Contact Me
Astronomy at Qteaser.com



102 mm APO


What can be said about the New Explore Scientific 102 MM air spaced triplet APO?

I had the opportunity to try the ES 102 mm APO for imaging with my SXVF-H9.

The scope comes with mounting rings and a dovetail to fit several different mounts

as well as a convenient carrying handle.

It also comes with a 2 inch diagonal , illuminated 8x50 finder scope and a very nice

case to store and transport it in.

When the scope arrived , it didn’t take me long to head down to the Observatory to set it all up.

I piggybacked the ES 102 mm on my Meade LX200R 10 inch scope by removing the dovetail

from the rings and adding Losmandy clamps to mount on the Losmandy rail. Once this was all

mounted it was time to balance out the new system. Once Balance was achieved I was set to go.

The first thing I did was to do some visual work to see how well the scope performs.

I went to Sirius and focused to see how the color correction was.

This scope looked very good in color correction as well as crispness and contrast.

Just for fun I went to view some sections in Orion and figured I would see if I could see the

running man Nebula visually as I have never seen it visually.

I was amazed at the view as well as the amount of Nebulosity I could see.

This was the first time I have ever seen this Nebula visually. I the dropped down in declination a

bit and had one of the best views of the Great Orion nebula I have ever seen. The crispness and

contrast of the views were impressive. After bouncing around for a while looking at several other

objects I decided to add the imager to do some imaging.

The first thing I imaged was the Horse head Nebula. This is where I then remembered I had to

redo the Pec train on the scope (oops).

After I finally got the mount tuned up I decided to image a very nice galaxy in Leo. (NGC 3628)

After a few hours of Luminance information I captured the color information and called it a night

as high thin clouds were rolling in.

I processed the image to reveal a nice deep image of this area.

Then I started to look and realized I had more galaxy’s than stars in the image.

I then imaged NGC 4565 to reveal some very nice structure along with some very faint galaxy’s.

I am very impressed with the ES 102 mm APO triplet,

Explore Scientific is an up and coming company who is designing and selling some very well

designed Astronomy equipment. They have an expanding line of products of several different

telescopes, eyepieces and mounts.

If you are looking for a mid sized refractor telescope of good quality and workmanship the Explore Scientific 102 MM APO

refractor is the scope for you. It is high quality, nicely designed with good

fit and finish and truly affordable.

For more information on this telescope as well as other Explore Scientific products please visit http://www.explorescientific.com

Mark Sibole

MTSO Observatory

Fife Lake Michigan