Posts Made By: Markus Ludes

here a image of the today arrived first testing sample

clear skies

Markus

today 3 new customers became a owner of the outstanding TMB 115F/7 Apo in light weight tubes. On the photosection I created a folder showing one of the new owner with his new baby. He fall in love when he saw it and touched is as smooth as a new born baby. In trade he brought me a bottle champaign.

2 new versions we made

a, one for a customer who wants to use it on an GR2-DX Mount,here we simply screwed on the tube the mountrail without use of tuberings, so weight went down to 5.95 kg in total (=13 pound )

Mr. latin, the guy on the photosection wanted to have a bit more, he asked our standart version with movable drawtube , atttached feather touch focuser, retractable dewshield, nit set of lightweight alutubetings, with GP mountrail and on top the INTES MN 61 transporting handle. Also he asked us to attached the Baader quick exchange 50 mm Finderbracket, his baby came out with 7.2 kg = 15.8 pound due the extra stuff.

His telescope looks in reality much much nicer than my simple picture can show .

This new lightweight tubes becoming more and more my bestselling TMB scopes , since not many asking anymore the 3" focuser for 6 x7 imaging and for standart 22 accessories, CCD work and 35 mm SLR imaging our lightweight tubes are the best match.

we stocking many lenses a dns starting now to make more such tubes to have them always in stock for next day shipping.

the prices are same as before and did not change.

best wishes

Markus

PENTAX

Pentax Corporation is pleased to announce the introduction of the SMC PENTAX XW Series of eyepieces designed for use with Pentax-brand spotting scopes and telescopes in ground and astronomical observations. Consisting of eight models with a focal length ranging from 3.5 mm to 40 mm, the new XW series features a wide apparent angle of view ( 70 degrees), JIS Class 4 weather-proof construction and a long eye relief ( 20 mm ). The new optics, incorporating high-refraction, low-dispersion lanthanum glass elements and PENTAX-original multi - layer coating , delivers bright, high-resolution images with minimal aberrations and distortions.

The new XW series retains all the popular features of the current XL series, including eyepiece shape , while upgrading many vital specifications. All XW models feature a 70-degree apparent angle of view, delivering a more dramatic , wide-perspective image than the 65 degrees of the XL-series. Laminted optical elements are threadet with the innovative partial coating, which offers mugh higher light transmission capability than conventional full-surface coating. Thanks to advanced computer simulation technology , internal reflections are drastically reduced to produce brighter , clearer images.

Replacing the excisting XL-series , the new XW-series can be used with the PENTAX PF-80ED, PF-EDA and PF-100ED spotting scopes and a range of PENTAX telescopes to optimize their performance and capability. The XW 7, XW 10, XW 14 and XW 20 models are suited for both ground and astronomical applications, while the XW3.5, XW5, XW30 and XW40 modells are exclusivly designed for astronomical observations.

About the new Pentax XO , new Orthoscopic series not much info is available, excapt that they have a standart 1.25" barrel , a slightly larger FOV and new better multicoatings.



Tchn.. Specs. of new XW eyepieces

SMC Pentax XW
70° FOV
neewest SMC-coating
ED-Lanthanum Glas
6-8 Lenses in 4-6 Groups
weather proofed
Transmission ca.98%
Reducing of all abberations and distortions
eye relief 20 mm

XW 3.5 mm, XW 5 mm, XW 7 mm, XW 10 mm, XW 14 mm, XW 20 mm are 1.25" models
Prices for the 1.25" Modells US $ 329
Start of delivery: around July/August 2003


XW 30 mm and XW 40 mm are 2" models
Prices for 2" Modells US $ 549
Start of delivery: around July/August 2003


Tchn.. Specs. of new XO eyepieces

SMC Pentax XO
44° FOV
new SMC-Coating
ED-Lanthanum Glas
weather proofed
Transmission ca.98%
Reducing of all abberations and distortions
eye relief at XO 2.5 mm : 3.6 mm
eye relief at XO 5 mm : 3.9mm
Prices are not fixed yet
Start of Delivery around July/August 2003


we taking now already pre orders



Your APM-Team

My TAO 130 finaly and passed my benchtest

1, The telescope mechanics are great as usual. Personly I do not like the tube ring stop for the retractable dewcap, this could be solved by a nicer method

