Astro Professional 130/900 triplet.

[ollypenrice]

Hi all,

I thought some of you might be interested in a review of this instrument by Astronomie magazine here in France. I'll just offer a quick summary of what they said, in English. Their tests are first rate with an overview of the scope and a night time test, plus an optical bench test by a competent optician. (It is a good mag, even if they did print my Rosette full page and credit it all to Tom O'D who took the Ha. Pah!)

Okay, the scope. Mechanically they said it was superb and on a par with the best. The oversize focusser, a Crayford 2 speed, they positively raved about. No shifting, smooth, no droop, holds the camera weight easily. The lot.

They hated the tube rings because there is no handle connecting them (that is daft) and they tighten by allen key rather than in-the-field-friendly finger nuts of some kind. (That is dafter, but easily fixed.)

Visually they declared it absolutely colour free to an extrordinary degree and it star tested very well indeed. Views were exemplary.

On the bench, though, the test example showed a minor defect in collimation. It showed on the Zigo test though did not prevent the scope producing perfect looking CCD star images on axis and near perfect at the edge of a DSLR chip. Even on a full format chip they were pretty good to the edge. The illumination was likewise very even at all sizes. That's impressive.

The front cell is collimatable, 3 screws to retain alignment and 3 to adjust it, but the miscollimation was internal to the cell. The importer said all scopes will now be tested proor to sale.

The price in France is 2300 Euros, which they thought expensive for a 5 inch scope. I would say it was pretty reasonable, more than a Meade 127 or SW 120 but a lot less than scopes beginning with T. Since the TMB signature series is getting a rough ride due to too many rogue examples this seems an interesting scope.

I have never seen one so all I'm doing is relaying the test in case anyone is interested.

Cheers,

Olly.

[brianb]

It showed on the Zigo test though did not prevent the scope producing perfect looking CCD star images on axis and near perfect at the edge of a DSLR chip.

Hmm, it may not be apparent at prime focus, but what happens if you start imaging lunar/planetary/solar detail at f/40 or observing at high power?

[ollypenrice]

Good point Brian, though I guess it is not going to appeal to the planetary imager, really? Having said that, Franck posted a lovely little Mars from his 120 Tak. It's a shame about the collimation. We just need to know if the QA brigade can get them all up to snuff.

Olly

[Towa]

I will remove my post just in case anyone mis-reads it

and think I was talking about the above scope.

[ollypenrice]

Towa, send it back.

I don't know where the scope is made. The glass, I should have said, is Japanese. I have discovered that a very highly regarded Dutch retailer has them as own brand. Here's the link to his (Rob Lefeber's) site.

Robtics | Robtics 130 mm F7 triplet ED apochromaat refractor

I think it is true that QA is the big issue with budget scopes of ambitious optical design but when they are good they are good. Rob says this scope is better colour corrected than the Tec 140 which might even be correct based on the Fench mag's review.

It is only because I have my telescopes as a part of what I offer to my customers that I can justify having a Tak FSQ and a Tec 140. I have to say that my own experiences with budget scopes (Chinese achromats and Meade 127) have been resoundingly positive but there is going to be some element of luck in it. I have an absolutely awful short tube 80, for instance!

Let me just repeat that I was only passing on a review, not advocating the scope in any way.

Olly

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I get most of my new stuff from Robtics: very good dealer. Haven't tried his own brand stuff yet. Might go down to his shop (it's in the Netherlands) and get some hand-on experience with it (weather permitting) later this year.