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First light for my APM TMB LZOS 130


John

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I've had the scope out and ready for some time so I snapped the photo's below. I'll post some notes on my experiences with this scope later but so far this evening the scope has been rather mind blowing ! :shocked::thumbsup:

 

 

 

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Edited by John
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Ok, some really excellent views from that session.

Mars: Not it's most interesting face this evening but as good an object as any for a 1st light. Nice dark details visible around the paler plains in the centre of the disk. I quickly found that this scope supports high magnifications without breaking sweat. 250x - 300x showed a sharp and contrasty Martian disk.

Saturn: Easily the best views I've had of the planet this opposition and despite it's low altitude, at times rivalling some of the best views I've ever had of Saturn. With the low altitude I didn't expect to see the C or Crepe ring much in evidence but the 5.1" refractor showed it beautifully. Ring structure was very sharply defined, Cassini Division a sharp black cleft all around the disk with the latter having a lovely 3-dimensional look to it. With careful examination the cloud belts around the disk were showing structure and the S edge of the main belt was distinctly uneven and undulating as it wrapped around the curve of the planets disk. All this at 300x as well :icon_biggrin:

Antares: Now this is a 1st - I managed a clear split of Alpha Scorpii :shocked:. This star is really low down from my home and I just get a 30-40 minute glimpse of it between houses and trees. The star showed some colours from atmospheric diffraction but the 5th magnitude secondary star just around 2.5 arc seconds from the 1st magnitude primary was clearly defined. Never managed that one before !

Vega: Superb star test. No false colour whatsoever inside, outside and at sharp focus. A very similar presentation to the Takahashi FC100DL, except brighter.

Epsilon Lyrae: At 300x you could park a car between the pairs of stars here. The subtle tonal difference between one pair was clear as well.

Delta Cygni: Wonderfully split and very obvious. This pair can be a challenge for a 4" refractor but this 5.1" just makes it so easy.

Lambda Cygni: Wafer thin split of this tight pair. 400x eased them from a touching pair to that hairline split of blackness. Again the best view I've had of this pair. My ED120 can't quite split this one but the extra 10mm of aperture seems to do the trick.

Zeta Herculis: Again this marvelous scope provided my best ever view of this really challenging pairing. Just that much more definition of the secondary star, tight against the primary, than the excellent ED120 is capable of.

Finished off with a couple of bright DSO's at 150x:

M13: Enough aperture and pinpoint resolution here to really show this globular off. Stars resolved right across and a wonderful "diamonds on velvet" appreance to the stars surrounding the cluster. 

M57: Nice and and bright. Very contrasty, really looks like it should. Outer rim showed uneven thickness and central darker area well differentiated.

I'm going to stop there. What an amazing scope to view through. 130mm of unobstructed aperture with a very high % of the light gathered ending up just where you want it to be. Absolutely no CA whatsoever on any target viewed tonight. Crisp, unambiguous focus even at 300x-400x. Wonderful stuff :grin:

I'm going to think about a more sturdy mount though. The Giro II and hardwood tripod copes with the 8kg OTA pretty well but it's a long tube and with the sort of power that the scope can handle the damping of vibrations could do with being a touch quicker. Might even think about a driven mount as well for a change.

The late Thomas Back certainly got the objective design right with this one and the LZOS factory were able to execute it to near perfection with their OF-1 / OK-4 / OF-1 triplet prescription.

Probably the best scope I've viewed through in terms of sheer optical quality. I'm delighted with it :smiley: 

 

 

Edited by John
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5 hours ago, Telescope40 said:

 

....The SW 120 turning into a Dust catcher now as 3rd placed after the 130 and Tak. 

 

Regards   John

I feel guilty now !

I'll be getting the ED120 out again soon I'm sure. Owning the Tak and TMB LZOS have clealy shown me what a great objective lens these Chinese ED doublets have. For a mass produced, relatively low budget production item they get very, very close to the premium ones. If I was to do a value for money assessment, the ED120 would win hands down.

 

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Looks and sounds awesome John. I don't blame you wanting to get a driven mount. After 5mins of using the ED120 and realizing just how far you can push the mag I soon got sick of nudging doubles back in to the 0.11° FOV. Thankfully my EQ5 seems to cope well with the compact evo but I'm thinking a fine scope like the TMB is deserving of at least an AZ6-GT.

You sure have amassed a collection of scopes to be envy of :)

Edited by spaceboy
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Hi John ,nice scope. I do like  a decent frac , even though 90 percent of the time I do use my dob. Every time I get the frac out it is just such a crisp image( bit like comparing HD TV to standard). I recently got  myself a 120 apo frac and so glad I did(even though I then had to spend sometime saving to get a suitable mount).

 I see that your Sw 120 was turning into a  dust catcher . But in all fairness for the money that I paid for my 120 Ed apo(used) compared to the likes of  Taks then I am very p!eased with the bang for buck you can get with these skywatcher scopes . I see in a later post you do acknowledge what good value these scopes are ,which is nice to hear from an advanced member with so much knowledge.

 Your post has got me thinking about if I would go up in aperture. In the short term probably not , longer term maybe and if I did I would probably go for a 150mm frac and have done with it, as I feel I would not want another jump of aperture again. 150 mm I think would satisfy any aperture craving I would have, and still just about be affordable at some point  

I see you are very happy with the 130 APM TMB which is good to hear . John do you think this will be it now for your frac scopes ,or will the little devil inside us all get the better of you and push for bigger aperture?

