Italy steals a march on Takahashi?

[Highburymark]

Interesting five star review of PrimaLuceLab 120mm apo doublet in the latest Sky at Night magazine. It's not just pretty - its optics are also described as "outstanding and aberration free" - and weight kept down to 8kg. Looks very nice indeed and a real contender for those of us yearning for a larger super sharp frac (slightly pointlessly in my case - too many scopes already and a house move looming in September). It's precisely the scope I'd like Takahashi to launch - 4.5-5" doublet, light, top quality optics, visual friendly, thrives on planets. But I wonder if anyone on the forum has experience of this new Italian frac?

[John]

I'd bet good money that the Primalucelab scope is the same or very similar as the TS 120 and William Optics Megrez 120 ED F/7.5 doublets which had the same optics as the Skywatcher ED120 / Equinox 120 in them.

There is a demand that I've read about for Tak to launch a 125mm version of their FC range. Maybe it would be a limited edition as the FC-100DL was ?

Stealing a march ? - another clone I think. Nice colour scheme though and the optics will be very good

 

[triton1]

I will never experience it at that price but it sure looks pretty 

[John]

26 minutes ago, triton1 said:

I will never experience it at that price but it sure looks pretty 

You can pick up a used ED120 Pro for £500-£600 and you will have the same optics I reckon.

[Highburymark]

14 minutes ago, John said:

I'd bet good money that the Primalucelab scope is the same or very similar as the TS 120 and William Optics Megrez 120 ED F/7.5 doublets which had the same optics as the Skywatcher ED120 / Equinox 120 in them.

There is a demand that I've read about for Tak to launch a 125mm version of their FC range. Maybe it would be a limited edition as the FC-100DL was ?

Stealing a march ? - another clone I think. Nice colour scheme though and the optics will be very good

 

Fair point John, and if you're right about the badge engineering in this case then the price hike from the ED120 is difficult to justify. But a planet killing FC-125DL would be a very tempting scope. 

[Stu]

1 hour ago, Highburymark said:

Interesting five star review of PrimaLuceLab 120mm apo doublet in the latest Sky at Night magazine. It's not just pretty - its optics are also described as "outstanding and aberration free" - and weight kept down to 8kg. Looks very nice indeed and a real contender for those of us yearning for a larger super sharp frac (slightly pointlessly in my case - too many scopes already and a house move looming in September). It's precisely the scope I'd like Takahashi to launch - 4.5-5" doublet, light, top quality optics, visual friendly, thrives on planets. But I wonder if anyone on the forum has experience of this new Italian frac?

I was quite excited when I first read this Mark, but from looking at the spec it does seem to be a humble (but very capable) 120ED dressed up in some fancy clothing.

Bring on that 125DL  

[John]

APM now have a 140mm F/7 doublet with an FPL53 element:

http://www.apm-telescopes.de/en/telescopes/refracting-telescopes-ota/apochromates/apm-doublet-ed-apo-140-f-7-fpl53-ota

At least one member here has one and thinks highly of it.

330 additional Euros does not seem a huge amount for 20mm of ED aperture perhaps ?

[DaveS]

This is it from Astrograph

http://astrograph.net/epages/www_astrograph_net.mobile/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/www_astrograph_net/Products/AG140APO

[seiko]

Blasphemy

 

[Highburymark]

Thanks for the replies. Had seen the APM on previous web travels, biggest concern was size and weight, but Astrograph says it's actually under 9kg. Very nice. And another one to add to my 'most coveted' list. If by some miracle the house move falls through, maybe it's something I could console myself with?

[niallk]

I'm just surprised that S@N gave 5 stars to something, and not the predictable 4 

[DirkSteele]

If it really is the same optics as  the Skywatcher ED-120, the price differential seems to be rather large, even if the fit and finish of the mechanical components is superior.  Any chance the minimum specified quality of the optics produced by the Chinese supplier is at a higher level than the Skywatcher (already very good based on reports I read)?

 

As others have said, waiting for Takahashi to drop a FC-125 on us.... Though given I am soon to have a CFO in my life, I doubt I would be allowed to buy it!