TheSkySearchers

for £549.00
@ https://www.altairastro.com/ASCENT-102E ... cuser.html

What do you think? Glass I think is 51 like on the one on TS-Optics (...identicle?: https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/pr ... cuser.html )

Sky at night seem to like it: https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/revi ... pe-review/

I am so much in the market for a easy setup tube. Yes, I am new(ish) to this, but feel I need to get away from big bulky fiddly reflectors and go to lighter no nonsense refractor - without breaking the bank.

I know this is bare-bones. I want to use it for AP and visual. I probably will go for both flatteners (x1.0 and x0.8 reducer) and the finder-scope option (my one is the pony small one that came with the Sky-watcher) and will need a good 2" diagonal for this. In the end I guess I will fork out £845.00 - before haggling price? What do you people think? And, what is comparable for sub £1000???

I did toy with the Sky-watcher Evostar 100ED DS Pro. You can get a good, configured boxed unit for £719.00, but do not think it is as fast. Is it as good???

All open to ideas... Help!!

Jaq

A really nice refractor, I have the Teleskop-Service non ED version and it is a very nice telescope.
It will keep up with the Skywatcher quite well though the Skywatcher will have slightly less chromatic blur due to the FPL-53 used in it.

What mount are you planning on using with this?

Lady Fraktor wrote: ↑Sat Sep 21, 2019 6:01 pm A really nice refractor, I have the Teleskop-Service non ED version and it is a very nice telescope.
It will keep up with the Skywatcher quite well though the Skywatcher will have slightly less chromatic blur due to the FPL-53 used in it.

What mount are you planning on using with this?

HEQ5 Pro. Should be ok I think.

I have what appears to be the exact same telescope with Lunt Engineering branding on it. It is the Lunt LE102OTA model and is sold in North America under this name.

The scope is quite good for visual although it does not have as good of color correction as an FPL-53 triplet would. Still, the color rendition is quite acceptable for an ED scope and I have to really look for CA by using very high magnifications.

Not sure how well it would work for AP though. Probably not bad but I'm pretty certain it would need a flattener. And the color issue may be a bigger problem for AP, or maybe not. I've never tried it so I don't know.

Another major issue for AP is the quality of the focuser. My version came with a decent two-speed focuser that should have no trouble with a DSLR. Mine looks like the same focuser with the gold knob seen in the photos. This focuser easily handles all my eyepieces including a 2" 35mm Panoptic. However, I don't know how well this focuser would hold a heavy mono camera with a filter wheel and perhaps an OAG. It might work but compared to a FeatherTouch or Moonlite it might be borderline as well.

It is also rather light for it's size and an HEQ5 should have no trouble carrying it. Even with AP gear it should easily work on this class of mount including the AVX for example. In general the build quality is good to excellent. The fit and finish is nice and mine has held up over the years. I also have the 80mm version, it's a really good little ED scope too. For the money it's hard to find better value in either version.

Reportedly a very nice scope, though I don't have one to speak from direct experience.
As can be seen from my sig I'm a fan of Altair equipment, and they're a very good vendor, so if you have any issues they'll bend over backwards to help you, here I can speak from experience, even though it was with a 3rd party product they sold, not even their own.