Antares sentinal review (comp entry)

[iancandler]

ANTARES SENTINEL 80MM SEMI-APO REFRACTOR

Prices: care of James and Maria at scope’n’skies

OTA and case £219.00

OTA bundle £249.99

OTA bundle c/w EQ £299.00

ALL prices included first class delivery (usually next day, please be aware that prices may have changed since my purchase)

Company Background:

Antares is the brand name used by the company sky instruments.

Sky instruments have 23 yrs experience of supplying quality astronomical equipment to both novice and advanced astronomers alike. Glen Speers and his dedicated staff both import and manufacture there own components providing an ever increasing range of telescopes, eyepieces and accessories.

The company is based in Richmond, British Colombia, Canada.

My background:

I am 47 yrs old and live in Chelmsford in Essex. I am relatively new to astronomy but have been looking through telescopes at the stars ever since childhood and the magic has ever worn off.

I am disabled with limited mobility and cannot carry heavy or awkward items.

My observing site is light polluted as im on the edge of town but I refuse to give up and have been rewarded with some wonderful views at times of good “seeing”

I have owned a number of telescopes but found that my disability dictates the instruments I can safely use on my own.

I currently own a revelation 10” dobsonian that has been mounted on an aluminium truck to allow me to move/use it. I recently sold my etx 90 as I found it difficult to move outside and the weight of it on the tripod was getting to much for me, consequently I found I wasn’t using it very much.

I find that “grab-and-go” best describes my observing sessions when im on my own as this allows me to grab and hour or so when I feel up to it. Longer sessions are usually reserved for when my brother visits.

We have recently finished refurbishing his 10” reflector and converting it to a dobsonian.

ANTARES SENTINEL 80MM SEMI-APO REFRACTOR

The antares “sentinel” is the latest in a long line of 80mm semi-apo refractors being offered in a variety of guises (revelation 80, Williams optics zs 80, Orion express etc) all at varying prices depending on the supplier.

They are all nearly identical in all but cosmetics. All offering a 80mm doublet at F6 with a 480mm focal length. All in a very smart cnc machined tube, along with a 2 “ rotating crayford focuser.

Specifications:

80mm ultra-portable refractor

- 80 mm F6 doublet, semi- apo

- Focal Length: 480mm

- Retractable dew shield

- 2" 360° rotating Crayford focuser with brass compression ring

- High quality, glossy black anodised tube

- 15 internal baffles

- Mounting foot, adaptable to any camera tripod

- deluxe carrying case; includes cut outs for diagonal and both 2” and 1.25” eyepieces

- Tube weight 5.3 lbs. (2.4 kg)

- Tube length: retracted 15”, fully extended 18”

I purchased my sentinel from scope’n’skies in Cambridgeshire. They offer several packages including the cased OTA with 2” to 1 ¼ adaptor,

The OTA /case/adaptor bundled with a 1 ¼ “ star diagonal, 19mm w70 eyepiece,

Or the same bundle with the addition of a tripod and equatorial mount. I really wanted mine with a 2” star diagonal so I had a chat with James who supplied me the OTA along with a 2” star diagonal for the same price as the telescope/eyepiece bundle.

The sentinel certainly looks impressive when you open the included padded case. The slick black tube glistens in the light and just begs to be used immediately. On reaching in to the case the first thing you notice is that this is a quality piece of equipment. There is some weight to it, everything looks and feels just right. I wasted no time in getting it mounted on my photo tripod and inspected it carefully. They’re where no marks or blemishes anywhere, the lens having been kept free of dust on its travels by the included aluminium lens cap. The dew shield extended smoothly but firmly into place and the focuser was one of the smoothest I’ve come across. The adaptor fitted snugly into the focuser tube the brass compression rings helping to ensure a firm, even fit.

Next out was the 2” Antares diagonal. I have to admit after looking at the scope the diagonal was visually a little disappointing, the sleek anodising on the main tube being replaced by what looks like standard black powder coating. Again there was a 2” to 1 ¼” adaptor supplied which didn’t fits as snugly due to the lack of brass compression rings. The locking screws are of the thin variety so here it’s a matter of personal taste, I myself prefer something chunkier so the main one was replaced straight away with another I had lying about. The barrel is chromed and threaded to accept 2 “ filters. This is a substantial diagonal as there is no plastic here at all; it’s all solid aluminium with a good 12 mm thick mirror inside the casing. They’re where no marks or dust on the mirror itself, once again the supplied caps did there job well.

I couldn’t wait for dark to have a look through the scope so in went the 2” diagonal and out came my eyepiece case. First up I put my 40mm celestron E-LUX in and aimed for the nearest rooftop. The view was everything I’d hoped for, the image snapped smoothly into focus with very little effort on my part. At this magnification the image was virtually colour free so I upped the power with a 14mm w70 eyepiece, still the image refused to exhibit the usual colour fringes, I moved up to an 8.6mm w70 and some violet fringing started to appear, but nothing like that I was used to with other refractors of this focal length. Again I upped the magnification to a 5.6mm w70 and still just the mild violet fringing no evidence of the yellow fringes I was used to at all.

The next step was to change the diagonal to a smaller one fitted with a baader fringe killer filter, again I went through the magnifications but found that using it reduced the fringing still further giving almost apo like colour correction.

I was impressed, and I’m not an easy man to impress.

