Antares 520 GP

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Antares 520 GP
Optical quality decent for price. Secondary, easy to align but, spider off-center, with no adjustability. Polar scope (Celestron-type) absolutely garbage!
MUST be collimated after three or four outings. Optics perform well enough
at low powers, but when pushed over 150 power, focussing requires patience !
The CG-5 style mount is ok, but much better suited to a smaller scope.
The tri-pod, to be very polite, is suitable for a 35 mm camera, but not much
more !
This mount does NOT operate well in very cold weather, and in fact, all three
'PLASTIC' leg braces (tray supports?) shattered during normal use this past
winter.

Overall Rating: 7
Weight: 4 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=39989

Antares 520 GP
[webmaster note: vote moved from description]

Over-all, very nice scope, mount not quite solid enough
Aluminum tube, primary mount questionable, but adequate
Very solid secondary mount, surprisingly little blockage ( max 20 % )
Provided polar alignment scope almost useless.

Overall Rating: No Vote
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=142140

Antares 520 GP
not very good at higher powers. Focusing is troublesome.

Overall Rating: 3
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=420921

Antares 520 GP
Hi I bought one inFebruary 2008.
It was not well collimated out of the box.
And the sale person collimated somewhat.
It was relatively ok.
I bought a kit (Sight tube and autocollimator ) from Astrotech.
I collimated.
Now woth ploss from Zhummel and a televue Barlow 3x I got 750 time one the Moone. Tonight I go 6 mm and Barlow 3X Saturn at 500 X. At 750 it lost a bit.
You go M42 the trapexoidum at 500 any time, and you can see the shape even with these basics eyepeices.
I am waiting for my Baader Hyperion to come, but this is definitely an APO killer.
I got a 4mm, 6mm, 12.5 mm, 32 mm , a barlow and 7 filterd
for 89.00. And with this I got 500 times sharp on Saturn in
the ,light polluted city of Montreal.
I also got a good quality zoom from my apochromatic times...
Yeah it was bellow frezing so seing is good.
These optics are exceptionnal for their price.
This come from Guan Sheng, he guaranties 1/15 of a lamba
(wavelength) of yellow I suppose 550 nm.
And this guy don't want come back as any manufacturer.
so you can imagine he pollishes better thant that.
I read on internet in the last 9 months the surface has been more smooth. The figuring as always have been bettter thant
any other mass produce telescope.
So unless you go Discovery, Royces and other specialized mirrors, this is the best bang for the buck, and it is not sure
the others will offer such a difference.

My neighbour has a 8 inch Orion and he never go past
120 and even then...
So don't say this is like Orion, I have looked in his telescope, and there are no comparaison. This scope is in an other category. And I was using is SpeerWaler eyepiece, costing
40 times what I am using in my Antares.

To the defense of his Orion, it didn't have a crayford focuser
and I didn't collimated it.
Than can have a serious impact on a Newton performance.

I can't speak relative to other manufacturer of Newton as I have not personnaly look into them.

So go with this, but don't forget the dual speed focusser
or you can kiss goodbye to the high magnification, you will never be able to focus.
And collimate well and if you can with an autocollimator, I did and witn one guaranteed to 3 arc second error maximum.

I can see the original, the first and the second reflexion.
So I am dead on up to 5 time the focal length, and amazingly
this guy keep it aligment, I do chek that.

Read about collimation, this is pretty easy, and if you fell
good about it, go with a Newton, and particularly this one.
I might never go back to aprochromatic refractor, althought I have one 66 mm, but the view in my 8 inches are a 100 times
better than in my small apo.

Have a clear sky with good seeing.
Cold nighs are good for 2 things, no humidity, and no bugs!

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Mount:8 Ease of Use:8 Value:10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=576451

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