TS Optics 115 triplet apo unboxing + review + first light + startest report

[Peter77]

Hi all!

 

The purpose of this unboxing/review is to..

 

1. Show you the fit and finish and the physical appearance of the equipment

2. Also to give you an idea on how well it is packed

3. Of course also review the optical performance, to the best of my ability, when this damn lid of clouds that has been covering the south of Sweden, clears up.

 

Warning: long thread

 

Previous experience with telescopes:  Celestron Nexstar 102 slt achromatic refractor

 

So I've been in the market for an apo for quite some time now. Wanted to get a good middleground scope to serve as both imaging scope and for visual use.

So my eyes fell on the TS Optics 115 triplet F7 apo. Stated OTA weight is 6.5kg. Not sure though if it is with or without tube rings.

 

Teleskop Express had them on offer for €1349, an already good price. Suddenly an exhibition ex appeared for €999, which was opened and shown to customers in their store.

 

So last Friday I placed the order, the same evening at 18pm it was shipped. Today, Monday, it arrived in Sweden the day before New Years eve. Pretty good

Other than the apo, I also ordered a bundle with 38mm 2" 70° eyepiece and a 2" 99% diel. diagonal, and a deluxe findershoe to fit on the focuser.

Today I've been walking around with a smile all day

I've added lots of pictures both on the products but also on the packaging, which I feel is very good and protective.

The overall sense of quality, fit and finish is beyond words, simply outstanding. And yet this is not an expensive apo. The coating on the tube is matte white which I believe is powdercoated. The focuserpart is piano black with a finish that I could lose myself in. Focuser motion is stupid smooth.

And the diagonal and eyepiece also give a very good impression. I cannot wait for first light! I hear that there should be some holes in the clouds tonight, but I've got a mancold so frankly I am not up for it.

Glass used in this is Fpl51/lanthanum glass. Focuser is 2.5" rated for 5kg load vertical.

I've read good reviews on this scope so my expectations are high. Also I believe it is the same scope as Astro Tech 115 F7 triplet and Altair Astro 115 F7 triplet, although they come with more accessories.

 

Okay folks. This is all for now. Hoping to be able to test it under the stars soon. Hope you don't mind all the pics.

 

Cheers.

Edited January 8, 2020 by Peter77

[JeremyS]

Very nice!

We like unboxings on SGL 🙂

 

[Peter77]

43 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Very nice!

We like unboxings on SGL 🙂

 

Thank you! Tried to take as informative pictures as possible.

 

By the way, I mailed a bit with TS right after my order, and they said that they had a few boxes like this that had been open and shown, so they're still available for €999, just thought I'd mention this if somebody else was interested.

 

My plan ahead now is to build an imaging rig around it incl. guidecam etc. But first I am going to spend a good while getting to know the scope and enjoy it for visual observations. 

[Peter77]

Okay folks,

So today I was out in the sunny weather trying to determine if the optics are good and if it is a keeper.

 

I can assure you, it is.

It is rated for 230x magnification (4.5" x 50) but it was flawless also at 251x. I could go no further because shortest EP I have is 3.2nm. I could try and barlow but my barlow is crap.

 

There is some colorcast in either side of focus, but it dissapears completely when focus is reached.

 

The pictures were taken through BST starguider 3.2mm eyepiece. Background was a treetop some 100m away, and also the label on our trashcan some 40m away (the best high contrast background I could find)

No colors that I can see. Pictures were taken with Samsung S7 through eyepiece.

 

Bonuspic: Son looking through eyepiece at treetop. Sorry about the sunglare.

 

Edited December 31, 2019 by Peter77

[Miguel1983]

Nice to hear you are happy with your scope, friend of mine got the 100mm

[Peter77]

Yes, seems to be a good scope. Can't wait to try it under clear skies.

 

First clear night tonight, and it is New Years Eve 🤬

[Peter77]

Alright, so I've had 2 nights that were clear and I had a chance to try the scope under the stars.

Initially I am quite pleased with the performance of the scope. Not so much with the mount though, because it seems to be causing vibrations that gives an image that appear to be affected by atmospheric turbulence. But the symptoms comes already at 100x, and the air was very cold the second night with little moisture.

 

I was set up on our front yard which is compacted gravel, so a very hard surface, not very different from concrete, especially during sub-zero temps. I will try next time to set up om the lawn part of the yard instead, and see if it makes any difference in suspending vibrations.

The vibrations also made it hard to focus on stars at high magnifications. 

 

But all in all I had very nice views.

