Starbase 80 f10 Achromat

[IB20]

Despite the grimness of May’s weather I have now had the pleasure of having a few quick sessions with my new 80mm achromat. Here are my thoughts so far...

Firstly when I say quick sessions, some have literally been <15 minutes.  As I leave the scope set-up without the tripod legs extended, I can deploy it and be viewing in under 60 seconds which is great. It’s also light (6-7kg?) making it extremely agile, another big plus point.

So, how are the views? I own an 8” dob so my expectations were realistic, I do think I might have been a bit underwhelmed if I’d plumped for 80mm as my only scope, but this isn’t competing with the dob, it’s for those cloud break nights where the dob never gets a look in. This evening the moon was out so I immediately set about having a look. The Starbase 80 has two peephole finders, which although primitive work well on bright objects. I plan this to be primarily be my solar system and double star scope so I’m not sure I’ll need to upgrade to the 6x straight through finder anytime soon. Back to the moon, the views were excellent, it was still daytime and from previous terrestrial tests I’ve noticed that there’s some visible CA, purple and green/yellow fringing, which showed on the lunar edges. It doesn’t really bother me at all though, taking photos with a handheld phone seems to amplify the CA on most edges, I’m sure the imaging bods know why this is! As it got darker the CA all but disappeared and viewing through the 13mm DeLite removed it entirely. I’m extremely impressed with the views, and cranked up the mag to 160x easily with the 5mm BST, I even tried 250x and whilst the image was more seeing affected, I was still very happy with the scope’s output and am convinced if conditions allowed it could reach some higher magnifications.

Now for a go at splitting Izar, I’ve tried it in my dob a few times in some difficult conditions and I was never really satisfied with what I saw. A different story in the frac, I just love how stars appear in refractors, I’m a convert. At 89x Izar presented as one airy yellow disc and a secondary greyish point of light above, almost like diamond ring. I really wasn’t sure how this scope would perform on doubles but a few nights earlier with the same Starbase 9mm ortho (a nice eyepiece!), I split the double double, again the airy discs were so much more aesthetically pleasing than in the dob another fantastic result. A quick peek at Vega did show some purple CA but again it’s not something I find offensive.

Back to tonight, and I’ve been able to take it to an upstairs window and view Antares. Despite looking like it was underwater for 99.5% of the time, I managed to briefly split it  with the Hyperflex zoom and see its greenish looking companion, which I’m incredibly happy about. 😃 although it was very tricky with the focuser as is, a fine focuser would make things a lot easier. 

So far I’m very happy with it and I’m finding I love it more with each session. The slow motion controls are a game changer for me, I didn’t know Alt-Az mounts were so friendly to use. I’ve also purchased a solar wedge so this is now my grab n go 24 hour scope. 

Are there any cons? Well like I’ve mentioned I’d like a fine focuser, and the peephole finder can be a bit hard work on dim targets. Extending the tripod legs introduces 1-3 seconds of vibration but nothing that annoys me and I do like to keep it on it’s unextended setting (thankfully I’m short!). I think my 2x barlow is too long to be used in this set-up too as there doesn’t seem enough focus travel if it’s in the diagonal with an EP to focus, I’m not sure this can be rectified easily?

So what have we learned? Is it a Tak? No. Is it made by Tak? Again no. Do I care, absolutely not. Will this be my forever refractor, I very much doubt it but it will last me some time, I’m fairly certain of that. Does it beat the dob? At some things for sure! I can’t wait for the next session I get with it, and it’s worth saying that I have used it a handful of times in conditions I wouldn’t have dreamed getting the dob out for, but tonight I have used it for over 2 hours. Wait a minute, have I joined team frac?...

 

 

 

[Stu]

That’s a lovely looking setup @IB20, it certainly looks quite Tak-like . That mount looks pretty good too.

Yes, you are now part of team Frac, and can star enjoying lovely crisp airy disks and quick grab and go sessions. As you say, it doesn’t compete with the dob, but will complement it very well indeed.

[JeremyS]

That’s a great report: well balanced. I hope you will report back on future sessions 👍🏻

[John]

Interesting report !

If you are in the UK and can split Antares the scope is doing a fantastic job. I've only managed that once (just) with my 130mm triplet refractor.

