Any Askar FMA 135 owners?

[Ags]

One of these is coming my way, accompanied by a ZWO Duo filter. I have great hopes for it as a little spotting scope, pocket travel scope, finderscope, guidescope and astrograph. Looking to snap some of the bigger AP targets with this and my ASI 485 MC - California Nebula, NaN, M31... I'm curious to hear the experiences and see the pictures taken by any other owners? Possibly I should have asked before clicking the Buy button???

[licho52]

I haven't put it into much use as I prefer long FLs but here's an example of a picture I took with it last year.  It was done with an APS-C camera so the field is quite wide.

 

[Ags]

Thanks, the stars look very promising in that picture.

[licho52]

7 hours ago, Ags said:

Thanks, the stars look very promising in that picture.

They are decent, and I didn't have suitable bahtinov mask for it at that time so the focus was approximate and so was the backfocus.  I wish I had more opportunities to use it / fiddle with.

It's vastly superior to FMA180 which has HORRID chromatic aberration.

Another one here:

[Erquy]

Don´t have the 135, but the FMA 180 (which I understand was similar construction but I may be wrong). Regarding the comment above, I guess it depends the copy, I have no particular issue with the FMA 180 (only need to refocus on B or the O in SHO mono channel), Yet even OSC camera is good. Below Iris (with canon 80D, 9hrs) and the veil (HOO, Sx694). Anyhow if it is better than the FMA180, then cannot go wrong

 

[Ags]

That was quick...

seems nicely built but confusing. I tried to put an eyepiece in the wrong end 🤣

[900SL]

My 180 was pretty poor with CA. The lens is cheap and it's luck of the draw with Some Askar stuff. Makes a good albeit pricy guide scope though, with an L3 filter

[licho52]

Perhaps they tweaked the optics in the latter batches but the first wave of FMA180 was poor to say the least.

[Roy Challen]

5 hours ago, Ags said:

That was quick...

seems nicely built but confusing. I tried to put an eyepiece in the wrong end 🤣

That is the eyepiece, isn't it?😄

Edited May 5, 2023 by Roy Challen

[Ags]

If you acrewed a 1.25" extension tube in the front, you could mount it as an eyepiece. I wonder if it might actually have a use, for example for night vision (where exit pupil is not a constraint).

[Ags]

4 hours ago, licho52 said:

Perhaps they tweaked the optics in the latter batches but the first wave of FMA180 was poor to say the least.

You guys are starting to scare me!

[Ags]

The mini scope is outside cooling. Not the best conditions tonight but hoping to do some test shots of stars. 
 

oh, and I put the scope on the AZ-GTI backwards. In my defense I’m an idiot! 🤣

[Ags]

First light image - Vega. It is mono because I messed up stuff, or course. Just 5 minutes of 4 second subs shot through a gap in the clouds. The spacing between the sensor and flattener was out by a centimeter, and you can see that on the edges. No flats.

I am happy with the stars in the center, especially as I lost my IR blocker - the house is upside down with renovation work. I found it this morning, so hopefully on Sunday we can do a proper first light in color with reasonable integration time, correct spacing and IR blocked. 

[Ags]

42 minutes in Bortle 8 on theNorth America Nebula. Slight crop. I used my Astronomik L3 filter because my intended filter, a ZWO Duo Band, only got delivered the following morning. This is the most I can get from it as flats failed so I couldn’t correct for the gradient overlapping the nebula.

Edited May 21, 2023 by Ags