Yesterday was the longest observing session. Being out from 20.00 to around 00.45.

I viewed the Orion nebula starting with low mag around 21x, then increased to 30x. The scope picked up the cloudy details very well, much more so than my 102 slt achro frac. I could see a very dark field in the image that stood out and was way darker than the surrounding darkness. As I went higher, this pitch black which I suppose is dust, grew bigger and bigger. And even at 100x, I could see the cloudy misty soft nebulosity extending in every direction. It was a very nice view and I spent a good 20-30 mins on that target. This was with a moon that was more than half full and drowning the sky in its glare. Could easily discern very tight stars that were very close to eachother.

I also visited bodes and cigar galaxy. Had no problems spotting them in the scope at 21 and 30x. But the moonglare destroyed any possibility to see much of the extension of bodes galaxy. Had to use averted vision to see some more. But I think on a dark night, I will see more.

Visited also the beautiful doublecluster. My eyes were quite watery from the cold wind that started to pick up, so had a hard time with the stars as they were glaring  But did manage to get some fine views of pinpoint stars. I really like the doublecluster, and viewed it in 21x and 30x. I like the sea of stars around the two clusters that almost seems to spiral outwards.

Visited some other clusters as well. The hyades amongst others, and I think M67 and a couple of others.

 

Also I spent a good time looking at the moon, before and after viewing deep sky targets (stupid to look at the bright moon before, but I wanted the whole buffe..)

I had good views up to 250x, so a little bit past the 50x per inch limit. Some color showed on the lunar limb, but it started already at low mag and did not increase with higher power. And it dissapeared completely when viewing directly on axis. And it came and went as I moved my eye.

So this is lateral colors I am seeing. It was more pronounced in wider angle eyepiece I had.

 

I used the following eyepieces last night: 

TS-optics 2" 70 degree 38mm giving 21x

Celestron (plossl design) 1.25" 54ish something degrees 25mm giving 32x

BST Starguider 1.25" 60degree 8mm giving 100x

BST Starguider 1.25" 60degree 5mm giving 160x

BST Starguider 1.25" 60degree 3.2mm 250x and a damn small exit pupil

 

Attaching a singleshot taken with Samsung S7 through 5mm eyepiece at 160x (just holding it at the eyepiece). The image is low detail (uploaded to facebook via phone and then downloaded from there to my computer) but still a pretty nice shot. You can see some of the lateral colors though.

 

I don't like to use moon filters. I like it as it is, unfiltered. But when I came in, I had a glowing green moonghost in the eyes for a while, felt like I had been staring in the headlights of a car  Gotta read up on the geography of the moon, it has pretty interesting details. I really like this mountainridge in the center of the picture, extending as a half circle. Mare Imbrium, perhaps?

 

Best regards

Peter

 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2020 by Peter77

[garryblueboy]

Very nice Peter I had the TS 130 Photo-line very nice scope 

[Richard136]

This is a helpful review, thanks.

How would you describe the extent of field curvature? is it easily visible at low powers on star fields?

[Peter77]

1 hour ago, garryblueboy said:

Very nice Peter I had the TS 130 Photo-line very nice scope 

Ah, and you sold it? Why oh whyyy? 😭 

If I weren't such a sucker for astrophoto, I would have taken that instead. More aperture is good.

But I feared that my AVX could not handle the load with imaging gear, and that's probably right.

 

The only downside now is the mount, that is inducing continuus vibrations.

Gives a sort of oscillating effect on the image when viewing esp. at higher powers. It was not super windy all the time yet the vibration was there all the time. So this makes me believe it is the mount causing this when tracking.

Before tearing the mount down and looking for untight gears, I will try a few things:

1: Set up on the lawn and see if any difference

2: Vibration suppression pads

3: Maybe get a more rigid ADM saddle with a matching dovetail thats not so flimsy

 

Also ofc make sure everything is tight. Haven't checked the bolts attaching the dovetail to the OTA. They might be lose. Will also try to retract dewshield a bit to rule out wind.

 

//Peter

Edited January 5, 2020 by Peter77

[Peter77]

3 minutes ago, Richard136 said:

This is a helpful review, thanks.

How would you describe the extent of field curvature? is it easily visible at low powers on star fields?

Actually I felt it varies from eyepiece to eyepiece. The 38mm 2inch TS Optics showed none, while the 25mm plossl showed some more.

Actually I thought field curvature was only seen on a photo without field flattener, because of the flat sensor.

 

Don't know if this helps, but hope so.

