Askar 120 Review - So nice I bought it.
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- čas přidán 4. 04. 2024
- Sorry this took so long to gather data for, the skies have been rather bad.
(first impressions vid here - • Askar 120 First Impres... )
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Hey Luke! Welcome to the Askar APO club, I own the 103 and couldnt be happier with it. I also have a bit of CA (it processes out along the way) but only if you pixel peep hard.
Its so great that high quality APOs are accesible now, if anything it will help spur along the other manufacturers to catch up or innovate.
Im very very tempted to buy a second 103 to make a giant binocular/second imaging scope to speed up acquiring data.
Hey there my friend! Thanks for the welcome haha :-D
Double 103's sounds like a heck of a setup, that could be an interesting idea!
Clear skies mate 👍👍
I can certainly see why you were drawn to purchasing the Askar Luke, what more can you ask for with its great focuser, frame coverage and sharp optics. Good thorough review and UV IR cut filter demo. Clear skies mate!
Thanks ever so much Chris mate!! I was dead chuffed, can't see anything wrong with it for my needs 👍👍
Clear skies mate!
Very cool, I'm excited for your purchase. I watched your first video and I wound up buying the Askar 103 apo and I'm really impressed with the scope. It's actually my first refractor as my other scopes are both SCT's (Edge 8 and a C6) so I was looking for less focal length. I chose the 103 as it's like getting 3 scopes with the .6 reducer in addition to the .8 and the 1.0x flattner.
I would say Askar hit it out of the park with these scopes at these prices. Also thanks for reminding me about using the IR cut filter as I had not even thought about that it was needed with a refractor. I have some clear weather coming next week again without the moon so I will be looking forward to getting it back out under the stars again. Thumbs up ! Cheers. ;-)
That's brilliant to hear mate, that 103 looks like a fantastic scope for sure!! :-D thanks for the great message and clear skies!
Nice review Luke that's scope looks excellent,
Thanks Tony mate!! 👍
Thank you for the solid review. I was looking for a refractor in the 120 range, and I think this might be the one I pull the trigger on. I was wary of Askar at first... the whole "the price is too good to be true." But So far, I have been shocked by their performance. The fact you have used both this model and the Esprit 120 and decided to purchase the Askar, says a lot.
Thanks so much my friend! - I've been massively impressed by the Askar 120, as you quite rightly say, the price is almost unappealing in a weird way 😅 it represents tremendous value!
Good luck in your decision and clear skies!! 👍👍
As an Askar owner, I’m not surprised you bought this scope Luke! They really do make some nice telescopes! That is really good mate! Nice review and hopefully we get some clear skies to use the beauties 😀👍
Thanks so much Simon mate!! I've been really happy with it so far, can't wait to test it out properly on a nice long session 👍👍
Clear skies my friend!
Nice review Luke. Looks very nice images the. Glad you got some skies lol. Did a little myself. Clear skies my friend
Glad you enjoyed it my friend!! Clear skies finally hey haha :-D
Bought the 103 yesterday!! Can’t wait to try it!!!!
Looks like a great scope to add to your collection mate 👌👌
Thanks so much Callum mate!! Hope you're doing well buddy :-D
I've had the 120APO for a few months now and absolutely love it. Great value for money! Can also confirm both the 1x flattener and 0.8 reducer illuminate a full frame image circle. What a great triplet!
excellent to hear that mate!! :-D so glad to hear of another happy owner! Clear skies and sorry about the late reply buddy!
Excellent video Luke, certainly a really good scope for the money..👍🏻
Thanks so much mate!! 👍👍
Great looking telescope Luke. Sure is purdy! I have a 110mm refractor from Orion in the US. It’s only a doublet but generates great images. I love the beefy focusser too. Nothing worse than a cheap focusser that does not have a smooth feel to it. Clear skies buddy! Dr B from Manitoba, Canada 🇨🇦
Thank you so much my friend!! - sorry about the late reply, this disappeared for a bit!
Cheers Luke. I'm convinced !! Will probably pair it with Altair 26c ...now need to start saving 👍
Ah that's awesome mate! I think you'll really enjoy it, clear skies!!
After you and the Narrowband Chanel did the unboxing videos, my interst was peaked. I was going to wait for my bank account to be in better shape, but galaxy season forced my hand. I bought this, and an AM5, 3 weeks ago! Limited time under the stars has shown awsome results. I wasn't prepared for this beasts size in person.
That's awesome!! :-D I hope it brings you many happy nights of imaging my friend!! 👍👍
Looks very nice, Luke. Congrats on your purchase! Do you what type of ED glass they use? I never seem to be able to find this information! Thanks again for the great review and very glad you're happy with your new scope.
Thanks so much Greg!! - re: glass, I can't say for sure but I believe it would be FK67, that would make the most sense 👍
good job mate , bro when I download pixinsight my McAfee and windows security detected a virus while downloading , strange?!!
