Stellamira 80mm f10 Apo

[Sargares]

So i snagged one of these off the classifieds on here from @scotty38 It turned up this morning beautifully packaged and it’s not too bad out tonight (miracle.) 

 

First impressions are it’s beautiful to look at. Very well put together. It’s got the rack and pinion type focuser which works very nicely. It’s fairly heavy for a 3incher but it’s quite long. I believe it’s about 4kg with the rings.

 

my plan is to sling it on an Az GTi, however, that’s at my brothers and I can’t get it in time for tonight! So I chucked it on an Orion eq1. Totally inadequate even with extra counter weights.  With finder, diagonal and eyepiece in I’d say probably 1/3 over the capacity of the mount. Not the most stable. Never the less better than nothing! 
 

Ive not got the skills to determine the very fine details of any optical faults but safe to say I can’t see any. Maybe a tiny bit of yellow fringing on the moon when it’s on the edge of the eyepieces field and I’m pretty sure that isn’t the scopes fault. 
 

Id say light capture is in the ballpark of a 4inch reflector. Slightly less bright than the starblast I use as a grab and go all the time. Stars are all perfect round spots on a very black background. Definitely beats the reflectors for contrast. 
 

I’ve had a good go at the moon tonight with it and it’s absolutely excellent at that. Pretty good on Jupiter too. Similar levels of banding and detail to the starblast (moons visible, 2-3 belts visible) but with the refractor magic factor. Sharper, more contrasty and everything seems more 3dimensional. Can’t touch the 10” dob of course although the image is probably more pleasing aesthetically, I prefer it in the moon even to the big dob due to how sharp the image is. 
 

open star fields it’s pretty naff, too slow and not enough aperture. I haven’t had a go at separating any double stars with it yet due to the mount being overloaded but I imagine it’ll do a nice job of that within its capabilities. 
 
 

pretty basic assessment but I’d say as a package it’s pretty specialised as a lunar/planetary/easier double star grab and go set up and it seems to deliver on that front really well. That’s basically exactly what I bought it for so jobs a good’un. I’d like a tak fc100dz which would probably have a little more flexibility but you know…. Quadruple the price! 

[johninderby]

Ah my old StellaMira 80mm f/10. Very nice scope and only sold it to another SGL member to help finance a bigger APO. I believe the weight was about 6kg as I remember. I’m sure you will enjoy using it. 🙂

Here’s a smartphone pic taken with the scope.

Edited October 15, 2021 by johninderby

[RobertI]

27 minutes ago, Sargares said:

So i snagged one of these off the classifieds on here from @scotty38 It turned up this morning beautifully packaged and it’s not too bad out tonight (miracle.) 

 

First impressions are it’s beautiful to look at. Very well put together. It’s got the rack and pinion type focuser which works very nicely. It’s fairly heavy for a 3incher but it’s quite long. I believe it’s about 4kg with the rings.

 

my plan is to sling it on an Az GTi, however, that’s at my brothers and I can’t get it in time for tonight! So I chucked it on an Orion eq1. Totally inadequate even with extra counter weights.  With finder, diagonal and eyepiece in I’d say probably 1/3 over the capacity of the mount. Not the most stable. Never the less better than nothing! 
 

Ive not got the skills to determine the very fine details of any optical faults but safe to say I can’t see any. Maybe a tiny bit of yellow fringing on the moon when it’s on the edge of the eyepieces field and I’m pretty sure that isn’t the scopes fault. 
 

Id say light capture is in the ballpark of a 4inch reflector. Slightly less bright than the starblast I use as a grab and go all the time. Stars are all perfect round spots on a very black background. Definitely beats the reflectors for contrast. 
 

I’ve had a good go at the moon tonight with it and it’s absolutely excellent at that. Pretty good on Jupiter too. Similar levels of banding and detail to the starblast (moons visible, 2-3 belts visible) but with the refractor magic factor. Sharper, more contrasty and everything seems more 3dimensional. Can’t touch the 10” dob of course although the image is probably more pleasing aesthetically, I prefer it in the moon even to the big dob due to how sharp the image is. 
 

open star fields it’s pretty naff, too slow and not enough aperture. I haven’t had a go at separating any double stars with it yet due to the mount being overloaded but I imagine it’ll do a nice job of that within its capabilities. 
 
 

pretty basic assessment but I’d say as a package it’s pretty specialised as a lunar/planetary/easier double star grab and go set up and it seems to deliver on that front really well. That’s basically exactly what I bought it for so jobs a good’un. I’d like a tak fc100dz which would probably have a little more flexibility but you know…. Quadruple the price! 

