I'm glad to see someone on UA-cam doing serious astrophotography with an ES AR refractor! I bought an AR102 for what I think is a bargain price and tremendous value. It came with everything necessary for visual astronomy except a mount (which I also bought) and eye pieces (which I already had). I intend to get a mono astro-camera for the same reasons you mentioned. The quality of the images you shared in this video make me feel like I made a good choice. Thanks!
My introduction to your work was during an interview you did with Scott over at Explore Scientific. As a photographer, I was looking at the capabilities of the AR152 as an imager, just in case I wanted to dip my toe into semi-serious astrophotography. While I ended up getting the "little brother" version of this scope (I couldn't find a 152mm in stock while I had the money to drop), I still kept coming back to your images with this set-up. Always awe inspiring. You do such an amazing job and I'm excited to see what you'll be posting to UA-cam!
Thanks for the compliments. Great to hear. That interview seems sooo long ago now. But time flies. UA-cam is a lot of work. I have new things in the pipeline though. 😉
Good luck. It’s a great scope but just remember to take care and optimize your camera and filter system to avoid the common issues with an achromat. My process for this is outlined here! Clear skies!
Right on, thank you. I really think it is a value (if that’s not obvious by now 😜). The size of it helps produce some mighty detailed images when used with care. Plus it’s great to look through with an eyepiece.
At just over 20lb it doesn’t absolutely require it. I’ve used it with a Celestron AVX on many occasions. Remember we aren’t talking about premium gear here. It isn’t going to be perfect, but it is absolutely usable like that.
Wonderful video and explanation. I just purchased an ES AR102 "open box" but haven't used it yet. I'm curios about focuser upgrades for these scopes in general. In my initial assessment I find that the stock focuser has some slip/jerk to it even after loosening the lock and tension screws as well as loosening and realigning the hex head screws on the drawtube. Any insight/experience with this would be greatly appreciated. I have a message off to both Highpoint Scientific and Moonlite focusers for a fix or replacement, respectively. Thanks!
I updated mine to a Moonlite. Honestly, the stock focuser was ok, but I did experience some tilt when I was solar imaging. The equipment was hanging far rearward and it just wasn’t the best option. I did image for years with the stock focuser though and it performed admirably for what it was ! Good luck. I can answer any questions you may have about the swap. Ron at moonlite would tell you exactly what you need and honestly it is a great upgrade.
When you’ve been in the hobby a while like me, it’s easy to gloss over the fact that it IS expensive and somewhat intimidating. For astrophotography, I always advocate starting small with just a basic camera and a lens and build as time and money allow.
For solar photography, do you use a aperture or solar energy rejection filter, or stop, when using the Daystar Quarks or do you just add a UV filter before the ZW174 mono camera? Love your image captures!!
I use 2” UV/IR cut before the quark for this setup… I place this as far forward as possible within the drawtube. This needs to be in front of the quark to prevent damage. Thanks for the compliments.
Achromats are truly underdogs. They can also produce excellent images. Btw sir can you tell how you are getting natural colours of stars. Like blue colour of blue stars, orange color of orange stars. Plss
Generally, my deep sky shots though this scope are narrowband, so they are either a natural HOO palette mix or perhaps SHO with some tricks of removing the green component and color shifting them (though there is variation in the colors, I’m not sure if it’s “natural” at that point).
Thank you! I certainly have gotten use out of it. Made this video a good while back but figured I'd test the waters with it. Long form video isn't what I'm used to but have to start somewhere I suppose.
@@TheVastReaches hoping to see more long format :) Btw, your edge8 shots were inspirational for me years ago. In keeping with the theme of this video, it showed me what was possible with reasonably priced gear.
Right on ! The EdgeHD is my forever scope, lol. Love it. I hear you, though. It's important to learn that you can do a lot with a relatively modest kit.