Great stuff

[Chris]

Great report, and the Starbase package looks wonderful. I think you've definitely dipped at least your leg into the waters of team frac! 😃

[Roy Challen]

Good report, and I agree that the scope package looks nice. I think it is a little expensive for what it is though. Having said that, splitting Antares at UK latitudes is pretty impressive.

I see there is a small range of those orthos available for not much more than the Baader classics, I wonder how they compare.

[jock1958]

15 hours ago, IB20 said:

Are there any cons? Well like I’ve mentioned I’d like a fine focuser, and the peephole finder can be a bit hard work on dim targets. 

Very good report and it certainly looks the part!
Looking on the FLO website there’s a matching 6x30 finder and bracket which would be a step up from the peep hole sight, not so sure about upgrading the focuser as the housing looks different to the standard Takahashi ones which possibly rules out the MEF 3 & More Blue offerings? Wonder if Feather Touch do anything that might work? Then that’s big bucks unfortunately $$$ 😩

Edited May 23, 2021 by jock1958

[IB20]

4 hours ago, Roy Challen said:

Good report, and I agree that the scope package looks nice. I think it is a little expensive for what it is though. Having said that, splitting Antares at UK latitudes is pretty impressive.

I see there is a small range of those orthos available for not much more than the Baader classics, I wonder how they compare.

I compared it to buying a Vixen A80mf & a Vixen Porta II mount which I’d say were similar, that would’ve set me back £529. The Vixen A81m & Porta II would be £737 and an APO like the Altair Starwave ED-R would be £599 + mount, tripod and diagonal, so way more expensive. I’d say it was around about the money in the current market. No doubt the 2nd hand market may have yielded some cheaper options but it was a case of waiting to get lucky but also I prefer the protection afforded to me as a customer when purchasing from a reputable provider. I have the 10mm BCO so I will compare the 9mm Starbase ortho when I get a chance. 

[F15Rules]

Lovely looking setup, @IB20, congratulations!👍

Good to see another attractive, well made looking traditional achromat being available. It all looks well put together, a serious instrument.

Thanks for sharing your first impressions, and do please share more as you get used to the scope. Can I ask how you sourced the scope...is there a UK distributor?

Dave

Edited May 23, 2021 by F15Rules
Typo

[IB20]

7 hours ago, John said:

Interesting report !

If you are in the UK and can split Antares the scope is doing a fantastic job. I've only managed that once (just) with my 130mm triplet refractor.

Great stuff

I’m in Leics, so 52°ish. Around the middle of May to early June the head of Scorpius pokes up favourably in my south facing skies, the caveat being I have to view from an upstairs window as a neighbour’s house blocks the view from ground level. Maybe I made the split sound easier than it was 😆 it was extremely difficult! I think through about 30-40 minutes of viewing and constant realignment with the odd eyepiece change, every so often the yellow/orange primary presented its airy disc. During one of these micro events I managed to see a second bluey/green point. I’m certain that was it, but the next opportunity I’ll be trying it again as I want to be absolutely sure.

[John]

9 minutes ago, IB20 said:

I’m in Leics, so 52°ish. Around the middle of May to early June the head of Scorpius pokes up favourably in my south facing skies, the caveat being I have to view from an upstairs window as a neighbour’s house blocks the view from ground level. Maybe I made the split sound easier than it was 😆 it was extremely difficult! I think through about 30-40 minutes of viewing and constant realignment with the odd eyepiece change, every so often the yellow/orange primary presented its airy disc. During one of these micro events I managed to see a second bluey/green point. I’m certain that was it, but the next opportunity I’ll be trying it again as I want to be absolutely sure.

Well it was well done

I'm a bit south of you and I've found the Antares split very difficult to achieve - once in the past 5 years in fact !

 

 

Edited May 23, 2021 by John

[IB20]

7 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Lovely looking setup, @IB20, congratulations!👍

Good to see another attractive, well made looking traditional achromat being available. It all looks well put together, a serious instrument.

Thanks for sharing your first impressions, and do please share more as you get used to the scope. Can I ask how you sourced the scope...is there a UK distributor?

Dave

Thanks, yes an SGL member flagged up that FLO had them in stock and I’d been umming and ahhing over purchasing an 80 v 100mm frac for a while. This was the lower end of my budget so I took the plunge and I’m happy I did.

[IB20]

10 hours ago, JeremyS said:

That’s a great report: well balanced. I hope you will report back on future sessions 👍🏻

Thanks, I certainly plan on updating as I go along. With it being so light (6.1kg as weighed today) I have no excuses to get out observing when the weather plays ball.

[Gonariu]

Great review. Years ago an my uncle bought an 80/1200 refractor with Towa optics (the Konus Rigel), the mount is shaky but I read a beautiful review of the optics. I am a bit tempted to ask him if he sells it to me, except sometimes that he has used it he stays locked in his box in the closet. Ok on mirror telescopes, but a refractor is always a refractor, albeit with a short focus.

[IB20]

Finally it has stopped raining and the sun has appeared. I’m technically at work but that’s the beauty with such a light set and easy set up, I’ve just had a good 90 minute white solar session with a cup of tea 😃. Two very nice sunspots on show currently, I have seen one described as an archipelago by @Nik271 which is “spot” on. 
 
I seem to have made a bit of an error reviewing the 9mm ortho starbase, it is actually the 6mm! I did wonder why it was a bit dim... The seeing wasn’t overly favourable for the 6mm ortho or 5mm BST, and focus was quite hard to achieve. I didn’t find it difficult to view through the 6mm which has got me thinking about the 6mm BCO, as the 10mm is a gem. 

Throughout the session I tried the Hyperflex zoom, which worked very well with optimum magnification around the 8-9x mark.The 13mm DeLite presented the whole solar disc and razor sharp sun spots with umbra, penumbra and pores all showing. The 10mm BCO, which always smashes every target I throw at it in either scope, excelled again showing similar as the DeLite. The 8mm BST was also very impressive and 100x was about as good as the seeing allowed with no image distortion. I’ve never really thought about daytime seeing conditions, are there any giveaways as to when they would be at their best, clouds aside? 

All of these EPs benefitted from the addition of an OIII filter which improved contrast, helping to tease out a bit more detail and presented a nice green hue.

I have to say it’s another +1 for the Starbase 80 and Lunt 1.25” wedge combo, a session that wouldn’t have happened with the 50mm masked aperture dob; I do feel a lot more comfortable solar viewing with the wedge!

Now I just need to decide where to stick my Takahashi decal... 

 

 

 

Edited May 27, 2021 by IB20

[JeremyS]

4 hours ago, IB20 said:

Now I just need to decide where to stick my Takahashi decal... 

We’ve all been wondering that 🤣

Great report again 👍🏻

[Chris]

On 23/05/2021 at 16:42, Roy Challen said:

 I agree that the scope package looks nice. I think it is a little expensive for what it is though.

You know what Roy, I'm not sure about this? It's made by Scopetech of Japan, and I was very tempted by their 80mm f/12.5 and f/15 OTA's achromat offerings at around £430 just for the OTA with finder.

I'm not saying the Starbase's OTA is quite up to the same standard, but having read a couple of reports I bet it's not miles off. Adding to that, the package comes with a great looking mount, and 2 Japanese Orthoscopic eyepieces and what looks to be a decent prism diagonal. I think the money probably adds up. 

I do wish it came with the finder though hehe

I don't know, I've probably just got hungry eyes for it as I've not owned a vintage style frac for quite some time 🔭🤩🤣

 

 

[johninderby]

The Starbase and ScopeTech 80mm optics reportedly are made by the same people and parts of the tube assembles look remarkably similar. Both are great scopes that while the optics are “old style” do benefit from the latest coatings so will perform better than the vintage scopes.

Get one pf them, you’ll love it. 👍🏻

[IB20]

21 minutes ago, Chris said:

You know what Roy, I'm not sure about this? It's made by Scopetech of Japan, and I was very tempted by their 80mm f/12.5 and f/15 OTA's achromat offerings at around £430 just for the OTA with finder.

I'm not saying the Starbase's OTA is quite up to the same standard, but having read a couple of reports I bet it's not miles off. Adding to that, the package comes with a great looking mount, and 2 Japanese Orthoscopic eyepieces and what looks to be a decent prism diagonal. I think the money probably adds up. 

I do wish it came with the finder though hehe

I don't know, I've probably just got hungry eyes for it as I've not owned a vintage style frac for quite some time 🔭🤩🤣

 

 

Can’t disagree with this, the finder would’ve been nice and really put the package as a bargain. The star diagonal looks and feels like it shouldn’t be much cop but from what I’ve seen so far I have no complaints. I would love to compare the Starbase to the f12 Scopetech and f11.2 A81m vixen achros to get a sense of where it stands.

