TS 480/80 triplet

[rowan46]

To call this a review would be a misnomer as I have neither the expertise or experience of many other scopes to give a technical review. This is more in the nature of a subjective first impression.

I am into portable astronomy as my home is too light polluted for observing and I don't drive. This means I must carry everything to a better site about 1/2 mile away (still not dark but better)

To meet my requirement I finally settled on a ts 480/80 triplet with fpl53 glass on a photo tripod this was purchased from modern astronomy at the cost of £569.

The vendor

No complaints. prompt, efficient, helpful and courteous all the things I expect from a specialist vendor.

Packing

Arrived well packed in a larger styrofoam filled box.

First Impressions

The advert says robust Aluminium travel case it's not high quality but it does the job. the focusser is not a patch on my mates televue but it is smooth and does the job. I haven't hung a camera off it so I don't know how it handles loads. the scope is finished in a nice off white with a shiny black crayford 2" focusser it has a white retractable dewshield. the paintwork appears to be spray painted rather than the powder coating of more high end telescopes, so I will need to be extra gentle with it.

First Light

I took it out under the Full moon so mainly lunar observing using the old cheap naff plossl's that I used on my c5 my 25mm celestron silver top is quite nice but my unbranded 17mm and antares 10mm give horrible false colour on the moon I need better lenses.

Second Light

took it out again under the moon this time armed with a 12mm delos no false colour on this eyepiece. focus has a snap to it which my c5 never had, stars come to pin points, star colour is easy to see and stars remain sharp to the edge. Remembering a thread on pinched optics for Ts scopes I defocus and look for signs nothing showing but then again It's not that cold.

Conclusion

I am happy with this scope the optics are clean sharp and focus is nice and easy. It's not a premium apo but then neither is the price. The finish is a little bit less than haute couture but the optics appear to work very well all in all a scope to look through rather than at nice and small and fairly light and portable. One day I may stick a camera on it I think it will do rather well.

[RikM]

Sounds like a very nice little grab and go Dave

[rowan46]

I am very pleased with it. Not as bright as a c5 but that's a function of the apparture. I may get another c5 tube in the future small and light enough to carry and with very nice optics. But I do like the wide views this scope gives me.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have an APM-branded counterpart (essentially the same scope, even down to the TS field flattener I got with it), and it really deserves some good EPs. The lunar views with the Radian 8mm and Pentax XF 8.5 are great. No false colour noticeable. For wide-field, my former Paragon 40mm and the Nagler 22 and 31mm give astonishing views. With a UHC filter from a dark site I could easily spot the North America nebula and the Pelican. They are lovely little scopes. Have fun with it!

[rowan46]

I have an APM-branded counterpart (essentially the same scope, even down to the TS field flattener I got with it), and it really deserves some good EPs. The lunar views with the Radian 8mm and Pentax XF 8.5 are great. No false colour noticeable. For wide-field, my former Paragon 40mm and the Nagler 22 and 31mm give astonishing views. With a UHC filter from a dark site I could easily spot the North America nebula and the Pelican. They are lovely little scopes. Have fun with it!

How is it for imaging?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

How is it for imaging?

Haven't completed my imaging set-up yet. Still need to get a better mount. The views through the scope are tack-sharp however. Visually it compared quite nicely to Olly's big 140mm TEC (which is an awesome scope).

[billhinge]

I was going to buy one of these but instead went for the Altair 80mm which I believe comes from the same factory with a different focuser. Only had a limited couple of chances to try it out with the weather and that was during a full moon

Fortunately I didn't have any false colour and it certainly seemed sharp. I actually prefer the size of it to the bulk of a SCT, I think I would be more inclined to take a risk setting something of this size up than a larger telescope

Did you get the flattener?

[rowan46]

No I didn't get the flattener. If I ever try imaging I will get one. As to false colour I am convinced it was the eyepieces not the scope as neither my televue nor pentax show it. As To set up. I go out put this on a tripod and ready to go. whereas the nexstar was so heavy when you factor in the battery and mount

[RikM]

It's a very similar size set up to the TV Pronto and telepod mount on a camera tripod that I have been using. These little scopes can put a big smile on your face

[rowan46]

Certainly taken the backache out of my observing. I can't wait to take it to a fairly dark site and see what it can really do