Post a picture of your rig!

thats a real nice set up Dave .

ebann wrote in post #7358665
You were mentioning mounts... is that to say that Orion's Astroview mount is good? From what I've read, there are mounts with different names but is the same and one... I.e. Orion Astroview, Celestron CG-4, and Skywatcher EQ3-2.

Perhaps you were thinking optics?

Anyways, I was very much surprised when I called TeleVue for help to collimate my Ranger (which they say is factory collimated and cannot be done by the user *that* I refused to believe!) and talked to none other than Al Nagler!!! Now that is customer service. He promptly told me where the hidden screws were located (covered with black epoxy) and everything worked out fine!

I always have this big smile when I know I did the right thing selling my ETX-90C and Celestron 6" Newtonian *BUT* keeping my nice semi-APO Ranger!

I would have to say that the TOP TWO easiest to talk to people would be Al Nagler and Yuri at Telescope Engineer Co.

Roland at AP can be either in a really good mood or highly defensive.

If you're purchasing anything, OPT corp is OUTSTANDING. They have been able to get some equipment, with excellent customer service, that Anacortes telescope couldn't. OPT corp treats people at the government / education / university level with CLASS. IME, I don't see that happening with the "wild bird telescope" people.

Still haven't looked through any of the Ethos eyepieces!

After 9 years on the waiting list, serial# 100 was delivered to me this week!!!

Astro-Physics 130 EDF f6.3 "Gran Turismo" Triplet APO.

O now that is nice with a capital nice Not sure I have the patience to wait nine years for anything though!

Had a 105mm Traveler in the meantime as well as other telescopes from Astro-Physics, TeleVue, APM/TMB and TEC.

It was an easy wait.

Congrats Mark, a real dream scope. No need to upgrade anytime soon huh? LOL.

Way to go Mike!

I've been on the wait list since 2002. No call yet!

I figure that I'd probably have enough money by then to purchase a 155 or 160. They're a bit heavy for field/nature usage though.

Thanks Steve! Looking forward to contributing more here over the next few months. It's been a crazy winter and business is booming so we will just have to wait and see how much time I get under clear skies to capture some photons with this baby.

But yeah, I think I am set pretty much forever or at least until my children get out of college which will be at least another decade or more.

I hear they are into October 2000 on the notifications so it might not be that much longer for you PM01!

Good luck man! It is worth every penny and every second of waiting.

You don't have to convince me! I have the 130 f/8 EDT, first run. The f/6 and f/6.3 are good for a wider view.

And yes, I'll be nutty enough to use these for nature photography.

Congratulations Mark on your wonderful Astro-Physics 130 EDF !!
What a beautiful looking 'work of art' it is.

Looking forward to some images through it.

Congrats on the new scope after such a long wait ! One question i got to ask ...? Out of all the other scopes you have and had , would you say this AP is the best of them all ?? I've always heard that APs' were the best on the market ! So ... , Is it true ??

Yes, it's true.

I had a 155 EDF but sold it to finance the 9.25" MakeNewt production prototype called FastMax. That was a sweet scope but it never went into production due to several reasons of which optical quality was not one. lol. It had awesome optics. f4.3 too. Nice astrograph. The main reason it was never put into production was the complexity of manufacturing and the weight issue. The weight issue was the reason I sold it as my back was starting to hurt real bad from lugging it around to star parties.

The Traveler of course was my next favorite which I sold to finance the New 130.

But yeah all my AP scopes have far exceeded any other brand of similar aperture in terms of optical and mechanical quality that I have either owned or viewed through at star parties.

Celestron wrote in post #7504786
Congrats on the new scope after such a long wait ! One question i got to ask ...? Out of all the other scopes you have and had , would you say this AP is the best of them all ?? I've always heard that APs' were the best on the market ! So ... , Is it true ??

They are ARGUABLY some of the best. Optically speaking, I would give the slight (very slight) edge to Yuri over at TEC for refractors that are 160mm diameter and up, and the ones that utilize fluorite. I've observed through AP102, AP130 f/6 (many of them - they're cute), AP130 f/8, AP155 f/7. Also have observed through quite a few Takahashi scopes. My favorite by far is the Takahashi FSQ106. That little scope was meant for high contrast, dead nuts on color correction (an AP has more slop - check the color correction charts) and a nearly perfectly flat field due to the modified petzval design. The only scope that I know of that has supposedly PERFECT color correction would be the newer Takahashi TOA series.

AP is usually good to deal with, and if you get a chance to talk to Roland, it's pretty rare. Depending on his mood, he can be very fun to talk to or he'll be a grump noid. I've had both happen and have met the man many times - I'm not too far away from the AP shop so I always visit when I can.

Contrast - Tak. Hands down. That's Tak vs AP. TEC - geez they're good in fluorite. Reason? Fluorite has virtually zero internal scatter. It's not a mix of glass and fluorite like ED is, or specifically, FPL53, which is what Roland is using at AP. Now Roland will say that contrast isn't an issue since you can always pump up the contrast in photoshop. That's great for the imagers, but for the visual guys, it's a turnoff. For terrestrial usage, contrast makes the difference between focusing accurately or "mushing" through focus. The AP 130/6, 130/8, 155/7 tend to "mush" through. The Tak 106 - geeeez. Snaps right onto focus. If you have both scopes, there will be a huge difference. When I first bought the 130/8 AP, I thought the snap to focus was pretty good. Then I bought the FSQ106 - holy smokes!

The picture that you see is of two optical blanks. The one on the left is crystalline fluorite. The one on the right is ED glass. FPL53, which is the same stuff that Roland uses. There is a green laser that is shining through both elements. With the fluorite, all you see are the entry and exit points. No scattering through the internal of the element. With the ED glass, you see the green traces (zig zag) - that's the internal scattering from the glass component of the ED glass.

Don't get me wrong. AP makes some great gear, but the other companies have improved because of AP, and in some cases, out done AP. (contrast/color correction) Competition is always good! I always use my AP for the classes over at the college (I'm the Director for their observatory - nearly 20,000 students there and it's only a JUNIOR college). Plus we have lots of clubs around the area and they bring in some really nice scopes.

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Your forgetting resale value! LOL!

Seriously, When we talk about AP, Tak & TEC we are splitting hairs on optical quality.

But the best mechanics go to AP so as an overall package (Materials, mechanical design, manufacturing, size and weight) I put AP at the head of the pack.