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Hey everyone! I just got an Askar 130PHQ and have limited testing with it due to poor weather  What does everyone think about this new telescope? From what Ive been able to tell its pretty darn goodImages below |
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Hey everyone! I just got an Askar 130PHQ and have limited testing with it due to poor weather The PHQ scopes from Askar generally had very good reviews. The 107PHQ showed very good correction to the corners of the IMX455, so if the 130PHQ is like it's smaller brother, it should perform very well. |
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Here is a single uncalibrated image using my Lum filter and asi1600mm which has a small micro 4/3 sensor. Im using the .7x reducer that was designed for the scope and little effort to fine focus the backspacing. The cool thing about this scope is without the reducer, you dont need to worry about backspacing, as long as you can get the image into focus, the stars should be sharp across the image. But due to using a reducer, backspacing is a thing I have to take into consideration. AGAIN, the image below had no effort to fine tune backspacing and tilt. I recently just got an ASI2600mm, which of course has an apsc size sensor. Im excited to see how sharps the stars can get from corner to corner with more effort to perfect backspacing. This is my first serious refractor and Im hoping I can get super sharp stars across my image. Im coming from a newtonian that has given me some decent images, but collimation, tilt (with the crappy focuser that appeared to be proprietary for some ungodly reason) and occasionally poor diffraction spikes became more of a hassle. This made me excited to try out a large refractor, knowing I could eliminate most of these issues. I have no idea what the tilt will be like with the 2600mm, but I am impressed with the overall quality of the Askar 130 PHQ. The focuser is smooth and appears strong. The colors go great with my EQ6r-Pro (not a big deal i know lol) and my guiding is pretty darn good around 0.6" of error. Ill update this forum with more raw images and abrrationinspector crops so you guys can decide if the price is worth it. I also apologize for the dust motes. I think my cat sneezed on my filters or something LOL  Something I did notice was pinched optics (or at least I assume thats what it was) I think this image that I posted is after I fixed it? maybe?... not 100% sure. ANYWAYS the stars had a weird distortion and spikes which was completely resolved when I loosened the bracket holding the actual scope and loosened the screw a little bit around the field rotator. Im not sure which one fixed the problem, i think it was the brackets holding the scope, because I tightened those pretty tight the first night.  The dark portion at the bottom right is caused by my OAG. Something Ill also fix when I attach my new 2600mm. I also got new 2in filters (with significantly less dust)  Raw 300 sec exposure with 6nm HA filter. ASI1600mm and .7x reducer. Side note, WTF is up with alnitak? lol  the few stars here dont look too bad at all! |
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I bought this beast mid summer and it feels like the only thing I get out now. I actually feel a bit naïve about aberration and other issues since I haven't had to deal with much. Stars are tight, contrast has been awesome. Only issue was that it outclassed my EQ6 mount and I had to upgrade  |
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Close up of the stars at native focal length/no reducer. Possible tilt issue.... still working things out.  |
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Nick Grundy: *** My EQ6r pro has no issues handling this scope... I did have to get a pier extension though *** |
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11.02
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Here is a single uncalibrated image using my Lum filter and asi1600mm which has a small micro 4/3 sensor. Im using the .7x reducer that was designed for the scope and little effort to fine focus the backspacing. The cool thing about this scope is without the reducer, you dont need to worry about backspacing, as long as you can get the image into focus, the stars should be sharp across the image. But due to using a reducer, backspacing is a thing I have to take into consideration. AGAIN, the image below had no effort to fine tune backspacing and tilt. These results look good. Are you sure this was not a problem with cool down time of the optics? I've seen a lot of cases where folks had optical problems, went and played with things that usually have nothing to do with optical problems, then came back after a while and the data looked great. Usually cooling is the answer to why. |
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Here is a single uncalibrated image using my Lum filter and asi1600mm which has a small micro 4/3 sensor. Im using the .7x reducer that was designed for the scope and little effort to fine focus the backspacing. The cool thing about this scope is without the reducer, you dont need to worry about backspacing, as long as you can get the image into focus, the stars should be sharp across the image. But due to using a reducer, backspacing is a thing I have to take into consideration. AGAIN, the image below had no effort to fine tune backspacing and tilt. *My scope stays outside, so Im not sure if its the optics cooling down too fast or not enough.... Good point tho |
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I just got the Askar 130PHQ delivered today. It looks great on the mount, very well made, lots of fine machining. I'll test out the optics on the next clear night, hopefully tomorrow night. My scope did not come with a sheet showing the optical performance. It came with all the adapters, the manual and was shipped in 4 boxes, really great shipping. But I thought the optics performance sheet came with each telescope.. |