I have one of this... and it's my frienemy scope... The lens cell is a catastrophe with its sideways screws which align the focal axes of the two lenses. If you knock the tube against something the two lenses get misaligned and it's a pain to get them aligned once again. The push-pull screws that move the doublet as a whole are ok, but no matter how well you collimate the scope with a collimating eyepiece, if the two lenses are misaligned to each other then you have to tackle with the 6 sideways screws and risk to chip trhe sides of the lenses... I took out those screws and tried to fill the gap between the lens and and its mount (it's about 0.7-1 mm!) with pieces of thin aluminium sheets. Now the two lenses are held firmly to each other and though the collimation is still not perfect, it's ok. The lens itself throws up a huge amount of false color, the image is washed in a noticeable purple haze, but that's not the most annoying part... It also has a fair amount of spherical aberration too. At 200x+ magnification the spherical aberration starts to annoy you and the planetary images are not so sharp as you might expect. However, when you stop down the lens to 100 mm (5") it will show acceoptable planetary images at 200x. With the lens stopped down to 100 mm I split delta Cygni, which is quite good. As for the Moon and Venus: I dunno how these Moon&Venus photos were taken but this scope will show a huge amount of purple haze around the Moon & Venus... I think those photos were taken with green monochromatic filter. What i like in this scope? 1. The focuser. 2. It's a great visual DSO scope! I use it within the 30x-120x range with a "dobsonian"-like mount made by myself and it is a pleasure to use it this way. No need for adjustment screws, just slew in the right direction and look at what you want. It's well balanced and i move it with just 2 fingers... And when changing eyepieces it stays firmly in place, it does not wobble when you try to reach focus. 3. It has a fair amount of field of view with some good eyepieces. Would I buy it once again? Nope. For imaging a fast 8" newtonian with coma corrector is a far better choice. For visual I'd rather buy the 152/1200 skywatcher achromat.
Suppose it depends on your intent. I bought this for solar imaging and it is great for the purpose when considering the price point. The whole purpose in this video is demonstrating that it has a lot of additional flexibility when used correctly for the purposes. It is absolutely necessary to use filters and or techniques to sidestep the issues at the extremes of the spectrum. Is it better to purpose-buy a scope for each purpose…100%. But at what cost?
well thank you! With care this scope puts up some pretty nice images. Obviously there are always better choices for specific tasks, but this is a classic "jack of all trades, but master of none" situation. lol
I have thought about getting a large achromat for imaging, but I use an OSC camera with my 5 inch newt usually and I just don't think I could part with the apochromatic nature of it. I do plan to do some experimenting with some of the smaller achromats I have just for the fun of it though. However, I would LOVE to see what some DSOs look like though a large refractor like that visually.
I don’t have the skies for visual. I’ve also used this scope with OSC and I’d pass on that unless you filter the incoming light. It does great in narrowband but even multi-band narrowband would present challenges with focus position being off for some of the bands.
@@TheVastReaches that is about what I figured unless you stop the scope down and use a fringe killer filter and even then you would be better off with day an Svbony 102ED. I live in a bortle 3/4 area though so I think it would be great visually for me but I have no need of one since I have an 8" dob. I would just like to try one
Have to be a bit careful here. For visual use, yes the AR152 will give you surprisingly good views. BUT, it is an achromat, which I talk about when introducing the scope. It is not the best choice for imaging broadband targets (galaxies and bright nebulae). If you use narrowband filters you can sidestep these issues (for nebulae at least). If broadband imaging is the goal, choosing an apochromatic scope is a better route. This scope does a decent job at any task thrown at it, at an exceptional price point, but it doesn’t necessarily excel at and one particular thing. Hope this helps. If you have more questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Interesting video, like! A 80 mm ED / APO costs just as much or more than as a Bresser 127/1200 f9.4 achromat (430$). But which one is better for visual observations (not for astrophotography) ? I guess that because of the much bigger aperture the 127/1200 mm should be better. I don’t know which one to buy. I would really appreciate your opinion :). Unfortunately there are practically no comparison videos on UA-cam between an achromat and APO at similar prices. Thank you!
