Photon 127mm F9 Refractor


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Photon 127mm F9 Refractor
Hi group, well I finally had a chance to use the Photon 127mm F9 scope
tonight under less then ideal sky conditions, and compared it to my
Celestron C102HD (with excellent optics). I have the OTA mounted to my
Vixen Super Polaris (with less then ideal tripod legs-which will be
corrected) To make a long story short, the Photon is a winner. First
let me comment about the construction. The OTA is built like a tank,
weighs about 15lbs. It comes with a 7X50mm finder attached by dovetail
bracket to the OTA (like the Celestron). The Objective Cell is made out
of metal and attaches to the tube by 3 machine bolts and nuts ( I don't
like this idea, you can not reach the nut inside the ota without taking
the lens apart). The dew shield is also metal, the 2 inch focuser is
quite smooth, and the scope comes with a 2 inch MIRROR star diagonal
with a 1.25 inch adapter. The rings that attach the scope to the mount
appear to be of better quality then what came with my Celestron. And
you do not need a wrench to attach the rings, every thing is attached
with no tool hand nuts. Now the comparison.
This is the first refractor (of similiar size) that I looked
through where I thought the images were crisper and more detailed then
my Celestron. The sky was partly cloudy early, then clouded up kind of
quickly-so I did not get to do a star test yet. The first comparison
was with Jupiter. Both the Celestron and Photon on the same subject. At
first I had a 7.5mm plossl on the Photon giving 153 power, and a 6.5mm
on the Celestron giving 154 power. There was a moon transiting on the
planet and I could see the disk of the moon clearly on the outer edge
of Jupiter with the Photon, I also saw it with the Celestron-but the
Photon made it easier. Also 5 belts were easily detected in the Photon
with a wealth of detail in between the SEB and NEB, more so then with
the C102. I decided to get the 5mm eyepiece out (even though the sky
was not very steady), and put it on the photon giving me 230 power. I
did not notice any breakdown in the image, this was at 45x per inch. I
am sure I could easily have gone to 300 power with this scope if I had the combination to give me this power. Hopefully the sky will be more cooperative
tomorrow night for a more conclusive test. The other thing needed to be
mentioned was the less then expected false color seen with this 5 inch
F9 doublet, I have read reports of a lot of objectionable color with
the new CR 150 HD, so I was quite happy with this discovery. To make a
long story short, this is a good scope, and I am quite happy with it.
More will follow when I can do a more thorough test.The Super Polaris
mount is capable of holding this OTA, but the tripod legs I am using
are from a Celestron CG-3 mount (not the sturdiest of set ups).
Bob Midiri member DVAA