I'm just an amature that's not super advanced in my knowledge, but I wanted a fine instrument anyway Probably nothing compared to a TAK or TEC, but I don't want to pay that kind of money.

[Richard136]

All good. Thank you for the response. Enjoy!

[Thalestris24]

I have this 115mm scope as well and have it on an AVX which is not the best mount for it. I have fitted a usb autofocuser, also from TS. It's a lovely scope, but, being a triplet, it can take a while to temperature stabilise (depending on storage/ambient temperatures). I've not actually used it in a while but have been thinking of attaching the Lowspec spectrometer to it. I've not yet completely finished commissioning the spectrometer but it shouldn't be too long before I'll be ready to try it.

Louise

[Peter77]

6 hours ago, Thalestris24 said:

I have this 115mm scope as well and have it on an AVX which is not the best mount for it. I have fitted a usb autofocuser, also from TS. It's a lovely scope, but, being a triplet, it can take a while to temperature stabilise (depending on storage/ambient temperatures). I've not actually used it in a while but have been thinking of attaching the Lowspec spectrometer to it. I've not yet completely finished commissioning the spectrometer but it shouldn't be too long before I'll be ready to try it.

Louise

It sounds cool with a spectrometer

i store my astrogear in a secondary building on our yard, which is not heated. So it is basically outside temp in there. It has concrete floor though, so it is lagging just a little with the variations compared to outside, but it is very minor.

It's nice not to have to wait a long while to be able to use the gear.

Interesting that you have the AVX too. Are you experiencing any problems with it with this refractor?

BR Peter

[Thalestris24]

1 hour ago, Peter77 said:

It sounds cool with a spectrometer

i store my astrogear in a secondary building on our yard, which is not heated. So it is basically outside temp in there. It has concrete floor though, so it is lagging just a little with the variations compared to outside, but it is very minor.

It's nice not to have to wait a long while to be able to use the gear.

Interesting that you have the AVX too. Are you experiencing any problems with it with this refractor?

BR Peter

Hi Peter

Well I've not actually used either in a long time... Main problem with the AVX has been the backlash. I'm always hampered whatever I do because I'm limited to imaging through an open window. Hope you enjoy using yours!

Louise

[Peter77]

22 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

Hi Peter

Well I've not actually used either in a long time... Main problem with the AVX has been the backlash. I'm always hampered whatever I do because I'm limited to imaging through an open window. Hope you enjoy using yours!

Louise

Hi,

Okay. Yes I've heard about the backlash problem. Guess I'll have to deal with that when it's time to start imaging.

Sorry about your living situation. Mine is completely different for which I am thankful. Having unobstructed views almost to 10 degree above horizon in southeast to soutwest direction, west direction is blocked somewhat of the house or trees depending if I set up behind or in front of the house. North is somewhat worse though giving clear view only to 50 degr above horizon, as well as directly east.

Skies here are fantastic to, living in the north part of Skåne which is in the south of Sweden. Skåne in general is very bad LP-wise, but there are some areas on the countryside which gets very dark. Can clearly see the bands of the milky way, and s few deepsky objects are visible to the naked eye.

Hope I will never have to move.

Really enjoy the scope. Just hope that the vibration problems can be minimized, to be able to take full advantages of the optics.

[Thalestris24]

9 minutes ago, Peter77 said:

Hi,

Okay. Yes I've heard about the backlash problem. Guess I'll have to deal with that when it's time to start imaging.

Sorry about your living situation. Mine is completely different for which I am thankful. Having unobstructed views almost to 10 degree above horizon in southeast to soutwest direction, west direction is blocked somewhat of the house or trees depending if I set up behind or in front of the house. North is somewhat worse though giving clear view only to 50 degr above horizon, as well as directly east.

Skies here are fantastic to, living in the north part of Skåne which is in the south of Sweden. Skåne in general is very bad LP-wise, but there are some areas on the countryside which gets very dark. Can clearly see the bands of the milky way, and s few deepsky objects are visible to the naked eye.

Hope I will never have to move.

Really enjoy the scope. Just hope that the vibration problems can be minimized, to be able to take full advantages of the optics.

I'm close to a city centre in a 2nd floor apartment  

 

[Peter77]

3 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

I'm close to a city centre in a 2nd floor apartment  

 

Sorry to hear that, but nice to hear that you don't let it get in the way lf your passion, and try to do the best you can out of it!

[Thalestris24]

Just now, Peter77 said:

Sorry to hear that, but nice to hear that you don't let it get in the way lf your passion, and try to do the best you can out of it!