For purely visual observation I’d always lean toward a bigger aperture. The eye is much more forgiving to optical aberration and the benefits of added light gathering will generally outweigh those drawbacks. For visual, get as much aperture as you can afford. That said, I’d have a hard look at dobsonians as an option…where you can get into 8” or 10” for that price range!
I bought a used 150 celestron f8 1200fl achromatic refractor ,think it was 600 bucks sure you can see some blueish around bright objects ,moon ,planets ,but they look fantastic, crystal clear at 176x no complaints worth every penny ,plus it's probably more like what Galileo saw ,but better eye pieces lol,buy the bigger 1 ,all the messier objects will look better
@@-donkey_696_ agree 💯. These large achromats are excellent visual instruments… and as I show here, unexpectedly capable in photography with some care.
My experience with this scope was the opposite. I had it serviced under warranty and was satisfied with the work and the turnaround time. But, I know every case is unique so can only speak for myself.
What telescope and mount did you use for Cat’s eye nebula picture? I am especially interested how did you get details in center, which after magnification (at the beginning of this video) looks like Hubble picture. Did you compare this ES scope with other refractors? Thanks
I have to apologize, but the Intro sequence was reused from other older videos I made. It’s actually the only shot that was not done with the ES AR152 in this video. I put the disclaimer at the end but surely not everyone looked there. It was shot with the 8” Celestron EdgeHD. BUT, similar results would be possible with the AR152 and careful processing. Processing is indeed a big part of these results. I used both the Celestron AVX and SkyWatcher EQ6-R mounts for the rest of the shots in this video where the AR152 was used. I have not compared it to other similar refractors because I don’t own any other comparable scopes. Let me know if you have any other ?s
@@TheVastReaches I looked your pictures in AstroBin; found that Cat’s eye nebula. Superb work, no wonder it won image of day. It is extremely tough target. However, a majority of your pictures are done with Edge, Newtonian, etc. No refractor. It is good for solar, no more.
Appreciate it. Though I don't think that assessment is really fair. It does an excellent job in narrowband for deep sky work and has proven quite versatile for me. I don't use it much for other purposes simply because it's configured to use regularly as my main solar scope.
@@TheVastReaches Most versatile scope in your collection is Edge. Yes, it will work for narrow band imaging. However, for narrow band, there are many better scopes: wider field of view and fast. This is a reason you use it as dedicated solar scope.
@@anata5127 I generally don’t view things as absolutely. Versatility doesn’t imply it is the best in each task but that it performs admirably in a variety of tasks. There are times when it would be a better choice than the edge. As you mentioned, it’s much faster as I use it (6” f/4.5) and has a larger FOV (I wont use hyperstar because it comes with some major drawbacks). All this is to say I will stand by my statements regarding this scope. It’s versatile, affordable, and one of my favorites.
I'm glad to see someone on UA-cam doing serious astrophotography with an ES AR refractor! I bought an AR102 for what I think is a bargain price and tremendous value. It came with everything necessary for visual astronomy except a mount (which I also bought) and eye pieces (which I already had). I intend to get a mono astro-camera for the same reasons you mentioned. The quality of the images you shared in this video make me feel like I made a good choice. Thanks!
Right on. There are the drawbacks but they are certainly a great value in the right hands.
My introduction to your work was during an interview you did with Scott over at Explore Scientific. As a photographer, I was looking at the capabilities of the AR152 as an imager, just in case I wanted to dip my toe into semi-serious astrophotography. While I ended up getting the "little brother" version of this scope (I couldn't find a 152mm in stock while I had the money to drop), I still kept coming back to your images with this set-up. Always awe inspiring. You do such an amazing job and I'm excited to see what you'll be posting to UA-cam!
Thanks for the compliments. Great to hear. That interview seems sooo long ago now. But time flies. UA-cam is a lot of work. I have new things in the pipeline though. 😉
Recently aqured one of these with a goto mount.. Looking forward to getting back into some astrophoto.
Good luck. It’s a great scope but just remember to take care and optimize your camera and filter system to avoid the common issues with an achromat. My process for this is outlined here! Clear skies!
Very nice video and thanks for the information, Jason!. I was not aware of such a good value, king size, scope!
Right on, thank you. I really think it is a value (if that’s not obvious by now 😜). The size of it helps produce some mighty detailed images when used with care. Plus it’s great to look through with an eyepiece.
Remember, big scope equals big mount, a proper mount will cost three times what this scope is worth.
At just over 20lb it doesn’t absolutely require it. I’ve used it with a Celestron AVX on many occasions.
Remember we aren’t talking about premium gear here. It isn’t going to be perfect, but it is absolutely usable like that.
Wonderful video and explanation. I just purchased an ES AR102 "open box" but haven't used it yet. I'm curios about focuser upgrades for these scopes in general. In my initial assessment I find that the stock focuser has some slip/jerk to it even after loosening the lock and tension screws as well as loosening and realigning the hex head screws on the drawtube. Any insight/experience with this would be greatly appreciated. I have a message off to both Highpoint Scientific and Moonlite focusers for a fix or replacement, respectively. Thanks!
I updated mine to a Moonlite. Honestly, the stock focuser was ok, but I did experience some tilt when I was solar imaging. The equipment was hanging far rearward and it just wasn’t the best option. I did image for years with the stock focuser though and it performed admirably for what it was ! Good luck.
I can answer any questions you may have about the swap. Ron at moonlite would tell you exactly what you need and honestly it is a great upgrade.
I cant wait to own something like this. Awesome video
When you’ve been in the hobby a while like me, it’s easy to gloss over the fact that it IS expensive and somewhat intimidating. For astrophotography, I always advocate starting small with just a basic camera and a lens and build as time and money allow.
Those images of the sun are superb!
Glad you like! Thanks for the watch.
For solar photography, do you use a aperture or solar energy rejection filter, or stop, when using the Daystar Quarks or do you just add a UV filter before the ZW174 mono camera? Love your image captures!!
I use 2” UV/IR cut before the quark for this setup… I place this as far forward as possible within the drawtube. This needs to be in front of the quark to prevent damage. Thanks for the compliments.
Achromats are truly underdogs. They can also produce excellent images. Btw sir can you tell how you are getting natural colours of stars. Like blue colour of blue stars, orange color of orange stars. Plss
Generally, my deep sky shots though this scope are narrowband, so they are either a natural HOO palette mix or perhaps SHO with some tricks of removing the green component and color shifting them (though there is variation in the colors, I’m not sure if it’s “natural” at that point).
@@TheVastReaches ok
Great video ,great scope ,fantastic pictures ,keep up the great work
Thank you for watching. Glad you enjoyed it.
Nice video and images Jason. The AR152 looks like an awesome scope. CS!
Thank you! I certainly have gotten use out of it.
Made this video a good while back but figured I'd test the waters with it. Long form video isn't what I'm used to but have to start somewhere I suppose.
@@TheVastReaches hoping to see more long format :)
Btw, your edge8 shots were inspirational for me years ago. In keeping with the theme of this video, it showed me what was possible with reasonably priced gear.
Right on ! The EdgeHD is my forever scope, lol. Love it.
I hear you, though. It's important to learn that you can do a lot with a relatively modest kit.
I have one of this... and it's my frienemy scope...
The lens cell is a catastrophe with its sideways screws which align the focal axes of the two lenses. If you knock the tube against something the two lenses get misaligned and it's a pain to get them aligned once again.
The push-pull screws that move the doublet as a whole are ok, but no matter how well you collimate the scope with a collimating eyepiece, if the two lenses are misaligned to each other then you have to tackle with the 6 sideways screws and risk to chip trhe sides of the lenses...
I took out those screws and tried to fill the gap between the lens and and its mount (it's about 0.7-1 mm!) with pieces of thin aluminium sheets.
Now the two lenses are held firmly to each other and though the collimation is still not perfect, it's ok.
The lens itself throws up a huge amount of false color, the image is washed in a noticeable purple haze, but that's not the most annoying part... It also has a fair amount of spherical aberration too.
At 200x+ magnification the spherical aberration starts to annoy you and the planetary images are not so sharp as you might expect.
However, when you stop down the lens to 100 mm (5") it will show acceoptable planetary images at 200x.
With the lens stopped down to 100 mm I split delta Cygni, which is quite good.
As for the Moon and Venus: I dunno how these Moon&Venus photos were taken but this scope will show a huge amount of purple haze around the Moon & Venus...
I think those photos were taken with green monochromatic filter.
What i like in this scope?
1. The focuser.
2. It's a great visual DSO scope! I use it within the 30x-120x range with a "dobsonian"-like mount made by myself and it is a pleasure to use it this way. No need for adjustment screws, just slew in the right direction and look at what you want. It's well balanced and i move it with just 2 fingers... And when changing eyepieces it stays firmly in place, it does not wobble when you try to reach focus.
3. It has a fair amount of field of view with some good eyepieces.
Would I buy it once again?
Nope.
For imaging a fast 8" newtonian with coma corrector is a far better choice.
For visual I'd rather buy the 152/1200 skywatcher achromat.
Suppose it depends on your intent. I bought this for solar imaging and it is great for the purpose when considering the price point. The whole purpose in this video is demonstrating that it has a lot of additional flexibility when used correctly for the purposes. It is absolutely necessary to use filters and or techniques to sidestep the issues at the extremes of the spectrum.
Is it better to purpose-buy a scope for each purpose…100%. But at what cost?
大きな屈折レンズによるdeep skyは素晴らしい。
🙏
Subbed! I hope you produce more videos about your interest and how you plan to use this scope more often! First to many :)
Thanks for the support. I have fresh ones in the works ! Fun, but a lot of effort!
Excellent images! It is nice to know with mono imaging APO is not necessary
well thank you! With care this scope puts up some pretty nice images. Obviously there are always better choices for specific tasks, but this is a classic "jack of all trades, but master of none" situation. lol
Continue your channel
I hope to! Thanks
Cool! Now we need you to do a review on the AR151 and the AR15 with LPVO scope whenever you you feel like it.
Cheers Dr. I’m no expert on those, unfortunately.
I have thought about getting a large achromat for imaging, but I use an OSC camera with my 5 inch newt usually and I just don't think I could part with the apochromatic nature of it. I do plan to do some experimenting with some of the smaller achromats I have just for the fun of it though. However, I would LOVE to see what some DSOs look like though a large refractor like that visually.
I don’t have the skies for visual. I’ve also used this scope with OSC and I’d pass on that unless you filter the incoming light. It does great in narrowband but even multi-band narrowband would present challenges with focus position being off for some of the bands.
@@TheVastReaches that is about what I figured unless you stop the scope down and use a fringe killer filter and even then you would be better off with day an Svbony 102ED. I live in a bortle 3/4 area though so I think it would be great visually for me but I have no need of one since I have an 8" dob. I would just like to try one
Really impressive work you're doing.
Appreciate that, thanks. Hope it inspires some ideas!
Awesome work.
Thank you! Cheers!
Is it good for nebulas and galaxies? or is the explore scientific 127mm better?
Have to be a bit careful here. For visual use, yes the AR152 will give you surprisingly good views. BUT, it is an achromat, which I talk about when introducing the scope. It is not the best choice for imaging broadband targets (galaxies and bright nebulae). If you use narrowband filters you can sidestep these issues (for nebulae at least). If broadband imaging is the goal, choosing an apochromatic scope is a better route. This scope does a decent job at any task thrown at it, at an exceptional price point, but it doesn’t necessarily excel at and one particular thing. Hope this helps. If you have more questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.
my hobby for 39 years !!!
It's a good one!
Interesting video, like! A 80 mm ED / APO costs just as much or more than as a Bresser 127/1200 f9.4 achromat (430$). But which one is better for visual observations (not for astrophotography) ? I guess that because of the much bigger aperture the 127/1200 mm should be better. I don’t know which one to buy. I would really appreciate your opinion :). Unfortunately there are practically no comparison videos on UA-cam between an achromat and APO at similar prices. Thank you!
For purely visual observation I’d always lean toward a bigger aperture. The eye is much more forgiving to optical aberration and the benefits of added light gathering will generally outweigh those drawbacks. For visual, get as much aperture as you can afford. That said, I’d have a hard look at dobsonians as an option…where you can get into 8” or 10” for that price range!
@@TheVastReaches Thank you for your answer :)
I bought a used 150 celestron f8 1200fl achromatic refractor ,think it was 600 bucks sure you can see some blueish around bright objects ,moon ,planets ,but they look fantastic, crystal clear at 176x no complaints worth every penny ,plus it's probably more like what Galileo saw ,but better eye pieces lol,buy the bigger 1 ,all the messier objects will look better
@@-donkey_696_ agree 💯. These large achromats are excellent visual instruments… and as I show here, unexpectedly capable in photography with some care.
Eye of God !!!
Can it be also used for visual astronomy?
Nice video. However, the problem with Explore Scientific is that service is terrible. Good luck with warranty issues.
My experience with this scope was the opposite. I had it serviced under warranty and was satisfied with the work and the turnaround time. But, I know every case is unique so can only speak for myself.
He has a fortune in this hobby.
Oh good lord it never ends. 😂
Don’t we all
What telescope and mount did you use for Cat’s eye nebula picture? I am especially interested how did you get details in center, which after magnification (at the beginning of this video) looks like Hubble picture.
Did you compare this ES scope with other refractors?
Thanks
I have to apologize, but the Intro sequence was reused from other older videos I made. It’s actually the only shot that was not done with the ES AR152 in this video. I put the disclaimer at the end but surely not everyone looked there. It was shot with the 8” Celestron EdgeHD. BUT, similar results would be possible with the AR152 and careful processing.
Processing is indeed a big part of these results. I used both the Celestron AVX and SkyWatcher EQ6-R mounts for the rest of the shots in this video where the AR152 was used.
I have not compared it to other similar refractors because I don’t own any other comparable scopes.
Let me know if you have any other ?s
@@TheVastReaches I looked your pictures in AstroBin; found that Cat’s eye nebula. Superb work, no wonder it won image of day. It is extremely tough target.
However, a majority of your pictures are done with Edge, Newtonian, etc. No refractor. It is good for solar, no more.
Appreciate it. Though I don't think that assessment is really fair. It does an excellent job in narrowband for deep sky work and has proven quite versatile for me. I don't use it much for other purposes simply because it's configured to use regularly as my main solar scope.
@@TheVastReaches Most versatile scope in your collection is Edge. Yes, it will work for narrow band imaging. However, for narrow band, there are many better scopes: wider field of view and fast. This is a reason you use it as dedicated solar scope.
@@anata5127 I generally don’t view things as absolutely. Versatility doesn’t imply it is the best in each task but that it performs admirably in a variety of tasks. There are times when it would be a better choice than the edge. As you mentioned, it’s much faster as I use it (6” f/4.5) and has a larger FOV (I wont use hyperstar because it comes with some major drawbacks).
All this is to say I will stand by my statements regarding this scope. It’s versatile, affordable, and one of my favorites.
Best wishes for you
Thanks! and to you.
Explore AR 152 telescope Agar Ham kharidna Chahe to kahan se khariden aur Bhartiya Mudra Mein iski kimat kitni hai 2:32
Several retailers would ship internationally if it’s not available locally. But I’d recommend contacting Explore Scientific directly.
Bharat mein explore certificate AR 152 telescope kahan se khariden aur Bharat mein iski kimat kitni hai
2:15 2:17
AR-15 2 is a really weird sequel to AR-15. I don't understand this franchise at all.
Nerfed it for science.