Overall Rating: 9
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Photon 127mm F9 Refractor
Have had the scope and mount 2 weeks now and have had it out 4 times so far, the detail I have observed so far has been outstanding for an achromat and very little false color. Views of jupiter are great, 5 Bands on the planets surface with 5 moons on most nights with good seeing. Saturn has no false color at all, you can easily split the rings and planetary detail with a shadow of the rings seen on the planets surface with 2 moons. The moon shows outstanding detail with
only a small thin line of yellow/blue around the lim, no were near the amount of color seen with a 4.7" Skywatcher scope I previously owned. On to the star test, inside of focus the diffraction rings were textbook with the outer most ring a little larger, outside of focus ther was blue/green rings but at least ther was rings seen, allot of scopes I have looked threw only showed a blob at this end of the test. The in focus star image is an airy disk with one diffraction ring and the scope does show very slight spherical aberation but lets not forget its an achromat and from what I have seen and heard this is not bad at all. The finder is nice, works good, the diagonal is a large 2" and seems of good optical quality. Finaly the GEM, this is not the clone CG4 or CG5, its made in Taiwan and I would say it is a good if not better than the CG5's out there. You have SS worm gears on the slo mo controls, 15lbs of counterweights, a heavier tripod that bolts to the mounts body via hex bolts, not wing nuts and the whole tripod with scope dampens out in 3 seconds, really a nice mount with a metal with glass lens polar finder scope, not the tonka toy finders that you buy from celestron for $49. The only reason I didn't give the scope a 10 was the tube rings need to be improved on(you have to add extra padding for a tight fit ). This is one very nice scope and I haven't done a comparison but I have a feeling this scope may give the CR150HD a run for the money at $300 less and it is much more stable than the 6" celstron on the CG5 is. Also I must add, power on the planets so far with no breakup on a night with good seeing has been between 225X to 275X, and up to 430X on the moon and still sharp, this scope has realy been more than I expected in this deparment for a 5" achromat. The scope overall is built like a tank, more like the old Unitrons and not like the China made scopes that are mass imported here today. Haven't had much time for deep sky yet but another report to follow.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Photon 127mm F9 Refractor
I just received the Photon 127mm OTA today, and was lucky enough to have some relatively clear skies to test it out. The OTA is huge, white, and very attractive. The massive 2 inch focuser, 2 inch diagonal, and 50mm finder are impressive in appearance and let you know that this is a serious instrument. I mounted the OTA onto my CG5 with wooden legs which is relatively stable, but I think I could probably do with an extra counterweight. This large set-up cannot be carried outside easily by one person, but separating the tube from the mount makes it a nice and easy two-step procedure. On to the observing...... Saturn was the first object I looked at, and I couldn't give a fair assesment because it was so low in the sky and subject to excess atmospheric refraction, etc. However, the image was sharp and clear, and the Cassini Division was visible below 100X. If it were higher in the sky, I feel the image would have been superb. Next was the Orion Nebula. The Trapezium stood out as 4 distinct jewels, even at 57X. At 178X with a Meade 6.4mm super plossl, there was lots of black sky in-between them, and they were still nice and sharp. The nebula itself was strikingly sharp and bright at all powers from 57x to 178X. Castor was split cleanly at 91X, and still looked nice at 178X. Now...for the bane of the existence of all refractor owners: chromatic aberration. It's not bad. Sirius, a tough test, showed minor purple fringing at most powers, but this is to be expected in an achromat. Stacking a light blue and light yellow filter virtually eliminated this fringing. Compared to other refractors I have owned, this color is minor and really doesn't interfere too much with viewing. I feel that the color correction is about as good as you can get with an F/9 achromat. Procyon didn't show any purple, nor did Betelgeuse. The star test looked good to me, though I am by no means an expert at reading them. The diffraction rings were even and concentric, and looked similar inside and outside of focus, which is good enough for me. Were there any problems with the scope? A few. There was a small chip in the paint on the OTA which I was able to touch up. The focuser seemed to have some "flat spots" when focusing. I took the mechanism apart and noticed that the shaft which the focusing knobs are attached to was slightly bent. Using heavy duty pliers, I straightened out the shaft, and the focuser is now smooth. There is also a little play in the shaft which extends from the focuser (where the diagonal is inserted), but it's not really a serious problem. The pros in this scope far outweigh the cons. Would I recommend this OTA? Yes. It is better optically than the Chinese refractors floating around. Make sure you have a sturdy mount, though, as this is a big scope. It also looks nice, which may not be important to some people, but it is to me. And....whaddayaknow....it's made right here in the U.S.A!!

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Photon 127mm F9 Refractor
Just to clarify the above post. These scopes are not made in the USA. This is from the owner of Photon scopes and I am quoting him "I prototyped the instrument and we have the OTA made in China by one of their best optical houses. This is not the same maker that makes telescopes for Orion, Celestron etc". But they are excellent, I have one. Thanks Bob Midiri DVAA

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Photon 127mm F9 Refractor
I have reviewed the above posts about the Photon 127mm OTA. I've found your
comments to be both interesting and exciting about this particular instrument.
I'm in the market for my first scope,and considering the price and total package
this seems to be a good choice. Unfortunately I'm not aware of a distributor or
store who carries this scope. Could someone help me out by emailing me with a
internet site,or a name,address or phone number of a distributor.

Thanks,Tom
Fishexcell@aol.com

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Photon 127mm F9 Refractor
Photon telescopes are only sold at http://www.photoninstrument.com/

Just to avoid confusion: the picture at the top of this page is the Photon 90 not the Photon 127.