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Jerry Gerber: I thought so too... mine did... Optics seems pretty great despite my issue with pinched optics in extreme cold. 55mm backfocus can achieve fairly pinpoint stars with the reducer |
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| I bought Nick's 130PHQ and I'm expecting it here in just a couple days. Very much looking forward to first light with it. I do EAA and I'll be mounting it on an iOptron GEM45. |
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I bought Nick's 130PHQ and I'm expecting it here in just a couple days. Very much looking forward to first light with it. I do EAA and I'll be mounting it on an iOptron GEM45. Congratulations, I think you'll find it a very fine telescope. I just got back from a Bortle 2 site in upper Northern California and brought the Askar 130PHQ. The images on my page of M3 and M101 were taken with it. |
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Jerry Gerber:I bought Nick's 130PHQ and I'm expecting it here in just a couple days. Very much looking forward to first light with it. I do EAA and I'll be mounting it on an iOptron GEM45. Very nice. I'm hoping to catch the SN in M101 when the scope gets here. |
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| @Icharuss I'm glad its in a good home. In truth, I should have given it more time, but i'm certain you'll do awesome work with it. On M101, it's funny because I was sitting on a bunch of data I took in April and hadn't processed. I just compared it to some images tonight and it's pretty amazing that you see it right there. |
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| I've taken delivery of the 130PHQ too but I've got triangular stars which may suggest pinching? I'm going to try slackening off the tube rings a touch as suggested by the OP. Will update if that solves the problem. |
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I've taken delivery of the 130PHQ too but I've got triangular stars which may suggest pinching? I'm going to try slackening off the tube rings a touch as suggested by the OP. Will update if that solves the problem. I have seen the triangular issue brought up in regards to the 107PHQ. It was discussed here on Cloudy Nights. From what I remember, they speculated it was due to cold temperatures and recomended alternate heater configurations, but an exchange of scopes is what fixed the problem. I notice on my 107PHQ in cold conditions I get a classical pinched appearance to birght stars, but def. not triangular, just a slight "inverse spike" to brighter stars. I have accepted this performance as it is minor. I liked the 107PHQ so much, I got a 65PHQ for wider field views. Unfortunately my first scope produced "egg" stars independent of camera rotation, leading me to believe a scope defect. I have been working with the vendor to exchange the scope. Point being, I think the PHQ series is great, but there might be a few less than acceptable examples, which luckily from what I have experienced the vendors (I'm in the US) are happy to help troubleshoot with Askar and then exchange if warranted. |
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| Thank you @apennine104 I will read that thread on CN. Here in the UK the ambient temperature is 10 degrees C so not particularly cold. As I imported the scope from abroad it's going to be problematic to ship it back to the point of origin or back to Sharpstar/Askar so I'm going to try a few more things first. I guess there are so many variables in play that mishapen stars could be one or a combination of several factors. I will also try to eliminate any tilt in the imaging train by replacing the 3 adapters that come with the scope + ZWO OAG + ZWO filter drawer with the combined Antlia OAG/Filter Drawer which has a screw thread at both telescope and camera sides. |
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I’m sure you all noticed this, but now that askar is also reselling these as ZWO branded scopes that may be hurting quality. (Or maybe same quality and it’s not ideal) or maybe they come from a manufacturer and are branded askar or zwo now. I loved my 130phq while I had it, but I keep hearing incidents of defects which are a bit unsettling |
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Thank you @apennine104 I will read that thread on CN. Here in the UK the ambient temperature is 10 degrees C so not particularly cold. As I imported the scope from abroad it's going to be problematic to ship it back to the point of origin or back to Sharpstar/Askar so I'm going to try a few more things first. I guess there are so many variables in play that mishapen stars could be one or a combination of several factors. I will also try to eliminate any tilt in the imaging train by replacing the 3 adapters that come with the scope + ZWO OAG + ZWO filter drawer with the combined Antlia OAG/Filter Drawer which has a screw thread at both telescope and camera sides. No problem, @GoldTop57. I also suspected tilt with my 65PHQ. To troubleshoot, I did a bunch of short exposures in one orientation near the zenith, then rotated the built in rotator 90 degrees and repeated the shots. If the tilt was within the optical train, I would expect the photos to look the same. As it was, the first group of shots had the stars oblong to the top left of the frame, the next set after rotation had them to the top right of the image. So, I believe this narrowed it down to something upstream of the rotator. Also of note, the direction of shape was not aligned with RA or DEC. Good luck with your troubleshooting! I'm sure others will have ideas to test as well. -Chris |
