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I want one! Starwave ASCENT 102ED F11


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18 minutes ago, Ricochet said:

What sort of AZ mounts would this scope require? Would an AZ4/AZ5 with heavy duty tripod handle it or is the moment going to be too large?

Judging by Altair's own website advice plus my own experience, I reckon a Sabre, Skytee II, Ercole or similar would be needed to allow the scope to perform to it's full potential. 

 

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8 hours ago, Ricochet said:

What sort of AZ mounts would this scope require? Would an AZ4/AZ5 with heavy duty tripod handle it or is the moment going to be too large?

When I had my Starwave F11, I tried mounting it on my AZ4 and for me, it was inadequate, the scope was too long, and the damping time at higher powers was several seconds, so I sold it in favour of a Skytee. This mount provided the stability required, as John has suggested, but after 6 months or so, I decided that the whole set up was rather heavy.  My advice is to go for the Ercole type of mount, which is what I now have.

 

Edited by Saganite
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8 hours ago, Ricochet said:

What sort of AZ mounts would this scope require? Would an AZ4/AZ5 with heavy duty tripod handle it or is the moment going to be too large?

I have a red star wave f11 and mount on a saber with a pier extension - lovely setup as recommended by the guys here.  

This new scope has certainly sparked an interest and if my achro is anything to go by this scope will be brilliant on planets, the moon and doubles. 

I await some feedback from purchasers with interest, especially when compared with the achro. 

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2 hours ago, Saganite said:

When I had my Starwave F11, I tried mounting it on my AZ4 and for me, it was inadequate, the scope was too long, and the damping time at higher powers was several seconds

My experience with this combo mirrors this and I tend to use mine on an old William Optics EZTouch which is a clone of the original AYO mount. This combination works well for me. 

Ade

Edited by AdeKing
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The CN chat on this scope is getting all techy with numbers and assessments of the graph posted earlier.. worth checking out...! One chap has a calculated an estimated figure.. and quote "estimate of polystrehl 0.97 "..

 

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1 hour ago, Fozzie said:

techy with numbers

 

Actually ment techy as in technological not as in agro with each other.. 

But lots of assumptions on glass types and performance going on.. interesting read..

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Well that's the 10mm Delos away... I've had some interest in the skytee2 if I want to split it down.. although I am now tempted to part with the tal and the starwave achro and keep the skytee if I go large frac in the future... someone said Evo150ED..

On 12/01/2019 at 15:37, John said:

The CN crowd will have this scope analysed and pigeonholed without the need to actually look through one :rolleyes2:

I notice the AT 100f7 has been panned and also short apo manufactured by kunming or long perng as not good on the old colour correction.

They haven't even stopped their, they've also gone after the vixen GP and GPDx as being not suitable as a mount due to focus vibration..

What a place CN is eh!

In all serious now, I've not had any issues with my set up.. what do we think mount wise, surly a GP is more than enough for this scope a under 5kg

20180225_171650.thumb.jpg.9971a38a4421a94301f132ea0314d614.jpg

 

A little bit closer to the ED now..

Ta

Fozzie 

 

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The GP is a massively under rated mount in my not so humble opinion. It may be a little out of fashion but it suits me fine! A GP carried my Tak FS128 without issue on many occasions, but it was attached to one of Peter Drews excellent tripods. And that's where its weakness lies just as with many other mounts. The Tripod is every bit as important as the mount, as if there's even fractional movement it will show many times over in the eyepiece. At the end of the day, this new apo is only F11. Back in the 80's that would be considered a rich field comet seeker!

If I remember rightly the full length of the FS128 was around 1178mm, not too much different to the 102mm F11. 

780823820_2019-01-1422_30_56.thumb.jpg.3310d10a5abe650aa483759612ceb78e.jpg

 

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I've got both GP and GP-DX (for some reason!), both lovely mounts, but the GP in particular has been beautifully fettled and is very smooth. Totally agree that the tripod is a big part of the equation, if that wobbles, it doesn't matter how good your mount is.

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I bet if I put my GP up for sale, some one would snap my hand off.... 

