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NEW Starfield 102mm f/7 ED Doublet Refractor


FLO

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16 minutes ago, FLO said:

The William Optics Finder Shoe fits beautifully 🙂 

 

starfield_102_f7_ed_findershoe.jpg.6cf31742a4db31748d98446ece588ae8.jpg

 

3 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Do you have any more photos yet? Also, what fitting is there for a finder?

The Kunmings have two sets of screws. Having two types of finder feels quite posh. 😁 (The Astro Essentials shoe fits mine fine).

1424247956_IMG_20210417_1328369693.thumb.jpg.850bdf9e31f7f1a1765ac6bd2a8f28d0.jpg

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6 minutes ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

The Astro Essentials shoe fits mine fine

The Astro Essentials finder-shoe is a popular choice that fits most telescopes (was the first one I reached for) but is about 2mm too long for the StarField 102 f7 ED. The William optics finder-shoe fits perfectly. I suspect it is from the same Taiwanese factory. 

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This scope is sooo tempting... I'm thinking it's nice and compact, will fit nicely on my EQ5, will be great for wide field, solar and doubles alike. A nice replacement for my ageing Celestron 80ED with its useless focuser and my 120 achro and its prominent CA.

Scope, shoe + finder - need to find the cash from somewhere :tongue2:

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19 minutes ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

Having two types of finder feels quite posh

I have two shoes, but one finder. Very useful when using an EQ mount which I do. The finder position inverts as you flip over the meridian. So I just switch shoes, only takes a minute to realign.

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12 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

This scope is sooo tempting... I'm thinking it's nice and compact, will fit nicely on my EQ5, will be great for wide field, solar and doubles alike. A nice replacement for my ageing Celestron 80ED with its useless focuser and my 120 achro and its prominent CA.

Scope, shoe + finder - need to find the cash from somewhere :tongue2:

Don't forget two shoes and two finders, you're going upmarket now Mr. Spock. 😁

The twist lock focuser on the FLO version is super posh too. A very nice extra. 👍

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17 minutes ago, Franklin said:

I have two shoes, but one finder. Very useful when using an EQ mount which I do. The finder position inverts as you flip over the meridian. So I just switch shoes, only takes a minute to realign.

I was thinking exactly the same.

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2 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

A nice replacement for my ageing Celestron 80ED with its useless focuser and my 120 achro and its prominent CA.

Scope, shoe + finder - need to find the cash from somewhere :tongue2:

Hmmm, perhaps you didn’t do the resale value of your scopes any favours here 😉. These scopes do look excellent, can’t beat a decent 4” f7 apo, will show you some good solar views with your new wedge too as you say.

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4 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

This scope is sooo tempting... I'm thinking it's nice and compact, will fit nicely on my EQ5, will be great for wide field, solar and doubles alike. A nice replacement for my ageing Celestron 80ED with its useless focuser and my 120 achro and its prominent CA.

Scope, shoe + finder - need to find the cash from somewhere :tongue2:

Heres the formula you need, Mr Spock..

Selected Ortho sale + Selected LVW sale = Significant cash inflow = new Starfield 100mm F7 scope!

Live long and Prosper!!😊

Dave

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2 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

There will be an unboxing thread in a couple of days time :wink2:

Superb! Really looking forward to your first impressions and, more importantly, first light. Still just time to catch Jupiter too. 

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This Starfield 102mm F/7 seems to be the 2021 equivalent to my circa year 2000 Vixen ED102SS F/6.5 :icon_biggrin:

One day it would be very interesting to see how far things have come in the 21 years between the scopes :icon_biggrin:

Refractors of this specification are just so versatile, with the ability to go from a 4 degree true field to 200x plus with just an eyepiece change and so many affordable mounts will hold them solidly and stably, at least for visual use.

A combination of a 10 inch dobsonian and a refractor like the Starfield 102 F/7 can provide a lifetime of observing potential :icon_biggrin:

Edited by John
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6 hours ago, John said:

A combination of a 10 inch dobsonian and a refractor like the Starfield 102 F/7 can provide a lifetime of observing potential

Exactly why this is now my combination. Having thought everything through I concluded this scope was the right choice to complement my 250mm.

My 42mm LVW gives 4.24° field of view. While attaching my Meade 140 apo nosepiece to my 1.25" diagonal, a magnification of x2.5, means my 9mm ortho gives x203 - versatile indeed.

I feel a lot more people are going to come to the same conclusion and this scope is going to sell really well. I'm guessing FLO feels the same way.

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I need to stop reading this thread... I have two fracs at my disposal currently, a 73mm @ F5.9 and an 80mm @ F7.5. The 80mm won't go on my smaller mount, so requires the skytee, but it hardly seems worth getting the skytee and tripod out for only 7mm more aperture. After all the good things said here, perhaps I should sell the 80mm and get a Starfield!

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It looks great Michael. Hopefully the Sun will come out to test the scope with the Herschel wedge. Then if it stays clear you have Venus,Saturn and Jupiter.

I regret selling my Astro Tech 4" ED and although I have the Svbony 90mm (which you have seen) it's not the same.

I really fancy this new Starfield  frac so I am looking forward to your opinion in due course.

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21 minutes ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

That is what I call temptation. The photos really shows the quality of the focuser which added to the FPL53 optics makes it a very desirable scope.

Just go for it! It's a real beauty. That focuser is a heavy duty R&P, but the fine focuser is really smooth. The whole thing has exquisite build quality.

I've had some great lunar views with it at x179. Difficult to judge on solar as I've had poor seeing. Had a really good double star session with it though - I didn't want to come inside but the cloud beat me.

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