First light

As the light began to wane and dusk started to arrive I got more and more impatient. The sky was lovely and clear for a change so I popped out the front to take a look at the new moon. It was only 5pm and darkness was still some way off but I couldn’t wait any longer. Having installed a quick release dovetail on the L bracket earlier it was a simple matter of carrying the tripod outside the sliding the scope into place, I found the weight and size/shape of the scope easy to manage on my own without fear of dropping it or falling over, In fact someone in a wheelchair wouldn’t have any problems getting the sentinel out and set up on there own.

I dropped in the 40mm 2” and focused on the sinking moon. To say the view through the eyepiece was rewarding was an understatement, there was a certain sharpness to the image even in these low contrast conditions, that had been missing from my previous scope, I have to admit I just sat there enjoying the view for nearly 15 mins before upping the power to the 14mm w70 in the adaptor. There was no evidence of false colour at all in the image, even in these conditions I could clearly make out the individual craters around the limb of the thin crescent viewable.

Satisfied with first light I waited for a while for Sirius to pop up over the houses to my southeast. Again I started with the 50mm and found myself rewarded with a crisp bright image of this dazzling star. I decided to up the power to see if colour correction became a problem, and whilst it became more noticeable the higher the power used, it never became a problem at all.

I spent my evening popping in and out with the sentinel as different objects came into view. Orion with my 26mm 2” GSO eyepiece was glorious, the extended nebulosity filling the eyepiece. The Pleiades a rich cluster of diamond’s that I had trouble tearing myself away from. Then later a chance to try and glimpse M13, although low in my sky I could see it clearly at both low and higher powers.

I did have a quick look at Saturn under medium (14mm) power, there was some slight colour fringing but I feel that once equipped with a 2” minus violet filter the sentinel will provide views approaching that of using an apo.

Conclusion:

I have been genuinely pleasantly surprised with the sentinel, the build quality is excellent, the views through it crisp with much reduced colour fringing. The weight and shape makes the sentinel easily portable and I would heartily recommend it to other disabled astronomers and those seeking a “grab-and-go” telescope that wont break the bank.

One other thing that really stood out with this small refractor is that you can still see the colour of the stars themselves, the oranges, reds, blues, whites, and yellows that dot our night sky, something im not used to without using my 10” dob.

This telescope does have short comings, but only if your expectations are of a completely colour corrected view. It may not be an APO, but for the money its certainly a worthy addition to your armoury

* update 14/03/06*

went out sat night to find a very much moon-washed sky and jupiter rising low in the southeast. we decided to have a look and where rewarded with some fantastic views. I had fitted a williams optics 2" vr-1 filter to the scope and we where able to comfortably go up in power to a 5.7mm eyepiece. the bands where showing there natural colours and the great red spot was very visable at times of good seeing. I'm certain we could have got away with using a 2X barlow as well ( have to try that next time as we forgot it sat)

we also had a crack at M53. The funny thing there was my brother using the dob and me the antares an guess who found it first? yep me.. with the 40mm 2" celestron in this little baby will pull out the "fuzzy's" as well. I just wish i could afford a digital slr to go on the back of it.

The more I use this little scope the more impressed I am with it.

*UPDATE* 24/4/06

I think whats suprised me most over the last few months of using the scope has been its consistent good performance under a variety of conditions and its ability to handle high magnifications. For a "wide-field" scope its been pretty impressive. I have even been able to use a 7mm eye piece with a 2 x barlow resulting in an effective magnification of 137 X !! at this magnification the view of jupiter was quite spectacular with only a small reduction in contrast. I have now purchased a 2mm LER eyepiece with a view to trying it out. I will report back when I have had a chance to test it (no clear nights yet). I have to admit that my 10" dob tends to get left indoors more often now as sentinal is getting more and more use.

I can also add that, I have been informed that various williams optics upgrades for the zs-80 such as the micro focuser etc will retrofit to the sentinal (time to get saving again)

@Copyright Ian candler 02/03/06

[MartinB]

Great report Ian. Those Sentinels are getting rave reviews and sound like fantastic value for money. Chinese scopes are transforming the market in terms of affordable quality. Interested to here how the Sentinel is getting used in preference to the Dob

[iancandler]

Its just so much easier for me martin. You can see from the pics the mount I was using it on. but just today its gone on an old EQ4 mount so I can try out some astrophotography with it.

I would dearly love to get my hands on one of the new revelation 80mm apo's that robs getting in (BCF) but sadly money is to tight and I wont part with my dob.

[Albireo380]

Hi Ian,

Great report on the 80mm Antares semi Apo. I agree with MartinB that these wee semi apo 'scopes are getting very good reports. I have a WO 80mm Megrez II SD - another "semi-apo". I can confirm that I also get almost no colour fringing on the moon or brighter planets. They are great for open clusters too.

Tom

[GazOC]

Nice one Ian. People seem a lot happier with Chinese scopes than they were maybe 5 or 6 years ago, they were very hit and miss (the QC esp.). It seems they are getting the hang of it to say the least.

[OXO]

They moved the factory from Tasco's to Syntas Gaz

Great Review Ian!

James

[Mick.G.]

Excellent review Ian.

May well look into one for my travels.

Mick.

[russ]

Yep great review Ian! Really well covered, enjoyed the read.

I can confirm it's a great little scope. I miss it very much. Or at least until i get my hands on a Moonfish ED.

Russ

[iancandler]

I would do mick.. you can also get them on the 66mm version as well if you want smaller.. but thats an e bay job (teleskope service?) unless you pay for the wiliams optics version.