Astro Tech 102 EDL

[Mike Q]

I figured I would dump a review of my AT 102 ELD 4 inch frac on here.  This my first review i have ever done, so cut me some slack.  Its a F7 4 inch with lanthanum glass and 714mm of focal length.  It does a pretty decent job at planetary and with things that you might want a wide angle for.  

 

Collimation was spot on out of the box and it does the frac thing when it comes to sharpness and contrast.   The focuser rotates freely after you release the thumbscrew.  The focuser is also nice and smooth both in course and fine focus.  

 

Imagewise how does it do?  Pretty decently for a 4 inch scope.  I am used to lots of aperture as i primarily use 10 inch or 16 inch scopes, but we wont even try and compare it to them as it obviously isnt a fair fight at all.  What it does get right is all the things you want in a medium sized frac.  No false color, no CA, very sharp and contrasty images.  My only real complaint with it....its four inches and i should have gone to a 5 inch, but thats on me, not the scope.  

[Nightspore]

What I like about 10cm OTA's is that I can pick them up with one hand. Pretty important if you've only got one good hand lol. That AT is some based frac.

[Mike Q]

1 hour ago, Nightspore said:

What I like about 10cm OTA's is that I can pick them up with one hand. Pretty important if you've only got one good hand lol. That AT is some based frac.

Not sure what "based" means exactly ....but i will assume its a good thing lol.  It does ok for what i got it for which is to take places.  If the weather holds it will be under Bortle 3 skies in Southern Ohio the weekend at an inaugural star party.  Of course it will just be there for looks because there will be a 36 inch F3 dob set up and everyone will be lining up to look through it lol.

[Nightspore]

3 hours ago, Mike Q said:

Not sure what "based" means exactly ....but i will assume its a good thing lol.  It does ok for what i got it for which is to take places.  If the weather holds it will be under Bortle 3 skies in Southern Ohio the weekend at an inaugural star party.  Of course it will just be there for looks because there will be a 36 inch F3 dob set up and everyone will be lining up to look through it lol.

 

Based!

[StarHugger]

Nice write up Mike, the AT'fracs of this particular EDL stamping are pretty nice for the build and optical figure they achieve.

 

Costwise and without the rotater on the focuser these make great az adapted widefield visual instruments and for Solar being an Ed doublet they sit between an achro and a triplet or the optical sweetspot for multi band Solar visual observation and imaging.

 

The 102 may eventually come my way I think...

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 18:00 by StarHugger

[Mike Q]

1 hour ago, StarHugger said:

Nice write up Mike, the AT'fracs of this particular EDL stamping are pretty nice for the build and optical figure they achieve.

 

Costwise and without the rotater on the focuser these make great az adapted widefield visual instruments and for Solar being an Ed doublet they sit between an achro and a triplet or the optical sweetspot for multi band Solar visual observation and imaging.

 

The 102 may eventually come my way I think...

 

 

Well if you were local i would probably sell it to you and get something bigger 

[Mike Q]

2 hours ago, Nightspore said:

 

Based!

I will say the iOptron mount and tripod are awesome.  The tripod by itself is very light but when you set it up and get everything tightened it is very solid.  The AZ Pro mount will hold up to 33 pounds on one side and it doesnt even know the 4 inch is even on it.  IOptron's Go2Nova system is probably the best go to system I have.  The GPS alignment does pretty decent.  Stuff usually lands inside a 18mm 60 degree eyepiece and i can tweek it from there.  So far it has been very reliable and i am glad i went this route.