Disclaimer:

Please remember that these reviews reflect my opinion and my opinion only.  They hold no ties to the product or company or their views or thoughts.  Nor have they endorsed me or sent me these products or anything of the sort.


... Review - Altair Astro 115EDT Triplet Telescope ...

At the end of September 2011, I decided to buy myself a Triplet Refractor, I was looking to buy something at least with a focal length of 800mm with a focal ratio not exceeding f/7.5, after looking at numerous makes & in particular a William Optics 110mm Triplet & a Altair Astro 115mm EDT Triplet, my other deciding factors were Budget & Performance. On the final outcome I decided to opt for a off the shelf 115mm Triplet from Altair Astro. The Altair scope has a focal length of 805mm with a focal ratio of f/7. At the time of buying William Optics were selling their 110mm with DDG Focuser, Telescope Case & with a Dedicated Field Flattener TMB type design at £1,900.

Compared with the Altair Astro offering which also including the price of the TMB style Field Flattener, Telescope Travel Case, OD Tube Rings, Short Dovetail & finally as an introduction to the scope a 10x60 illuminated Finderscope with Tube Rings - which came to a price of £1,600.00. A saving compared to the William Optics package of £300.00 of your hard earned cash. For an additional £85.00 I could have also ordered a laser interferogram data sheet showing the quality of my optics in this scope, but I did not bother with it tell you the truth. Another factor for me buying the Altair scope over the William Optics was that it did not use that inadequate DDG Focuser system. If William Optics had not used the the DDG on their 110mm scope I would have bought it, especially when the scope is marked up for a retail price of £1,750.00 alone, for that price I expect better. But hey ! You can't be winners all the time. If you have any questions about the review of the scope please do not hestitate to contact me.

Please click on the pictures for a bigger view, So here we go ...

So after about 1 week of ordering, the Delivery of my order arrived in two Boxes, the bigger of the two being scope & the other being the accessories.

The Second box contains - TMB Style Flattener, Finderscope Tube Rings with Shoe & 10x60 finderscope with a crosshair illuminated eyepiece reticule.

The main telescope box..

The scope case overall measures LxHxW 33",10.5",12"

A brand new ota lying in it's case - ready for some action ! Just a quick note about the case. When this scope was advertised - the case was mean't to come as a freebie, so it would only protect the ota while in transit to the customer. Well I like to congratulate Altair Astro on their Freebie case as it's serving its purpose very well even though it may look a bit cheap in manufacturing - It's still doing it's Job...Protecting my scope..

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This is something which shocked me initially, I ended up firing an email off to Nick Vermeulen at Altair Astro & afterwards to Olly Penrice (Olly Penrice is the Original Author of the Astronomy Now - Altair Astro 115EDT Review Article), I was told that is was a norm with the "Spatter" style finish on the OTA. Anyway I've grown to love it now, as it's different then your normal white powder coatings you see on scopes. Another nice feature, the dew shield can be extended & locked into place, so no fearing when the scope hits the angle of the meridian that the dew shield will slide down or that using the scope on a windy night. The scope cover is a screw on type.

The supplied hefty CNC machined 3.5" focuser, it was very welcoming to see the focuser can be rotated - from the top & bottom part of the focuser. My initial feeling of the focuser, it was butchy, but was nicely manufactured, there was no slippage or slop & the inward / outward focusing was smooth.

The underside of the focuser

Sideview of Focuser - Quality ! - Addendum 01/01/12. Closer inspection of the focuser, the grub screws are metal & teflon tipped, which is a plus. Now thats something I do not see that often even from manufactures of hugely produced chinese scopes, even it would cost them little money to build these into the focusers - unless you buy a premium focuser like a Moonlite or a Feathertouch, otherwise they will be plastic or it will be a poorly designed crayford focuser.

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Now something is better then nothing !
But I did wish they supplied a better dovetail for the scope even it increases the price by a few pounds more ...

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder !

The Supplied 3" Field Flattener - TMB Style & Beautifully machined I must say, Unfortunatly does not come with covers, it would have been nice even if added to the cost of the final package. However it comes with Conical Adaptor with a M42 thread for attaching to your DSLR camera t-ring adaptor. The other side of the flattener screws into the focuser.

The 60mm Finderscope rings, makes a change from those cheap spring loaded finder brackets usually found with cheaper chinese scopes, the hand adjustments are teflon tipped.

The finder which also accepts a 1.25" fitting, something quite useful maybe it can be adapted for a guide camera to be fitted, instead of the focusing being on the end of the objective lens side, you twist the eyepiece holder to achieve focus, also you can rotate the right angle focuser as well to your desired angle ...

The Telescope Lens - showing the Internal Baffles & serial no. of lens

The Atik 383L+, 3" Field Flattener, spacers & Atik EFW2 hanging off the focuser...

GO UP - Altair Astro 115EDT Triplet Telescope - Star Testing the Scope Part 2