Altair Starwave 102ED-R

[Paz]

1 hour ago, robhatherton said:

I’ve recently bought the Altair Ascent f7 102ed which looks almost identical, same focused and build quality just less expensive glass. However it’s had great reviews including In the press and I’m very pleased with it ( although it’s been cloudy every night since I bought it!)

I did compare it with my 120 f8.3 achro in daylight focusing on distant trees against sky. The ca is very noticeable in the achro and hinders focus and clarity at high mag. In the Ed scope on that test ca is indiscernible so better than I could hope. 

My review is missing the provision of comparisons against other 4" scopes which makes it a bit incomplete, but these kinds of scope whether fpl51 or 53 are good quality.

I agree about the achromat comparison. My ST 120 shows a lot of CA on the moon and other bright targets and it is more noticeable after using the 102ed-r for a while.

[Paz]

1 hour ago, parallaxerr said:

Your experience with the 102ed-r mirrors my own Paz. It was incredibly easy to set up due to it's light weight and size and worked extremely well on the AZ4. It was a fine scope but compared to the ST120 it just didn't go deep enough for me. I spent weeks observing the Veil with it through an OIII filter, but ultimately I couldn't tease out the fainter detail that the cheaper achro could.

You have the luxury of several scopes though and I was trying to find a one scope does all solution at the time...a foolish quest.

I'm back to a 120mm F8 achro for the time being, but have my sights firmly set on the 150EDF 😬 Hardly grab 'n' go admittedly!

I agree as soon as you go deep aperture counts even more ,(the ST120 also has a sneaky focal ratio advantage for this).

A 150edf would be epic, I wouldn't mind one of those!