Astro Physics 130 f/6 (from Brett's For sale thread)
Brett,
my sincere apologies for the mess I may have caused in your sale thread. No harm intended, and I do indeed have the highest regard for Roland and his creations.
Should have known better and should have kept my mouth shut in this case, especially knowing it is someone else's for sale thread and not a discussion.
No apologies nessary , from me , so where were we ??
Ah yes TV scope are inferrier to the likes of AP , TEC .. .... not up to the quality ,, , well .. . My eyes tell me personally that I will beg to differ , I dont have 30 years optical testing experience , but I do have over 30 years experience looking thru 1000.s of scopes and every TV I have ever looked thru is WORLD class , Bring on the Scope Smobbery !! .
Brian.
Bottom line, ANYONE can have a bad day. That includes Roland, uncle Al, Ceravolo, you name it.
There are no guarantees that scope will be perfect no matter who built it and how much it did cost (remember Hubble).
Having a discussion about such rare gear in the classifieds section isn't really such a bad idea as long as the comments focus on the said gear for sale and are not directly derogatory towards the item...problem is that is hard to maintain with such a large diverse group.
I saw the confusion that developed when not long ago I posted in the equipment section that the only other example of my Starfire 152EDF was for sale in the US, ignorant and irrelevant comments crept in that would potentially damage a sale should they have been in the classifieds.
The regular replies do bump the item up the list though
I can't comment on earlier models but my AP140 is probably my most all round perfect scope.
Side by side astro shots with same camera and mount the same site on AP140 and TEC180FL are virtually identical except for the extra detail you would expect from 180mm versus 140.
Visually the AP140 has the best views I have seen so far in any scope.
Roland is a perfectionist and it shows in his standards. Yuri is also running very very high standards.
Bratislav
I always like to read your comments here and on CN because you tell it like it is and you don't hold back :-) so please keep posting away. Whatever you do, don't keep your mouth shut - that would be a great loss.
But yes, we need to respect the for sale section of course.
James
Mike, now that we are in a free discussion area I can ask you, what are the incorrect bits of info regarding your AP152 scope in that Thomas Back article? Curiosity has the better of me!
Mike, now that we are in a free discussion area I can ask you, what are the incorrect bits of info regarding your AP152 scope in that Thomas Back article? Curiosity has the better of me!
Mainly that it is not an air spaced triplet using FPL-51 as Thomas claimed but in the masters own words "It is an oil spaced lens using FPL53 center element" and I have kept the email to prove it should I ever need to . Just inspecting the objective lens with your own eyes it seems quite obvious too.
I am not up to date with this thread, but correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that Thomas Back died a couple of years ago. Are these comments he made prior to his demise. Just interested in finding out. If I am out of line, sorry but I am inquisitive
I am not up to date with this thread, but correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that Thomas Back died a couple of years ago. Are these comments he made prior to his demise. Just interested in finding out. If I am out of line, sorry but I am inquisitive
I was surprised to learn that AP made a 130 F6 back in the 1980's.
My remarks may tread on a few toes here, but so be it.
I am of the general opinion that the later an AP scope, the better the quality. I am speaking of performance here, so what I will say for sure is that the EDT series from 1991 onward is better than the earlier Starfires. Hence I asume a 130F6 EDT will perform better than one from an earlier era. Though I have not seen one, a later F8.3 103EDT I would expect to perform better than mine. I wonder how our 152EDF owner rates his against a later 155EDFS?
I was surprised to learn that AP made a 130 F6 back in the 1980's.
My remarks may tread on a few toes here, but so be it.
I am of the general opinion that the later an AP scope, the better the quality. I am speaking of performance here, so what I will say for sure is that the EDT series from 1991 onward is better than the earlier Starfires. Hence I asume a 130F6 EDT will perform better than one from an earlier era. Though I have not seen one, a later F8.3 103EDT I would expect to perform better than mine. I wonder how our 152EDF owner rates his against a later 155EDFS?
Good question but having not used the later 155EDFS I will probably never be able to answer this. What I do know is that visually my 152EDF has provided what appear to be flawless images On a night back in 06, myself and the president of the Canberra Astronomical society had my Starfire operating on one of those rare nights of amazing seeing that come along every blue moon. It was great because I also had an observatory mounted and well collimated 12"LX200GPS, it was great directly comparing the two in such good conditions. Needless to say there were many holy cows and FU see K's exclaimed that night, through both scopes. The views through the Starfire were not as bright as through the 12" but they were definitely crisper, we could see detail inside the Great Red Spot and both saw the Red Spot Junior through the Starfire. The Starfire split to the theoretical limit easily and I never saw any spurious colour fringing on any object. Sometimes a company just produces a gem, sure they go on to produce new models that are also good but somehow that one line or one model just has something.....
No apologies nessary , from me , so where were we ?? 
.... not up to the quality ,,
. My eyes tell me personally that I will beg to differ , I dont have 30 years optical testing experience , but I do have over 30 years 
experience looking thru 1000.s of scopes and every TV I have ever looked thru is WORLD 
class , Bring on the Scope Smobbery !! 
. Just inspecting the objective lens with your own eyes it seems quite obvious too.
On a night back in 06, myself and the president of the Canberra Astronomical society had my Starfire operating on one of those rare nights of amazing seeing that come along every blue moon. It was great because I also had an observatory mounted and well collimated 12"LX200GPS, it was great directly comparing the two in such good conditions. Needless to say there were many holy cows and FU see K's exclaimed that night, through both scopes. The views through the Starfire were not as bright as through the 12" but they were definitely crisper, we could see detail inside the Great Red Spot and both saw the Red Spot Junior through the Starfire. The Starfire split to the theoretical limit easily and I never saw any spurious colour fringing on any object. Sometimes a company just produces a gem, sure they go on to produce new models that are also good but somehow that one line or one model just has something.....