2, Optics. Mine shows even after during cool down a astigmatism, the airydisc is here but with little cross, going either way through focuse you see the astigmatism also clear. After time moving, the astigmatism goes completly away, thats maybe a result of the large airspace , so please allow the telescope to get completly cooled down .
Spherical correction looks rather good , but with some undercorrection as most apos from all manufactors show, which means inside of focuse the fressnell rings are clean and sharp and outside of focuse all fressnell rings are a bit softer.
Using a green filter to see if its optimzed for green show same result, so the undercorrection is not a result of spherochromatism , but of real slightly undercorrection.
I used a red filter and found by red the best correction, so its nulled not for visuel, but for Red, CCD. Since Takahashi say its an CCD image mashine, it is correct nulled.

Coatings: The coatings are very nice and better optizest than in my stocking FS 128

Visual Startest:
- Infocuse: colorfree with bright white airydisc and very faint first diffraction ring
- inside of focuse, a hint of orange
- outside of focuser clearly viaible a outer lightblue colorfringe

The colorcorrection is quite similar to my FCT 150, where the outside lightblue was more a deeper blue.
This color I found is invible for many observers and far brighter in an 140F/7 and 160F/8 Triplet apo I saw some time ago . Last days i sold a used AP 180F/9 EDT which have also a similar good colorcorrection.

Now please do not ask me how it compares to the TMB correction, even if I say the thruth , it would not be fair to state anything about that, because I am a TMB Dealer

Estimation of the final quality ? I can speak about my many years experience only. A eye startest cannot detect smallest local errors which maybe show on a printed document lower numbers, due some smallest local errors. But for global correction, this Telescope shall have over 96% strehlratio and about 1/7 wavefront p.t.v., I could be wrong, but thats my estimation by comparing the startest with telescopes where I have printed testreports.



One last word: The overal correction of this lens include colorcorrection remembers me 1:1 to the Silverstar/TMB designed 130F/7 super apo with 4 elements, such a lens show excact the same colorcorrection



thanks

Markus

Here we show you the quality of our new APM Binocular 25 x 100 interferometrical tested at the green wavelenght, to show you the excellent quality of our product

Markus

last weekened I have had 4 days time to use the BW Optik 30 mm 80° in many diffrent telescopes.
My biggest priority was to see in which fast Dobs it is working fine enough

We used it in a 12"F/4 where the image was unacceptable
We used it in a F/5 Newtonian, where the edge correction was poor, but biggest part of the center very sharp
We used it in a 12"F/6 Dob where the overal images have been very good, even the outer edge was not bad

The image of the 30 mm BW in the 12"F/6 was at the edge about same sharp as the tele Vue Nagler 31 mm showed in the 12"F/4

The most interested result was when we compared the BW 30 against other chinese and Taiwanese 2" eyepieces , the center sharpness in the BW was superior to alöl his competitions which cost about same and partly more money

In my TMB 115F/7 the BW also performed very well for the biggest part of the field

So I think the BW 30 is very good to use in all SCT, MCT, Refractors down to F/7 and Newtonians down to F/6

if your system is faster you may think about the Naglers

best wishes

Markus

here new Eyepiece from William Optics in Taiwan , streetprice US $ 239

Markus

Hi Folks , here some first pictures of a new APM Product coming soon. This might be the best 6" Bino on the market for long time ( excapt some custom build apo versions ).
Its using 2 high end 6" Maksutov Cassegrain with moving mirror focusing, so interchangable eyepieces 1.25" are no problem. The protoytep was build with a fixed 73 x power for land observing. This will be now exchanged into eyepiece holders with 360° clampings and than the modell with 45° will follow soon.
The Bino can sit on a standart tripod or strong phototripod and its bino mechanism still allow you to move the bino towards sky. The delivery comes in a nice very strong woodbox.
We expect the start of sales in about 2 or month
This bino cannot run out of alignment. Both tubes are fixed together with a maximum tolerance of 8 minutes and that small tolerances will be collimated by the secondary mirror.
First strongest shocks and transportings over terrible poor roads did nothing at all at the collimation.
For US sales, I just drop a mail to Anacortes, i try to convience him it could be a good product, because for me its easier to ship many to 1 place than 1 here, next there, it will be also cheap for the single customer. The expected retail will be in any case less than $ 5,000

regards

Markus

please see a image of one of the most flexcible in use Apo Tube on the market and lightweigh too.

Markus

have fun and great views