Stu
08-01-2006, 02:08 PM
Well it all started with me at a fancy dress party dressed as a Red M&M (true!) my wife was Yellow. We had just finished the traditional barbque dinner and my phone beeped with the text msg, OMG in the 5" - sender Dave47Tuc.
It was a sign. It was as if the Astronomy Gods :prey2: looked down on me and said, "Stu, it is time you look though an Astrophysics oil spaced triplet my son. Gather your things. You are ready." :2thumbs:
So I am outta there flinging off bits of Red M&M costume as I ran past the Karaoke in the lounge room and out the front door...
First sight of the 5" Astrophysics scope was as expected. It was big. The mount was big. 100% pure Astrophysics everything except for the power supply and extension cord. The scope is a rare 5" F8 oil spaced triplet. Almost all other AP refractors were built in shorter focal lengths but this one was a short production run "special" F8 aimed at planetary work. Traditional white in colour, EDF printed on the barrel (which should have read EDT. Gotta love those "specials"). There is one on ebay with a slightly different mount for USD$28,000
My very first impression when looking through the EP was that this scope was definitely special. It was *only* pointed at the moon through. The guys thought that between the three scopes (Intes 6" Mak, TeleVue NP101 and the "5 AP) the bright side of the moon did not look much different. But, looking at the dark side of the moon the AP was clearly better. All I want to do was point this thing at the Jewel Box! (NGC-somethingorother)
So it was quickly over to the milky way to look for some star clusters and doubles. I could not believe how small the background stars were. I did not think the human eye could see dots that small. Generally all stars viewed through the 5" AP were much smaller than "normal" and showed no signs of diffraction at all. The sky was jet black. The baffles in this thing are about 2cm tall, like knives sticking out from the inside of the barrel, over the whole length of the tube. The tube and baffling is CNC machined from one piece of metal.
To say the view was stunning is an understatment. Looking at the Jewel Box (once Crux got high enough in the sky) was something I will never forget. Bright tiny little stars so contrasting in color - red, blue, white, yellow... could have looked at it for hours. I had forgotten about the NP101 (it had dewed up earlier and was back in the house).
On to doubles where Dave was our AutoStar! :camera: :cheers:
Apha Crux - I saw airy disks! Wow, cool stuff. There were some really nice colored doubles we looked at too. Such a clean image in this scope it looks almost fake, like it has been processed on computer or something.
I couldn't really compare the 5"AP to the TeleView NP101 because they were never pointed at the same thing at the same time. But I was left with the impression that the NP101 had a much flatter field. Apart from that I think the AP would have won most other catagories but only just, it's hard to tell. Apart from the brightness difference which was obvious.
SATURN WAS AMASING! Someone must have cut out a computer generated image of Saturn and stuck it in the blackest area of the sky. Contrast was unbelievble, the gap between the rings was black. The shadow of the rings on the planet was black. Cloud belts and moons everywhere! Easily the most enjoyable image of the great planet that I have ever seen.
So, if I had to review this scope in one word: Wow. :jawdrop:
It was a sign. It was as if the Astronomy Gods :prey2: looked down on me and said, "Stu, it is time you look though an Astrophysics oil spaced triplet my son. Gather your things. You are ready." :2thumbs:
So I am outta there flinging off bits of Red M&M costume as I ran past the Karaoke in the lounge room and out the front door...
First sight of the 5" Astrophysics scope was as expected. It was big. The mount was big. 100% pure Astrophysics everything except for the power supply and extension cord. The scope is a rare 5" F8 oil spaced triplet. Almost all other AP refractors were built in shorter focal lengths but this one was a short production run "special" F8 aimed at planetary work. Traditional white in colour, EDF printed on the barrel (which should have read EDT. Gotta love those "specials"). There is one on ebay with a slightly different mount for USD$28,000
My very first impression when looking through the EP was that this scope was definitely special. It was *only* pointed at the moon through. The guys thought that between the three scopes (Intes 6" Mak, TeleVue NP101 and the "5 AP) the bright side of the moon did not look much different. But, looking at the dark side of the moon the AP was clearly better. All I want to do was point this thing at the Jewel Box! (NGC-somethingorother)
So it was quickly over to the milky way to look for some star clusters and doubles. I could not believe how small the background stars were. I did not think the human eye could see dots that small. Generally all stars viewed through the 5" AP were much smaller than "normal" and showed no signs of diffraction at all. The sky was jet black. The baffles in this thing are about 2cm tall, like knives sticking out from the inside of the barrel, over the whole length of the tube. The tube and baffling is CNC machined from one piece of metal.
To say the view was stunning is an understatment. Looking at the Jewel Box (once Crux got high enough in the sky) was something I will never forget. Bright tiny little stars so contrasting in color - red, blue, white, yellow... could have looked at it for hours. I had forgotten about the NP101 (it had dewed up earlier and was back in the house).
On to doubles where Dave was our AutoStar! :camera: :cheers:
Apha Crux - I saw airy disks! Wow, cool stuff. There were some really nice colored doubles we looked at too. Such a clean image in this scope it looks almost fake, like it has been processed on computer or something.
I couldn't really compare the 5"AP to the TeleView NP101 because they were never pointed at the same thing at the same time. But I was left with the impression that the NP101 had a much flatter field. Apart from that I think the AP would have won most other catagories but only just, it's hard to tell. Apart from the brightness difference which was obvious.
SATURN WAS AMASING! Someone must have cut out a computer generated image of Saturn and stuck it in the blackest area of the sky. Contrast was unbelievble, the gap between the rings was black. The shadow of the rings on the planet was black. Cloud belts and moons everywhere! Easily the most enjoyable image of the great planet that I have ever seen.
So, if I had to review this scope in one word: Wow. :jawdrop: