Astro-Physics StarFire 12ED

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Astro-Physics StarFire 12ED
This scope doesn't QUITE rate a ten, as there is slight violet around Venus at its brightest. However the scope is perfect for my interests: sketching and introducing others to astronomy. The doublet makes it light enough to lug out to a really dark site, where performance excells. On the AP 400 mount the tube is rock steady, have left the drive on for two hours and returned to find object still centered.

Great contrast and resolution: inky black skies and great detail on Saturn and Jupiter. Stars pinpoint images, with excellent nebulosity and detail apparent on deep sky objects. Perfect diffraction rings, minimal cool down time, and the long dewcap eliminates the need for heaters even in humid skies. A 2.3 degree FOV with a Panoptic 35, and I can't push it past 235x, so it doesn't stretch quite as much at either end as the AP 5"f6, but I have owned the Star 12ED since '94 and have no desire to replace it.

All AP products (diagonals, focusers, mounts, etc.) are designed, engineered, and constructed to extremely high standards: they are robust, precision instruments and Roland's customer service is superb. An incredible bargain at $2000.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40408

Astro-Physics StarFire 12ED
Superb. Some color (better than Genesis SDF), but sharpness and contrast excellent. Star test perfect.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40409

Astro-Physics StarFire 12ED
I can't quite give this scope a 10 because compared to the best Apos made today by Astro-Phyisics, TMB and Televue, it does lag just a smidge. Still it gives a very nice star test, is great on the planets and gives good deepsky images. At high powers on bright objects there is a smidge of color but you have too look for it and at least in my opinion it compares favorably to any of the ED or Flourite Doublets out there. It is a fairly big scope, bigger (if not heavier) than the current AP-130 F/6 scope. Still if you find a decent price on one in the used market and want an Apo, you will not be disappointed.

--
Bill

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:9 Value:9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=196403

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