Reviews & Ratings for Explore Scientific 102mm AR Series Achromatic Refractor Telescope — 2 reviews — Page 1

I got this as a low power, widefield specialist and I also plan to take advantage of its low F ratio to try some video astronomy down the road. Great build quality for the price. Smooth dual speed focuser, carrying handle, lots of focus travel (could be useful for binoviewing or photography), ruler markings on focuser to help with achieving precise focus with a camera, etc. field illumination was good almost to the very edge of the view using the widest possible field of view. Comparing against my ED100, the views were pretty much identical up to 82x magnification on deep space targets. When I bumped the power up to 133x the Apo finally stared to pull away, as expected. Not saying the views in this scope were bad at 133x, but the lack of correction of false color became apparent at that point. So basically it isn't an Apo but then that is why it is so affordable. It does work great as a low to medium power scope with fast cool down and very wide views. Why not 5 stars? First of all the finderscope. It is a fine finderscope, but I fail to see the point in putting a magnifying finderscope with a 6 degree field of view on a telescope capable of a 4 degree field of view. A red dot or other reflex finder would make more sense. A Rigel Quikfinder would be very suitable and tall enough to see over the dew shield. Not saying the existing finderscope is bad, there are just better choices for this kind of scope. The other drawback is it is a bit heavier than I expected. About two pound...
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I purchased this as a quick setup scope and for wide field views. It fits the bill perfectly cease of the light weight and compact size. Even better, the quality is top box and the images are excellent. Very sharp stars and the chromatic color on bright stars is not objectionable at all. Perfect fit for what I was looking for!