ASA N series Astrograph

[nobbygon]

Hi, I was wondering if any one has an ASA N series Astrograph here in Australia. If so, Who did you order it through and approx how much was it?? Im in the market for a high quality astrograph and I cant go past the ones from ASA.

Cheers, Angus

[Gama]

Strongman Mike should help you there.Maybe send him a PM to get him on the chat wagon..

Theo.

[Waxing_Gibbous]

I think the only place you can get them outside Europe is from OPT in California (www.optcorp.com (http://www.optcorp.com)). They are hideously expensive, starting at about US$8000 and going up to about $21000 for the OTA only.
Kick in one of their unequaled DD mounts and you are looking at another US$18000.
One may as well fly to Austria and bring one back. You'd be eligible for a 17.5% VAT refund which might just cover Australian import duty, freight and tax.
I saw one in action in the UK about 3 years ago.
Dribble.
Good luck with your search!

[gregbradley]

Hi Angus,

A few of us have checked them out. They seem to really deliver
awesome shots when they work well.

Problem with them in the past has been vaiable quality control.
Some really bad ones got sent out. They had a lot of trouble with focuser and spider flexure. They have since made their own focuser but'I recently saw a youtube video of a 16 inch here with a really loose new focuser.

It probably got fixed but the point is quality control still seems to be a lottery. You wouldn't get a Tak or an AP with a wobbly focuser would you for that sort of price?

How can you guarantee that the scope you are going to get is of the quality that is advertised is the problem.

Not sure what you mean about their mount being the bees knees.
Wolfgang Promper just posted 16 inch ASA images using their mount and a FLI8300 camera. The images are awesome but the stars were slightly elongated. I am sure a Paramount ME could be trained to give completely round stars unless the elongation was from flexure which is the problem.

Also he mentioned how hard it was to attain accurate collimation which is another difficult aspect of the fast F3.6 system.

All that notwithstanding if you get them working and setup then I agree they are one hell of an imaging machine. Thomas Davis's dust images are testamount to that.

If I got one I'd go the smaller one like an 8 inch or perhaps 10 inch as I have seen great results from them and perhaps they may be more reliable.

All the above plus Mike's trip to purgatory and back when he got a 12 inch was the reason I opted to go with a Tak BRC instead and rely on Tak quality and professionalism which of course it turned out to be.

Still want one??

Greg.

[nobbygon]

Thanks for the help guys.
I cant believe that these scopes would have such problems as a loose focuser, for a $10000 scope you would expect them to be near absolute perfection in every way. Its a bit of a turn off.
I was thinking of getting the 8 inch scope just because of the price, I cant really afford any more than that.

Cheers, Angus

[gregbradley]

There was an 8 inch for sale on Astromart recently. Not sure if it sold, its no longer there. He wanted US$6500 firm.

You could have quizzed him on these points of focuser slop, is it the latest focuser or the JMI, does he get flexure in the scope (it was also the primary mirror holder only being 3 points and the latest I think has 9), does he have the latest thin double spider (otherwise they were getting too much of squarish stars, sometimes a bit unavoidable in that style scope).

He could send images he had taken and not 5 minute ones like a guy sent me once on a 12inch and when I queried him about it he suddenly had some other sucker I mean customer wanting it- you want 10 -15 minutes as flexure may not show up enough in a 5 minute shot. Flexure from the spider, the primary mirror and slop in the focuser plus the keller correctors were not fixed tightly enough were the problems I am aware of. Mike's also had pinched optics on top of that!

But there are good ones out there.

Greg.

[Gama]

Maybe look at a Faster setup, if wide field is your thing..
A heap cheaper, and bigger light gathering per buck..

Theo

[Bassnut]

From some shocking feedback ive had, tube flex is a (the?) problem now with a heavy cam/filter. And dont expect much help with that little problem from ASA. If your cam/filter is lightweight, then apparently its not bad. But IMO, avoid like the plauge.

[renormalised]

A Celestron 8-10" (including the new HD models) with the appropriate Hyperstar lens attachment will give you all the benefits of an ASA scope (even faster imaging...f1.8-2) and everything else with also having a dedicated SCT that you can convert back to normal in a few minutes.

A lot cheaper too.

You could even go the whole hog and grab a 14" scope with Hyperstar for less than the price of a smaller ASA scope.

[nobbygon]

after all this feed back I might stay away from ASA for now. Looking at a TAK epsilon 180. Looking pretty good at the moment.
Thanks for the help everyone. Very helpfull as per usual.

Cheers, Angus

[Moon]

I know that Galileo sell them in Switzerland and France, not sure if they would export to Australia...

http://www.galileo.cc/francais/marques_list.php?rub=asa&typ=Newton

[strongmanmike]

Hey Angus, I PM'd you did you get it..?

If not....what Greg said, sorry :sadeyes:

Mike

[nobbygon]

yep, I got it Mike, thanks for your insight. After hearing everything about this scope i have decided to steer clear of it for now. I hate paying massive amounts of money for a product that is not perfect.
Thanks very much everyone fro your help, it is very appreciated.

Cheers, Angus

[netwolf]

Mark has built something very similar to this and from my conversation with him for much less. See his thread here.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=50030&highlight=astrograph

[gregbradley]

That'd be one way to go for sure. That way you can get the best quality of the individual parts.

I don't think ASA make much of what is in their scope or at least not originally. Optics, tubes, focusers, spiders etc etc would all have been by others anyway.

I think they now make their own focusers.

Newts are the easiest optics to make as the mirrors are spherical and so easy to grind and polish to a higher level of perfection than non spherical mirrors like RCs and Dall Kirkhams.

Greg.