If I had my money back having experienced what I have so far I would definitely buy it again. It is almost certainly going to lead me to a premium refractor in the future however, it is Takahashi crack.

 

[IB20]

13 minutes ago, johninderby said:

The Starbase and ScopeTech 80mm optics reportedly are made by the same people and parts of the tube assembles look remarkably similar. Both are great scopes that while the optics are “old style” do benefit from the latest coatings so will perform better than the vintage scopes.

Get one pf them, you’ll love it. 👍🏻

That’s a lovely looking scope.

[Chris]

1 minute ago, IB20 said:

it is Takahashi crack.

In that case I think Takahashi's plan has worked 😆

[Chris]

15 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Get one pf them, you’ll love it.

Only problem is if I sneak one in, I would need to sneak one out....my poor Heritage 150p is looking nervous. I keep making the tactical mistake of moaning about the clutter 😄  

[Roy Challen]

45 minutes ago, Chris said:

You know what Roy, I'm not sure about this? It's made by Scopetech of Japan, and I was very tempted by their 80mm f/12.5 and f/15 OTA's achromat offerings at around £430 just for the OTA with finder.

I'm not saying the Starbase's OTA is quite up to the same standard, but having read a couple of reports I bet it's not miles off. Adding to that, the package comes with a great looking mount, and 2 Japanese Orthoscopic eyepieces and what looks to be a decent prism diagonal. I think the money probably adds up. 

I do wish it came with the finder though hehe

I don't know, I've probably just got hungry eyes for it as I've not owned a vintage style frac for quite some time 🔭🤩🤣

 

 

 

17 minutes ago, IB20 said:

Can’t disagree with this, the finder would’ve been nice and really put the package as a bargain. The star diagonal looks and feels like it shouldn’t be much cop but from what I’ve seen so far I have no complaints. I would love to compare the Starbase to the f12 Scopetech and f11.2 A81m vixen achros to get a sense of where it stands.

If I had my money back having experienced what I have so far I would definitely buy it again. It is almost certainly going to lead me to a premium refractor in the future however, it is Takahashi crack.

 

Now, I'm not trying to say that this package is some kind of rip off. As my signature shows, I am quite the long achromat fan, in fact apart from one 70ED, I've only ever owned achros. And only ever bought them second hand.

I think this package needs a finder scope as standard if you're going to be looking at anything other than the sun or moon, and I would want to swap the 14mm for something wider, say a 25mm plossl or similar. This would push the cost to over £600, which is a fair bit of money in anyone's book.

I am wondering what the Takahashi connection actually is. It's made for them, but why is it listed with the scopetech products? Also why no Tak branding? That would potentially provide reassurance of quality of both scope and mount, thereby justifying the price.

As I said in an earlier post, it does look nice, and if I were a beginner I would be very tempted. Just not at that price.

[jock1958]

1 hour ago, Chris said:

I do wish it came with the finder though hehe

I agree, is £65 for the very Takish looking bracket & finder too much? maybe @FLOcould add it onto the package 😉

Edited May 27, 2021 by jock1958

[Chris]

3 hours ago, Roy Challen said:

I am wondering what the Takahashi connection actually is. It's made for them, but why is it listed with the scopetech products?

Hi Roy, Here's a quote from Takahashi America which might shed some light. The optics company in Japan is ScopeTech, and I have slightly more than a hunch that FLO probably wanted to be clear that it's not a Takahashi (just commissioned by Takahashi) hence they placed it in the ScopeTech section. This product did come up in conversation with FLO, but I just need to be a bit careful about misquoting them hence me using words like "slightly more than a hunch"    

The Starbase 80 is not manufactured or designed by Takahashi Japan.  It is made for them under contract by an optics company in Japan.  It is sold in Japan through Takahashi's company-owned telescope store, Starbase.  

 

In conjunction with Takahashi Japan, Takahashi America introduced this telescope at NEAF this past April.  It is Takahashi's goal to introduce beginning astronomers to Japanese quality optics, with the hope that one day they may become Takahashi customers.  Takahashi prides itself on being 100% Japanese made, and is continuing that tradition with the Starbase 80.

 

Thanks for your interest!

Takahashi America