musing 102ed triplets

[Thalestris24]

Hi

Anyone have any experience or thoughts on the Explore Scientific / Ascension 102ed f7 triplets for smaller dso imaging?

Cheers

[ronin]

Nothing direct but the ES Essential always looked good but never caught on. No idea why as it looked good with regards to specification. ES have a newer FCD-100 triplets that I have read good comments and reviews about. Will say they never seemed to grab peoples attention but I cannot recall people saying they had returned them either, so they were good enough that people kept them.  Odd sort of situation, you hear little about them so what does that mean.

Smaller then 102 but WO have a GT-72 coming out that appears well specified, it has to be aimed at imaging, if the smaller size is acceptable it may be worth thinking about. Will say that I half suspect the GT-72 may not appear this side of the Atlantic in significant or any quantity. Guess it may be higher cost then the ES however.

 

[mikeDnight]

I think both scopes look very similar and possibly from the same manufacturer. The ES apo's have quite a following in the US! 

Over here there are the Meade triplets, which I've used visually, and they are very good. Other than that, what about a 90mm WO or similar? 

There's the Tak TSA or FC100DF but the price is higher.

Mike

[Thalestris24]

Thanks guys. I already have a ts 80mm f6 triplet which is lovely :). I was musing over the 102's because of the slightly longer focal length and their relatively low price. Perhaps it's the Hoya FCD001 glass that puts people off? But it's a budget scope so using the Hoya glass probably helps keep the price down. TS do a FPL53 version which would complement my 80mm but at pretty much twice the price of the ES/Ascension. Another thing, I have the suspicion that the ES essential and the equivalent Ascension are maybe not the best of the batches optically. For example, Opticstar don't offer the 'guaranteed Strehl' with the Essential version. On the other hand, I'll probably only use the scope for narrowband so the colour correction would be less of a concern (though might want to use it for wideband and luminance too)

Louise

[Thalestris24]

I've noticed that ES are offering a version of the 102/ f7 on their US site which has Hoya fcd100 glass. Of course, it's almost twice the price! Ah well, you get what you pay for! The budget Essentials still seems good value... Maybe focus will be critical but with a mono camera and/or in narrowband, manageable. Wonder how the doublets compare? Lighter, obviously!

Louise

[mikeDnight]

Hi Louise

Have you anyone near you who'd let you try out their doublet ED before you make a final decision? I've seen some amazing imaged taken using 4" doublets, images of both DS and planets that would impress the most critical imager. Cloudy Nights may be a good place to ask questions about how the doublet/triplet difference will reveal itself. The doublet will certainly cool faster then the triplet, but whether it would meet your needs or not I couldn't say.

Mike

[Thalestris24]

4 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

Hi Louise

Have you anyone near you who'd let you try out their doublet ED before you make a final decision? I've seen some amazing imaged taken using 4" doublets, images of both DS and planets that would impress the most critical imager. Cloudy Nights may be a good place to ask questions about how the doublet/triplet difference will reveal itself. The doublet will certainly cool faster then the triplet, but whether it would meet your needs or not I couldn't say.

Mike

Thanks Mike. I'm afraid I don't know anyone locally - only crazy people try and image from Glasgow! I don't even know anyone who has a 102mm frac - they don't seem very popular. Anyway, as I said above - you get what you pay for so I wouldn't expect perfect colour correction from any of the budget scopes. If they were that good they'd probably command a higher price. Whether the triplets are better than the doublets - I'd like to think so, but without having one of each, I'll probably never know.

Louise

[mikeDnight]

26 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

Thanks Mike. I'm afraid I don't know anyone locally - only crazy people try and image from Glasgow! I don't even know anyone who has a 102mm frac - they don't seem very popular. Anyway, as I said above - you get what you pay for so I wouldn't expect perfect colour correction from any of the budget scopes. If they were that good they'd probably command a higher price. Whether the triplets are better than the doublets - I'd like to think so, but without having one of each, I'll probably never know.

Louise

Crazy is good! 

Crazy people are crazy enough to succeed where normal folk talk about why something can't be done. I think we have so many great scopes available to us today that we're spoiled for choice. Modern Apo/ED refractors are just different levels of good, so with that in mind, I doubt you'll be disappointed with whatever choice you make. 

Mike

 

[Thalestris24]

Oh well, pressed the button a TS Photoline triplet 115 F6.96 + 0.79 Reducer  If it's as good as their 80mm triplet, it'll be a nice instrument . I decided there wasn't really that much difference between a 102mm and an 80mm and the 115mm was on special offer so couldn't resist. Plus it's my birthday tomorrow 

Louise

[laudropb]

Happy birthday Louise and I hope your new scope turns out to be a wonderful present.

[Thalestris24]

21 minutes ago, laudropb said:

Happy birthday Louise and I hope your new scope turns out to be a wonderful present.

Thanks! Well, fingers crossed!

* No more scopes - period! *

[PeterCPC]

Oh yea! I'm sure you mean that now. Hope that it's a good one.

Peter

[ronin]

Thanks! Well, fingers crossed!

* No more scopes - period! *

Please define the "period": 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, betting against it being 1 year.

 

 

[Thalestris24]

Ha ha It's a Trump type period, so full of certainty, and so I'll definitely never gonna buy another - unless I win the Lotto!

[happy-kat]

Happy birthday, what a lovely present coming :-)