102 mm F7 ED Refractor. Which Brand should I choose?

[RobertI]

6 hours ago, Adam J said:

Actually it is possible as the miss understanding that most people have in this thread is that Lanthanum is not a type of glass. Lanthanum is a material used to dope or coat the flint and provides an effect similar to a minus violet filter

Interesting. When I spoke to one of the suppliers of the scope and asked why the scope was sometimes advertised as Lanthanum and sometimes not, he explained that Lanthanum was a coating (I assumed he was talking about this scope, and more generally of astro equipment) - I didn’t really follow at the time but now it makes sense. I’m wondering if some suppliers of this scope feel it’s inappropriate to advertise a coated lens as “Lanthanum”? We’ll probably never know the truth! Sorry to derail the thread. 

[Carl Au]

On 11/03/2021 at 13:10, Nicola Fletcher said:

I completely agree Carl, It's such a step up from my last scope and an absolute joy to use. I was looking at Bode's twin galaxies last weekend and was so impressed with how much I could see. I'm looking forward to seeing Jupiter and Saturn. I also use the Baader Hyperion MKIV mainly, and I agree it is great. I'm using a 1.25in Altair dielectric diagonal, and I do find that it is very difficult to tighten it properly in the focuser, which means the eyepieces slide around especially with the weight of the Hyperion. But it's a minor gripe - the convenience of the Zoom is great. I saw you got the barlow - I am glad you find it works well with your setup. I use my scope on the EQM-35 Pro or else a Giro Ercole mini mounted on the SW tripod if I just want to have a look without the bother of setting up the goto. 

@Basementboy, I just rang Altair a few weeks ago when I was buying accessories for the Starwave and wanted to ask some questions. They were really helpful, and I wonder if it's a better idea to ring rather than email? Both the telescope and the accessories arrived really quickly, and I must say I have had a very good experience with Altair. 

I had the old Giro III, or should I say I wished I had the old Giro III. The Ercol mini or otherwise are both very nice mounts. I was looking at a mini myself, however I have started looking at forked mounts, TS have some interesting ones to look at. 

[Nicola Fletcher]

On 12/03/2021 at 13:19, Carl Au said:

I had the old Giro III, or should I say I wished I had the old Giro III. The Ercol mini or otherwise are both very nice mounts. I was looking at a mini myself, however I have started looking at forked mounts, TS have some interesting ones to look at. 

I bought it for my Takahashi FC-76 DCU but I actually really enjoy using it with the Starwave. I reckon it will hold both scopes which could be fun when on holiday with family! Good luck with your mount search, hope you’re also getting on with the AZ4! 

[Basementboy]

On 11/03/2021 at 13:10, Nicola Fletcher said:

I wonder if it's a better idea to ring rather than email?

Digital sacrilege, I should report you to Google!

Just kidding, I'll try that: I'd definitely prefer to buy from a local Uk dealer if possible.

Interesting about the zoom eyepiece, too. Do you find any downside?

[Basementboy]

On 11/03/2021 at 11:14, Carl Au said:

Which ever you buy you would be buying a nicely built traditonal looking refractor with excellent optics, better than the ED100 or ED 120's I previously owned, but that's just my opinion.

 

Thanks Carl, that's really helpful. Interesting you say they're better than the ED scopes you had before – why is that? Just better build quality these days out of the factory? One of the FLO reps was saying that the price of good telescopes has dropped dramatically in the past decade or two.

[mikeDnight]

14 minutes ago, Basementboy said:

 One of the FLO reps was saying that the price of good telescopes has dropped dramatically in the past decade or two.

That's true!   If you could go back just 20 years, the main top end players were Takahashi, Vixen, TMB, Astro Physics & Televue. All of those are still in play with new ones joining their ranks such as TEC. The performance gap between high end scopes such as those listed and the rest was wide. Skywatcher hit the market around that time with their ED's, and that was a real game changer. Anyone looking for apo performance on a restricted budget now had the chance of bridging the gap, and getting a scope that was optically fast approaching  that of the Tak & Vixen fluorite's.  Since then of course, many other beautiful doublet and triplet apo's have appeared on the scene, perhaps with even better quality control, bridging that gap even further. So today the situation is that those top players are still top players, but if you were to have, let's say a 4" Technosky alongside a 4" Takahashi, it might take a keen eyed observer to see the difference in the image at the eyepiece. And its also undoubtedly true to say, that an observer using those two scopes in a compare, he would very soon forget which one he was looking through. 

[Carl Au]

2 hours ago, Basementboy said:

Thanks Carl, that's really helpful. Interesting you say they're better than the ED scopes you had before – why is that? Just better build quality these days out of the factory? One of the FLO reps was saying that the price of good telescopes has dropped dramatically in the past decade or two.

There is CA and I believe that the objective lens is better figured, there was also a slight colour cast in both ED scopes

[Nicola Fletcher]

2 hours ago, Basementboy said:

Digital sacrilege, I should report you to Google!

Just kidding, I'll try that: I'd definitely prefer to buy from a local Uk dealer if possible.

Interesting about the zoom eyepiece, too. Do you find any downside?

I really like the zoom, it’s solid and well made but not too heavy. The clickstop mechanism is lovely to use. It fits with my grab and go setup well. Mind you, I don’t have experience with the very high end eyepieces (yet!) so can only compare with BST Starguiders, which I like very much.