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Nick Grundy: Yeah, I noticed that the new ZWO scopes appear to be exactly the same telescopes as Askar. Everything looks the same. |
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| We've had our 130PHQ for a couple of months and could not be happier. The stars are pinpoint over the whole field of our aspc sensor and the 1m focal length is perfect for the larger galaxies and small nebula. Its mounted at present (bigger mount on its way) on an EQ6 which is at its limit and without an extension will interfere with the tripod legs on any target over 80deg. (scary stuff!) Very happy with the images we have from it so far but beware, minor differences between subs become very easy to detect and you start to get very picky on which ones to use! Things to be aware of if your just stepping up to longer FL refractor are the temperature issues, both with the settling of the image and how quickly it goes out of focus. We set the auto focus to every 30min and as the stars are so tight you can see the focus start to change within 20min at the start of the evening runs. (learnt the hard way to focus immediately before the start of a new target or risk loosing the first 30min worth!) After the night temperature stabilises once an hour is good enough. We run a WO61 as a guide scope and works a treat, normally around 0.6-.7" when skies are stable. We noticed a small shift in the image after meridian flip which we traced to a slight rock in the focuser but after carefully adjusting the appropriate screws this is now sorted. Like all bigger and longer scopes, any wind is not your friend, especially out in the open. I'm sure, like us, you'll have a ball with your new toy. Happy imaging! |
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| Is there some documentation on appropriate steps to adjust the focuser? |
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Hey everyone! Its me again, the OP.. So we had some Askar/sharpstar drama. Earlier this year when it was cold, the triangular shaped stars significantly worsened. There was also some weird elongation of stars and spike-like distortion going through the brighter stars in my images. I spent many many many nights trying to determine whether it was my imaging train, and used heater bands in an effort to fixed what seemed like pinched optics due to cold. I couldnt fix it no matter what I did. I went to Askar and Highpoint Scientific (who i purchased from in like Dec) to see what my options were. HP said bc I was over the 30 window (annoying bc I had maybe 3 clear nights during the 30 day window from purchase) and suggested I go through the manufacturer. I contacted Askar/Sharpstar and they requested that I send the scope back to them for evaluation. Askar refused to send me a replacement in the meantime, which I sorta understand... just frustrating I decided to send it back after a couple weeks of ensuring it was the telescope, not me... I promise it was not user error... Unless you have shipped a large telescope across the world, You have no idea how expensive international shipping can be. UPS and FEDEX initially wanted over $1000 for the cheapest shipping. The package was like 30lb and in a slightly larger box then it came in. I used a code through UPS to get the shipping down to $580... Askar requested that I label the package value as $180, Im assuming this is for customs fees.... but that means if the package was lost during shipping my insurance for the package would only cover $180 Let me reiterate that. I paid $3500 for a telescope. Had to ship it across the world with basically no insurance. If something had happened during shipping, I would have lost $3500. This was extremely stressful for me. I felt Askar/sharpstar had put me in this awkward position to lie about the value of my package and I would be the one who suffered the loss if something happened Fortunately, Askar received the scope. They recollimated it and stated "it is in the best possible condition". That I would have to agree with. Since receiving it back, the images are pinpoint, no distortion around the stars. I couldnt be happier. Askar also sent me a FMA 230 for free as compensation for the shipping costs. It seems like a neat little scope, I plan to use that for imaging later, but it is now acting as a guide scope. In conclusion, is the Askar 130 PHQ a good scope? It sure is, as long as you dont get a lemon which seems to be a bit of a gamble. When the scope is "in the best possible condition" its great. But for the cost, I sorta would expect more quality control. Sure its not a Tak and wouldnt have that level of QC, but its still $3500. Heres some single frames (newly collimated scope or "best possible condition" per Askar...) with aberration inspector, 180sec M109 with a UV/IR cut and Cygnus wall 300sec with 3nm HA, ASI2600mm. Im pleased with the star shapes... for now.... PS average response time from Askar/sharpstar was 1-2 days by email   |
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Sorry to hear of all your telescope woes, but at least you got it taken care of. Sending you the smaller scope was good business on the part of Askar. In the not-to-distant future these troubles will be forgotten and you'll be enjoying the telescope. The stars look excellent now. |
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| Just sending an update about my misshapen stars with the 130PHQ. I emailed Askar support and supplied an unprocessed fits file to illustrate the issue. Within a week I was in receipt of a new OTA from China, the new OTA shows perfectly round stars across the frame - I'm impressed with what I am seeing. All that remains is for me to ship the original OTA back to Askar. I've experienced great service and support from the Askar team - they have been prompt and sympathetic throughout the process. |
