Excelsis - Display Vote

TMB 105/650

I received a carbon fiber version with rings and a feathertouch focuser. Comes in at an amazing 8.5 lbs all together, and when the dew shield and focuser extension tube are retracted, is so short and cute you'll want to wrap it in a receiving blanket. Gorgeous black mosaic tube. When matched ( and color matched, too) to a Wimberley mount and a Gitzo 1228 tripod, you'll have a 16 lb package that'll fit in a carry-on. My use of this scope is primarily as a travel scope, so I'm a very happy camper.... it packs a phenomenal punch for it's size and weight... and it looks like a real telescope, too. *grin*

Image quality is awesome. The one I received had .966 Strehl. Being used to an SCT, I was enthralled by the huge FOVs and pinprick stars that appeared EveryWhere. I can't wait to see the planets through this scope! ( Clouds blocked Jupiter the 2 nights I've been out ). Although I don't intend to use it for deep sky, the 105 brought out M13, M3, Ring, Dumbell, M81/82 under horrible skies. Open clusters and binaries pop out everywhere.

Other scopes checked out: Tv-76/85 ( nice, but too small aperture for me )... Sky 90 ( also nice, but not a great price/performance vs the TMB ), AP Traveler ( very nice, but too long a wait... and the TMB is lighter and less costly! ), FSQ-106 ( very nice, but WAY too heavy! )

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Value:9
Weight: 5 (Veritable Vote)
Date: 06/01/2003 10:30:56 am PST
By: kkirksea
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=243221

comment5, <a href="http://www.xiti.com/xiti.asp?s=209733">http://www.xiti.com/xiti.asp?s=209733</a>, [url="http://www.xiti.com/xiti.asp?s=209733"]http://www.xiti.com/xiti.asp?s=209733[/url], http://www.xiti.com/xiti.asp?s=209733 http://www.xiti.com/xiti.asp?s=209733,  lwsq,

>UPDATE:

I'm giddy. This critter performs exactly as I had hoped.

With an OIII, it easily picked up the Veil, Swan, Eagle, Triffid nebula.  I was really perplexed when more detail was visible in the Swan, than in my 8" SCT that was cooled down.  I don't understand exactly why, yet.  An exception, since the 8" SCT outperfomed the 4" refractor on the vast majority of  deep sky objects.

With a Radian 3, I was able to see a moon transit on Jupiter that was invisible to the SCT.

Powered up to 232x to view Mars with no image breakdown.  The Tak 2.8 ortho that exposes every flaw in an SCT's diagonal/corrector/secondary was easily and clearly handled by the TMB optics.

With a Nagler 26 ( and optionally, a 6.3 reducer ) the field is huge, and flatter and sharper edge to edge than I'd expected.  Doubles appear everywhere, including one near the Ring that I never noticed before, in the same FOV.

Setup time is literally seconds, everything is so lightweight it's a breeze to view anytime I want to!

So THIS is what all your refractor nuts have been talking about!

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