Hey mate! - if downloaded direct from PixInsight themselves then it'll be a false positive almost certainly :-) Cheers!
phew that’s some nice detail, i’m jealous! my 400mm f/2.8 can give some good small stars but only when it’s warm out, the moment it gets below like 5°C i start to get hazy stars. this time tomorrow i’ll be on a plane to head south and start scrambling for clear skies for the eclipse! fingers crossed it won’t be a boeing 🤞 clear skies!
Thanks so much Gabe!! - my apologies about the late reply mate, - I hope you got to see the eclipse!!
@@lukomatico no worries man, i did! we flew 7500km and drove another 1500km in four days, but it was a success! the most incredible thing i’ve seen in my life, and my photos went nearly as well as i could’ve hoped! i’ll be processing the data soon, now i’ve just got to learn how to best edit it in the first place 😂
Great scope had mine 8 weeks now best purchase ever even exceeded my hopes, I must say stars are better than my redcat 71 I didn't expect that
Great to hear that my friend!! So glad you're happy too 👍👍
Hey Luko - So I've recently sold my Esprit 120 mate just as you've got another. It's the great merri go round of trying different scopes. Looks like a sweet piece of kit mate 👍
Thanks so much Ollie mate!! and uhm, you're not kidding about the scope merry go round haha.. I've just got another LOL!
@@lukomatico 🤣🤣omg it's addictive
Wow haven’t had proper clear skies in the South East for a long while. I need to move to where you are
Looks like a cracking scope for the price mate.
Nice review Luke. I realy like this refractor.
Question about the UV/IR filter :
Since I'm in bortle 5/6 , for galaxies I always used the optolong l-pro instead ( to try to remove some light pollution ), but now I'm unsure if I always did wrong and should get an UV-IR.
What's your suggestion about this?
Hey there! - my personal opinion on light pollution filters is they're not actually useful for broadband targets, actually they're a bit damaging to the data! - I'd certainly look at getting a uv/ir cut filter instead and stack some data from that, it may surprise you how much more colourful your processed images will be, even if the individual subs look more washed out :-) Cheers! (and sorry about the late reply!)
Great review as ever, thank you Luke. I have been considering to buy the Askar 130PHQ, do you have any experience or knowledge of this scope at all?
Thanks mate! I did a pretty in depth review on that scope a little while back on my channel!! 👍👍 Hope it's useful!
Hi mate, I have to beg you not to do this king of videos you going to bankrupt my bank account 😂😂!!! Congratulation on your new telescope what a beast loved!!!!!
Sorry my friend, haha!! 😅😅
Good vidio & Very informative
Glad you liked it!
If possible it would be very interesting to see an image comparison with the Askar 120mm vs the 180mm Maktusov and 200mm newtonian :)
Nice looking optical tube.
I think so too!
Soon to be moving to bortle 3 skies. I really need to rebuild my astro setup!!! I'd love one of these sadly it's a bit beyond my current budget but it looks like a fantastic scope!!
Superb mate!! those skies will be lovely when these clouds bugger off for a while haha! :-D
Been waiting for this! Nice one Luke. Looks good, although I guess Askar cherry pick the scopes they send out to CZcams influencers. What FWHM are you getting with the 1.0 flattener ?
I agree. I don't trust reviews when the manufacturer sent the equipment.
Hey mate! - I guess only Askar would know if it was cherry picked or not, all I can do is share what I've found with people 👍
Great review mate, one question, is the 58mm backspace only for when you use the 0.8 reducer and do you leave it at 55mm for the 1.0 flattener?
Thanks mate!! - great question, I actually tested the same 58mm spacing on the 1.0x flattener and it worked fine so I'll probably just keep it at that for both 👍
Well, I know what my next purchase is going to be now🤬🤣That looks like a quality bit of kit Luke, especially for the price (hard to believe it's almost half the price of the Esprit 120). I love my Esprit 100 but the quality of the focuser led my to look elsewhere for my next Apo. Probably tempting fate though as I haven't been able to make use of the gear I have just now due to the awful weather we've been having.
Hey Pete mate! Ah it's a lovely scope for sure, as you say it's hard to fathom how it's half the price of the Esprit - skywatcher are going to get caught sleeping at this rate!
Re: the weather, I hear you mate - it makes it hard to rationalize further purchases haha
Good review. What's your opinion of the focuser? Is it well designed.
I really like the focuser Jim! - it's smooth in action when used manually, easy to fit an EAF to, and has very little mechanical backlash so it's made well - the rotator design is wonderful too, really does hold well without any deflection! :-)
Hi luke did you not get rid of the Esprit 120 because you’d exhausted the targets at that fl but then purchased another scope with same focal length? Was the esprit not a better scope or am I missing something .
Hey mate! - you're absolutely right, haha!