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1 hour ago, Timebandit said:

..... John do you think this will be it now for your frac scopes ,or will the little devil inside us all get the better of you and push for bigger aperture?

I'd still like to get another 6" but it would need to be lighter and shorter than the 6" F/12 Istar that I used to have to ease mounting.

I'm still expecting to use my 12" dob frequently when the darker nights are here.

I've always thought that the ED doublet Synta / Skywatcher refractors had excellent optics for their relatively low cost and being able to compare the ED120 to more exotic alternatives seems to bear that out. I recall that the glass used in the objectives is sourced from Japan and I'm sure that I read somewhere that Canon (who make Tak objectives) were involved in some way in the design of the Chinese ED doublets. I've also recently been reading that Synta took particular care with the design of the 120mm ED objective including aspherising some of the curves.

 

 

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2 hours ago, John said:

I'd still like to get another 6" but it would need to be lighter and shorter than the 6" F/12 Istar that I used to have to ease mounting.

I'm still expecting to use my 12" dob frequently when the darker nights are here.

I've always thought that the ED doublet Synta / Skywatcher refractors had excellent optics for their relatively low cost and being able to compare the ED120 to more exotic alternatives seems to bear that out. I recall that the glass used in the objectives is sourced from Japan and I'm sure that I read somewhere that Canon (who make Tak objectives) were involved in some way in the design of the Chinese ED doublets. I've also recently been reading that Synta took particular care with the design of the 120mm ED objective including aspherising some of the curves.

 

 

Don't forget I'm first dibs on that OO 12" John :D;) 

Edited by spaceboy
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2 hours ago, John said:

I'd still like to get another 6" but it would need to be lighter and shorter than the 6" F/12 Istar that I used to have to ease mounting.

 

Is that the Istar for sale on Astrobuysell John? Almost tempted to revisit the nearly unmanageable 150mm class again myself...I must be insane, esepcially given how little time out under the sky I've had this year!

This APM looks magnificent though! Top marks, and I look forward to reading much more about it!

 

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15 minutes ago, Marki said:

Is that the Istar for sale on Astrobuysell John? Almost tempted to revisit the nearly unmanageable 150mm class again myself...I must be insane, esepcially given how little time out under the sky I've had this year!

This APM looks magnificent though! Top marks, and I look forward to reading much more about it!

 

I think it is my old Istar Mark. I wasn't aware that it had moved on to Mark Turner but then there is no reason that I should. Another interesting, but perhaps more manageable, long achromat is the 5" F/12 on sale at ENS:

http://ensoptical.co.uk/telescopes/--fr-telescopes-istar-127mm-f12-r30

 

Edited by John
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1 hour ago, Marki said:

Oooh temptation indeed - and I could probably lift that one!

Any plans for upgrades to the APM? How does it feel mechanically (focusser etc.)?

 

It has a Feathertouch focuser Mark - not sure where I'd go for something better to be honest with you as it's even better than my Moonlites :icon_scratch:

The tube is the lightweight Kruppax version. Fit and finish seem excellent - "Vixen class" plus a bit I'd say. The dew shield is flocked inside. I've put a 9x50 RACI finder on it and an AP 2" diagonal but, apart from trying binoviewing, I can't see a lot of other room for improvements :icon_biggrin:

 

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On 04/07/2016 at 15:58, John said:

I feel guilty now !

I'll be getting the ED120 out again soon I'm sure. Owning the Tak and TMB LZOS have clealy shown me what a great objective lens these Chinese ED doublets have. For a mass produced, relatively low budget production item they get very, very close to the premium ones. If I was to do a value for money assessment, the ED120 would win hands down.

 

Re: the above - I've had the ED120 and Vixen ED102 out together tonight going over similar territory to that which I covered with the TMB 130 a couple of nights back.

Cutting to the chase, both scopes have performed really well and earned their keep despite their much more expensive companions. For a scope worth around 20% as much as the Tak and the TMB the ED120 in particular is an optical gem. I split Antares with it this evening although having done it 1st with the TMB 130 probably did help !

Mars and Saturn looked glorious through both scopes as well :icon_biggrin:

 

 

Edited by John
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Wonderful stuff John. Obviously quite a scope!

Delta Cygni is quite a challenge, isn't it? I managed a split two nights ago with seeing 4/5, but 5/5 would have been better. Antares gets easier the more often you split it, I think; the colour contrast is really impressive, even in a small scope but I wonder whether the companion is really blue or if it's just the colour contrast with the primary.

Chris

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5 minutes ago, chiltonstar said:

Wonderful stuff John. Obviously quite a scope!

Delta Cygni is quite a challenge, isn't it? I managed a split two nights ago with seeing 4/5, but 5/5 would have been better. Antares gets easier the more often you split it, I think; the colour contrast is really impressive, even in a small scope but I wonder whether the companion is really blue or if it's just the colour contrast with the primary.

Chris

Without wishing to take this thread off topic, I just checked, and the primary is listed at 3500 K, and the secondary 20900 K, which seems quite blue to me :). I've never had a decent chance to try with Antares, must give it a go sometime. Would the FC100 do it under excellent conditions?

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11 minutes ago, Stu said:

Without wishing to take this thread off topic, I just checked, and the primary is listed at 3500 K, and the secondary 20900 K, which seems quite blue to me :). I've never had a decent chance to try with Antares, must give it a go sometime. Would the FC100 do it under excellent conditions?

You're right Stu - quite blue.

My little ED80 can do it, so your FC100 should manage! I don't think it is a resolution/aperture issue, just getting the seeing good enough for a horizon-grazing star to see the secondary.

Chris

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