninderby]

TS 152/900 f/5.9 Achromat Doublet Refractor

I've had my eye on this scope for a while. While it's a fairly fast achro doublet the optics are better than the Skywatcher/Celestron fast achros with CA slightly less than the Skywatcher/Celestron 150 f/8 scopes and reportedly sharper with a flatter field as well. I had just sold another scope that wasn't being used very much and that left me with the cash in hand to more or less pay for this new scope. It was the usual story with TS. Placed the order and the scope arrived 48 hours later. Very well packed and in perfect condition. Fortunately TS no longer puts TS Individual 152 on the dewshield but has opted for just the plain TS logo.

The scope is very well built and finished (similar to the Lyra Optics 102 f/11 that I used to have) and very compact for a 6" refractor. It is still fairly heavy though at over 11kg for the bare OTA but the carry handle makes it easy to carry one-handed, and at only 32" long with the dewshield retracted, it doesn't take up much space when stored away and could be tucked away in the corner of the boot when transporting it. It has a very nice and solid 3" crayford focuser with loads of in-focus and with the bolt holes to fit a standard Synta type finder shoe with no mods. The optics look perfect with no flaws in the coatings.

I bought it for white light solar observing with my Baader Herschel wedge and for widefield use. I had a brief chance in-between the clouds to test it with the wedge and the views were indeed very sharp and contrasty with good detail. Still waiting for a clear evening to test it on widefield though. The OTA is the same one that LUNT uses for their 152 Ha scope and they recommend it for use with their 2" wedge. Don't think I'd ever be able to afford the Ha module to fit mine though, but the CAK module might be a possibility someday.

My Skytee 2 mount carries it effortlessly and it will be possible to mount both the TS152 and my Carton 100 at the same time which should make a great combination. Looking forward to seeing just how good the widefield views are with the ES 30mm eyepiece I'll be getting for my birthday next month. I borrowed it for a few minutes for the photos but it's been "repossessed" for now.

Here's some images taken with a TS152. Just scroll down to the Teleskop-Service Individual 152/900 section.

http://www.astrobin....public⊂=gear

Technical Data:

Diameter: 152mm

Focal length: 900mm

Focal ratio: F/5,9

Objective made from K9 and F4 O´Hara glass with hand finishing

Fully adjustable lens cell

Three internal baffles

CNC tube rings

Tube diameter: 7" / Dewshield 8"

Transport length: 32"

Retractable dewshield

OTA weight: 11,2kg

Slight difference in size between the 90mm refractor and the TS152 isn't there and yes the finder is fitted with a Baader solar filter in photo of the solar set-up.

John

[JohnC]

Great scope John.

Have been looking at this as an option for rich field work.

Plan would be to mount alongside my Intes 715 on the Skytee 2 mount.

Would be interested in how the stars look through it.

Do you pay import duties when ordering within Europe?

Best regards

John

[johninderby]

Great scope John.

Have been looking at this as an option for rich field work.

Plan would be to mount alongside my Intes 715 on the Skytee 2 mount.

Would be interested in how the stars look through it.

Do you pay import duties when ordering within Europe?

Best regards

John

Nope there are no duties to pay when shipping within the EU.

John

[todd8137]

Very nice if like me back in feb of his year ,I brought a acension 127 Ed tripple apo carbon firbre ,it's been out once in all these months,hope the winter picks up roll om the early nights

Pat

[John]

Nice looking scope John - there have been some very positive reports on these in on the Cloudynights forum

A real refractor "light bucket"

[johninderby]

Had the TS152 out for little while this evening. Seeing wasn't the best though, and with the virtually full moon that limited what there was to look at. Still it was a chance to at least get the scope outside and try a couple of filters.

The full moon is a stern test of CA in a fast achro, but I was pleasantly surprised. With no filter at all there was a minor fringe of colour, but not bad at all. With careful positioning of my eye in the eyepiece the colour fringe virtually disappeared. I tried a Baader Semi-Apo filter first and that did reduce CA further and made positioning of my eye less critical. Didn't like the yellowish cast it gave though, even if it was a very pale yellowing. Next a Baader Neodymium filter. That was nearly as good as the Semi-Apo filter for removing CA but no yellowish cast, just neutral grey, and showed a bit more contrast.

With the full moons glare I didn't bother trying to hunt down any DSOs but just took a general look around with a low powered eyepiece. With the Neodymium filter stars were nice and pinpoint (no flaring). Tried the Semi-Apo and there wasn't much difference. Optics seem very sharp and the field is surprisingly flat as well. When the moon is out of the way this is going to give some very nice wide-field views indeed.

So not much of a first light but very promising. CA is much better controlled than expected even on the full moon, and I think I'll be able to forget abut CA completely when used for what the scope is intended for. I used to have a 150mm f/8 achro a few years ago, and going from memory the TS152 has less CA and definitely has sharper optics. And no I won't be bothering observing the moon or planets with it as I have more suitable scopes for that.

John

[johninderby]

The TS152 has a new little brother. :grin:

Details to follow later.

John

[cantharis]

TS are my favourite supplier - prices are good and they can deliver to mainland Europe cheaper than any UK supplier. I like this scope - maybe I should sell my SV102ED and get one.

[ollypenrice]

Looks good, John. I'm more than surprized (astonished would be closer the mark) by the quality of the DS images. OK, an achro should be fine for narrowband and this one is, but that it should be so competent in RGB is remarkable. Most of the images are NB or NB with RGB but, even so, they look good.

Olly

[F15Rules]

That's a lovely scope John. I've been looking at these for a while too, and now that Glen at Lyra Optic is stocking his version of the same scope, the temptation is almost unbearable..trouble is, I'd have to sell some stuff to fund one, including one of my current scopes..but they are both very slow scopes ideal for moon and planets, so one could potentially go and be replaced by this widefield beauty..as I only do visual, I'd be very interested in your opinion of the scope's capabilities on DSO objects, globs etc?

cheers

Dave

[alan potts]

Nice scope John I want one!

Alan.