They are lovely looking things and superb spec. Perfect for t solar system and doubles. I think binoviewers would work really well too for solar system. 
 

Edit - just seen how much it was advertised for - a LOT of scope for the money. Good catch. 👍

Edited October 15, 2021 by RobertI

[HollyHound]

I have the same scope and it is indeed a truly excellent performer on planets and the moon 👍

I’ve compared it to both my FC76DCU and FC100DC and it compares well… they are much lighter and do have the edge (just) in terms of contrast, but it’s close.

Enjoy… it’s a superb scope and will serve you well 😀

[Alan White]

I was watching it in the Classifieds and was slightly tempted, just because, but held back as its to close to the other 80 and 100 that I own to make sense for me.

I started with an 80 Refractor Achromat so many years ago, as did many others, enjoy it, what with the ED glass,
should be an utter pleasure.

Mount wise is the AZ Gti really up to holding it for the full enjoyment of such a scope?

[callisto]

13 minutes ago, Alan White said:

I started with an 80 Refractor Achromat so many years ago, as did many others, enjoy it, what with the ED glass,
should be an utter pleasure.

I seem to be slipping the other way Alan...had a couple of small Apo's, let them go and now I have the Vixen 80M 😂

[HollyHound]

2 hours ago, Alan White said:

Mount wise is the AZ Gti really up to holding it for the full enjoyment of such a scope?

Once you have finder, diagonal and eyepiece fitted, it becomes quite heavy (6 or 7 kgs), but not sure about the payload capacity for the AZ Gti 🤔

[Sargares]

8 hours ago, Alan White said:

I was watching it in the Classifieds and was slightly tempted, just because, but held back as its to close to the other 80 and 100 that I own to make sense for me.

I started with an 80 Refractor Achromat so many years ago, as did many others, enjoy it, what with the ED glass,
should be an utter pleasure.

Mount wise is the AZ Gti really up to holding it for the full enjoyment of such a scope?

Unsure. Worst case I’ll grab a slightly beefier mount for it as it’ll be pushing the az gti pretty hard. I’ll give it a whirl with a counter weight too. Claimed weight is only a few hundred grams more than a tak fc100dl/z and I’m pretty sure they go on a az gti ok but I suspect the stellamira maybe a little heavier than claimed. It’s quite the little tank. 
 

Edit: I think I’ll screw the EQ1 counter weight into the az gti and see how it gets on. Should balance it a little better. If it’s annoyingly unstable still I’ll possibly try an az4 and Chuck the starblast onto the az gti. 

Edited October 16, 2021 by Sargares

[Sargares]

@johninderby that’s impressive for a smart phone. I may have to have a go myself. I usually don’t bother much when the moons out but with this little thing I think I’ll be doing a LOT more lunar observing. I’m really looking forward to getting the Delite 5mm in it. 

[Sargares]

Az Gti seems to handle it fine. Not used at night yet as I’ve only just slung it up. It’s actually ok even without the counterweight but with the counter weight on it settles much more quickly. 
 

Good times ahead! 

[Sargares]

Little bit more time on this scope now. 
 

For planets it definitely beats 4.5 newt. Jupiter main bands are fairly obvious although faint. I can make out slightly more detail than in the newt although I suspect this is mainly contrast helping.

 

Saturn is nice but so far can’t get the Cassini division. Can’t do it in the 4.5 either though. Saturn’s really a pain due to being so low though. I tried to push up the mag tonight to almost 200x and it was a no go, just to see. Saturn was visible and distinct but slightly blurry and too dark. I think about 140 maybe slightly less would’ve worked ok but I don’t have enough eyepiece graduations to figure it out. no real benefit going over 100x anyway. 
 

Haven’t had another chance on the moon yet. 
 

For open starfields it’s actually better than I thought it would be. Not as good as the 4.5 newt but totally useable. I just had a quick look at m29 before the clouds roll in and the main stars that form the cooling tower pattern where all clearly visible through a 9mm Morpheus. 
 

vega through the 5mm Delite which is as much power as I’ve got without Barlowing was a small tight disk and totally colourless. 
 

Edited October 30, 2021 by Sargares

[johninderby]

Sounds like ypu’re enjoying the scope. 👍🏻

Saturn is indeed too low down now for good views. 

[Sargares]

13 hours ago, johninderby said:

Sounds like ypu’re enjoying the scope. 👍🏻

Saturn is indeed too low down now for good views. 

Yep, next session I’ll have to get the dob out just to justify its existence.  Great little scope.