BRESSER AR-102xs/460 for daytime use?

[johninderby]

Been playing around with the AR102xs in the daytime to see how suitable it would be for nature observing as it looks like being a great little travel scope. Turns out it actually is quite usable and CA is not a real problem even though it is a fast little refractor. Took a few pics using my smartphone and they were not half bad. Every bird and cat etc seems to have abandoned the area for the afternoon so lamp posts, buildings and foliage it is. ?

Will stick an erect prism in it and try a few more shots later.

           John

Edited June 24, 2018 by johninderby

[Ricochet]

Well that doesn't look anywhere near as bad as that bench test report that was previously linked to would suggest.

[johninderby]

Did some testing with a prism and there was CA which wasn’t there with the regular dielectric diagonal. It’s a very good prism as well. So it looks like prisims aren’t well suited to this scope.   ?

[Stu]

1 minute ago, johninderby said:

Did some testing with a prism and there was CA which wasn’t there with the regular dielectric diagonal. It’s a very good prism as well. So it looks like prisims aren’t well suited to this scope.   ?

From what I have read John, prisms struggle more with faster scopes because the light is passing through the air/glass interfaces at a sharper angle (ie further from 90 degrees). This causes more separation of the colours so more CA. I think the mirror diagonal is likely to suit the scope better as you are finding.

[johninderby]

Yes I think you’re right.

Closeup of a flower with the prisim.

 

[tico]

This refractor in the 80-100X territory for visual daytime , how is?

Thanks

Tico.

[Alkaid]

Nice post John, it’s nice to have a low powered spotter, I often use my ST102 like this for fun.