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Photon 127mm F9 Refractor
Preliminary review on the OTA only. Agree with earlier comments about the tube rings being inadequate. They allow the tube to actually slide back and forth when the scope is pointed straight up. They also allow a lot of vibration to interfere with focusing. The 2" focuser has too much play and needs to be tightened down too much to allow smooth focusing. The OTA is front-heavy, like the Celestron CR-150, and you wind up sitting on the ground if you use a mount like the CG-5. Removing the dew cap helps to balance the OTA but the screws holding the objective lens cell loosened after removing and installing the dew cap just once. Finally, I have yet to be able to get the scope to focus stars to a pinpoint, even using a Tele-Vue 2" diagonal. This may be because of the mount and tube-ring both being inadequate, I will get back with the distributor (I live in Phoenix, Photon is located in Mesa AZ) and see if he can alleviate any of these deficiencies. Will report back on the results and try a star test later.

groomj@primenet.com

Overall Rating: 3
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Photon 127mm F9 Refractor
I have owned the Photon 127mm for about eight months, and have used it quite a bit in that time, primarily for variable star observing. It is a well built telescope. The 2" finder is solid, and the image doesn't shift if the finder is racked in and out. The objective lens shows a green coating both on the outside and inside. Since I already own a number of mounts, I bought the optical tube only.
The finder that came with the telescope was not very good. I replaced it with an old University Optics 8x50 which fits well in the supplied finder bracket. The tube is painted a flat black on the inside. There are 3 baffles, the middle one of which is a nice matte black looking toward the objective, but a poorly painted looking from the objective toward the eyepiece end of the tube.
The telescope came with a decent 2" diagonal. I usually use a 2" Maxbrite which I think helps getting fainter stars.
In comparison with a 4" Vixen fluorite refractor, both scopes showed similar detail on Jupiter and Saturn (6 belts on Jupiter). The difference was a slight purple glow around the planet through the Photon. The chromatic abberation is not very bad at all, considering the size of the objective and the focal length. The comparison is a good lesson the lossof light which even a little chromatic aberration causes, with an excellent 4" apochromat showing the same detail as a good 5" achromat. The Photon can show slightly fainter stars than the Vixen, the effect of larger aperature. The skies here in the northern suburbs of Chicago are usually about mag 4.5, at the very best a few times a year mag 5. The Vixen can show about 12.4 and the Photon 12.6.
A comparison with a 120mm Skywatcher f8.3 was no match. The Photon has far less chromatic abberation, a much smoother and steadier focuser and is built more solidly.
In comparison with an Astrophysics 6" apochromatic which I bought in 1986, of course the 6" was better. It is corrected for visual use, and shows only a thin line of greenish-blue on one side of the moon. I haven't detected any other evidence of chromatic abberation with it. It is, however, about 5 or 6 pounds heavier than the Photon, and the Astrophysics 706 mount is also a bit of a beast, which makes the Photon easier to carry out and set up. I'm using it an a Vixen GP-DX mount, and I have tried it on the plain Vixen GP mount with wooden legs. Both mounts hold it well.
For the price and ease of use, the Photon 127 is a great deal. It's too bad that Photon doesn't advertise. They have a quality product, but you really have to dig around to find them.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
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Photon 127mm F9 Refractor
I purchased the OTA only about 2 months ago and let me say I was VERY PLEASED!
For the price this scope can't be beat. I used my 2" TeleVue Maxbrite diagonal and replaced the 7X50 finder scope with a Lumicon 80mm right-angle Superfinder.
I already had a GP-DX mount which is a perfect match for this scope (Like the previous post I did find a need to replace the tube rings). With this setup and high quality ep's I notice HARDLY ANY purple fringing around bright objects. I can take this scope up to INSANE magnifcations with only the slightest chromatic aberration! When veiwing the moon invest the 50 or so dollars on a decent moon filter and the views will be absolutely tack sharp with 60X plus per inch of aperture! One member of my local club owns a 4" TAK and he was absolutely amazed with the sharpness and contrast with this scope. I'm not sure if I got a exceptional OTA or if the setup I have is "ideal" for this scope. Either way I'm amazed at the views through this scope! I would highly recommend this scope to anyone who wants the finest optical performance and can't afford a TeleVue or a Takahashi. One more point. If you absolutely cannot stand ANY purple fringe aroung VERY bright objects just purchase a #8 yellow and #80A light blue filter. A hell of a lot cheaper than a APO refractor! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!!

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 2 (Unreliable Vote)
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