Thanks - it is very frustrating. I'm likely to call it a day in a year or so and will try and sell all my kit.

Louise

[Peter77]

Alright folks. Hope you are doing well tonight. I am super-happy

 

Just finished tinkering a little with the AVX mount today hoping to be able to get rid of the oscillations. Relieved tensionring a little in dec axis. But even though I relieved it so much, that I could grab the saddle and rack it around a bit, and then fastened back to where it was stable, dec-axis still has some of stiction/stiffness.

Ra-axis was fine though so I didn't touch it. When loosening the brake-screw, I could just touch it with the finger and it fell over by itself. But atleast now it is somewhat easier to balance the scope.

 

Anyways, now over to the really fun part.

By surprise, it turned out to be a clear night, with some clouds threatening in the far east. So I thought it was time for the one thing I have been dreading - the star-test. After that, I reckoned, will I know: Is the optics really good, or is there something wrong with it.

 

Levelled the mount but didn't bother to attach powercords and powertank.

Set the scope up and zoned in on polaris. Since I didn't want to break my neck, I had a 2" diagonal in. I've read that for best result, you should insert the eyepiece right in to the 2" or 1.25" receptacle, but thought it was worth a try.

 

Worked my way down from 25 via 9mm, to be able to keep the target centered, and finally down to 4mm. All plossls. And then I racked the focus. At first there was just a yellow/orange fuzzy large ball. But suddenly, there they were. Perfect concentric rings without a hint of disturbances. I almost fell backwards. Never seen diffraction rings before. They were not exactly the same inside focus as outside of focus. Maybe I just imagined, but they seemed to be a little more defined inside of focus, than outside of. I let the star wander a little over the small field, but the rings still looked good. No ovality or elongation in any direction. Perfectly symmetrical.

So it feels really good right now. First time with an APO, and it's instant jackpot. I was afraid to get a bad example because of the low price, but all those fears are gone. I think this scope is really high class, especially for the stupid low price of €999 that I paid. 

 

A little final rating 1-5 where 5 is good and 1 is, well I think you get it

 

Teleskop-Express ease of use, overall shopping experience and deliverytime: I would rate this at a 6. All was perfect but I simply wouldn't have believed that, when I ordered on the 27:th of dec, a Friday, the scope would arrive in Sweden on Monday the 30:th. But it did. Incredible.

 

TS Optics 115mm triplet apo fit an finish, overall quality impression: There is nothing about it that bothers me. All good and well made. A clear 5.

 

Optical performance: A 5 here also. Everything is well aligned. No CA that I can percieve at least. No astigmatism. Good for at least 251x magnification (haven't tried to go higher yet but playing with the thought of barlowing a 5mm and see what happens)

 

This is really good for only €999. I seriously recommend it!

 

Have a good evening everybody!

//Peter

Edited January 8, 2020 by Peter77

[Campster]

I recently acquired a used TS Photoline 115 APO and flattener for $1,500 Canadian (about £880).  The sample I picked up came with the TSFLAT25Del 1x flattener.  It was well used with a few signs of wear and tear but the optics are clean and dust free.  Functionally it's in excellent shape, although there were a few quirks introduced by previous owners that had to be addressed.  I am pleased with the optical performance. as it gives great contrast. The field is flat from corner to corner with the flattener in place using a Canon 5D4.  I adapted mine by adding a pair of Vixen shoes on either side to allow for an optical finder and guide scope. 

This scope is permanently housed in my observatory and replaces a Celestron C6R as my primary instrument.  The reduction in tube length is most welcome as I'm now less prone to head-butting the tube while moving around the inside of the SkyShed POD.   The other benefit of the shorter tube length is that it is less prone to knocking against the tripod as it approaches the meridian.  The reduced weight is also welcomed as it gives me a better payload ratio for the 55 lb capacity of the CGEM-DX mount.  The only other factor to be considered is the hole spacing for the tube rings is metric.  I'm planning to get a pair of 11 inch D style universal plates to replace the 15 inch imperial scaled plates that were cannibalized from the C6R rig.

After using it now for a couple of months I'm very satisfied with it and it's become my main imaging scope.  The only "weak" feature is the screen printed logo on the dew hood.  After I got it home I cleaned the exterior surfaces with soapy water and the printed logo began to come off.  I'm not too concerned about it because it does not affect the performance.  I would recommend this scope for anyone looking to move up (or down) to a 115mm class APO.