Question is should I look at selling the TAL and Starwave Achro instead, or is it that we are so close to the new year, we're all watching our budgets a bit more stringently!

or third option should I just Jeff it and order one, and worry about it later!

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17 hours ago, Fozzie said:

I bet if I put my GP up for sale, some one would snap my hand off.... 

Question is should I look at selling the TAL and Starwave Achro instead, or is it that we are so close to the new year, we're all watching our budgets a bit more stringently!

or third option should I just Jeff it and order one, and worry about it later!

I was about to say............" I'm waiting ", but I have no chance against Alan ' quick draw Mcgraw' White. :grin:

Edited by Saganite
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48 minutes ago, Saganite said:

I was about to say............" I'm waiting ", but I have no chance against Alan ' quick draw Mcgraw' White. :grin:

Your one to talk... I'm sure you put first refusal down the day I bought the GP from Dobbie?

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19 hours ago, Fozzie said:

I bet if I put my GP up for sale, some one would snap my hand off.... 

Question is should I look at selling the TAL and Starwave Achro instead, or is it that we are so close to the new year, we're all watching our budgets a bit more stringently!

or third option should I just Jeff it and order one, and worry about it later!

Just buy one and worry about it later Fozzie, then you can let us all know how good it is. People will ' snap your hand off ' for whichever / both Achro (s) you decide to sell, after side by side comparisons of course?

Edited by Saganite
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15 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

Chances are you won't use your achro much after buying the ED, but if you can afford to buy the ED before selling the Achro's, you will have a chance to compare them over time. Then sell the ones you don't want or use least.

Which makes perfect sense, however, as we know the TAL is for my first born, when he's 10, he's 4 now so in 6 years time if he shows an interest.  If I sell this, then that birthday or Christmas I wont get the opportunity to say "I can pretty much guarantee that no other person in the world is opening one of these"  Big song and dance, nice new TAL100RS, I mean sure i'll need to drill new holes for a the finder and no doubt the doublet is the wrong way round, but hey isn't that just a what a TAL is all about! 

As for the starwave achro, I love this scope and after "that" night during the Beast from the East, I know just how good the optics are.. I mean 450x it was unbelievable..  Also if these have now been discontinued (yes by a very similar ED) but wont these be sought after by Achrofanatics in the future.. and wouldn't this just make a cracking gift for my No 2 son on his tenth birthday!

As for the SkyTee2, well it occurred to me that actually what I have here is a well thought out, heavy duty AZ mount, with nice modifications, and I feel like it's almost giving it away at the current value..  The longer it goes un sold, the more I think, that's going to take some beating for an AZ with out some future serious spends..

 

I think I might be a secret hoarder..  My brain works in strange ways sometimes..

 

5 hours ago, Alan White said:

or sell it to me for £50 quid ?  just helping Fozzie

Another one who's missed a "0" of the end ?

 

2 hours ago, Saganite said:

Just buy one and worry about it later Fozzie, then you can let us all know how good it is. People will ' snap your hand off ' for whichever / both Achro (s) you decide to sell, after side by side comparisons of course?

the idea of a side by side is one reason im also hesitating on the skytee sale, would like to give that a go, you know for the good of the SGL community..

It's almost becoming my preferred option, just buying and worrying about it later! 

 

Hopefully if I punch the button on the ED and it blows the achro out of the water, then I might not be too bothered, about selling it on.. 

 

All interesting stuff!

Ta

Fozzie

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I doubt the ED will blow the achro out of the water because the 102 F/11 achros were well executed scopes that provide pretty much textbook optical performance for a crown flint doublet of 102mm aperture and a focal ratio of 11.

There will be some differences though because a 102mm objective will still be showing some false colour due to the physics of the glass involved. I think a 102mm achromat needs to be at least F/15 before the false colour control can reach ED doublet levels, assuming other things are equal.

It's also possible that the figure and polish of the ED objectives is a little tighter but my understanding is that some care was taken with the manufacture of the 102mm F/11 achromat objective as well.

The differences, such as they are, are likely to be seen more in the performance at high magnifications IMHO.

 

 

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