I did sell the Esprit as I felt done with it, but within weeks I regretted it 😂
I really think this is every bit as good as the Esprit, so it was a no-brainer for me to buy & keep it! 👍
Great review Luke!
I’ve had the 120 now since Christmas and love it, I don’t have a UV/IR cut filter though and wonder if I should get one as you suggest. I’m in bortle 5 skies and own the ZWO533mc pro camera.
Do you recommend a particular filter for the Askar 120 ??
Cheers
Simon
Hey mate! Your 533mc should block UV/ir naturally so don't worry much about it, enjoy!! :-)
@@lukomatico oh great 👍🏻 thanks Luke
@@lukomatico Hey there! As always, great video. But my understanding is that the 533mc pro only has anti-reflective coating (according to ZWO). I have always used a UV/IR cut with mine when shooting broadband and that seems to be the prevailing advice online. Personally I am using an Astronomik L-2 in the backyard (Bortle 8) and use an L-1 from Bortle 1-2. Unless you've heard something different...?
@@canjosh Hey there mate! - it seems you're right, the 533mc pro uses the same non-blocking cover glass as the 533mm pro! very odd!!
Good catch :-)
@@Si-fp2ij Hey mate! - just a quick update as canjosh pointed out something interesting, it seems the 533mc does not use uv/ir cutting sensor cover glass, so you would indeed benefit from a UV/ir cut filter!
Personally luke I think the best two focal lengths to have to cover most targets is one at around 400mm and the other around a 1000mm . So with what you save against an esprit 120 you can buy an askar fra 400 and the askar 120 and still have money left over ! Great review Luke 👏
This is what i did regardless the quality, for me it was all about focal lengths and budget options, more than "WOW" factor telescopes and items, i got FRA400 and from my beginning time i also bought 200mm f/5 Newt which is 1000mm FL, it definitely covers most targets if needed, but i bought much more scopes in between just in case and one longer FL for smaller and distant targets so i am covered, and this only happened because i didn't buy so expensive branded scopes, if i bought something like high quality brand scopes i might have now only 2-3 scopes only, so instead i crank budget to buy Esprit 120/150 or Takahashi 106 or AP 130GTX i just bought several different scopes here and there and still saved money.
Thanks so much mate!! As you say, most targets are well covered with those options 👍👍 clear skies!
@@lukomatico And keep your reviews nice and don't go much about marketing, most of the time it is like everything being reviewed are just nice and amazing and all are recommended, and i like your channel, wish you all success Luke!
Thanks Tareq! :-)
I can 100% promise you my reviews are honest mate, I always get people sending me equipment to agree to allowing my total freedom during review - otherwise I decline the review! (Done it a few times now!) 👍
Cheers mate!
Askar is setting the standard I recently bought the Askar 65 phq and have been really imoressed it has a flat field right out to the edges which is so nice Im really looking foward to see what images you can get with your 120 maybe one day I will getva bigger moubt and get one too.
I got first light last weekend, on my Askar 120 APO and Heq5 pro mount, although I did need an extension on the counter weight shaft to achieve balance, Guiding was 0.6 arc sec, asi mini, wo 50mm guide scope and 120 mini
Superb to hear you're happy with your Askar too mate, I've been so impressed!! can't wait to try it out more :-)
Clear skies and sorry about the late reply!
@@BigBadLoneWolf That's really encouraging
I wondered why they won’t say what the one ED glass is. Then I saw the aberration in some CZcams reviews that convinced me to stick with my William Optics FLT 91
Enjoy that scope mate! No need to switch if you're already happy 👍 re: glass, I'd be willing to bet it's fk67
In Delta Astrophotography’s review of the 103 APO version, there were weird spikes on the bright stars in addition to stars having comet tails closer to the corners of the frame. Why does the 120 not have this in your review? Is there that much of an optical quality difference between the 103 and 120?
I haven't seen his review so I can't say with certainty, but I expect there's a difference yeah, how much exactly I couldn't say as I've no direct experience with the 103 - that said, the spikes on stars really sounds like pinched optics, something that it should probably be returned for to be fixed.
My 120 has been flawless from day one luckily, just needs a bit longer back focus than advertised to get perfect stars on a full-frame! :-)
Hey Luke!
Did you try to use 120apo with aps-c camera? If so, how much vignetting have you got on setup like this?
Thanks!
Hey mate! I've tried it with aps/c and there's almost no vignette 👍 hope that helps!
Thanks.
I am looking for upgrade for my skywatcher 130pds (it has a lot of vignette) and seems like this askar scope would be a great option.
As I have just bought a 115 f7 refractor from another manufacturer a couple of months ago I shall not be buying one of these. To be fair, I have been more than happy with its performance given the limited testing under far less than ideal conditions I've been able to undertake so far. Had I seen your review back then though I probably would have bought the Askar 120 scope. By the way Luke, I've been using an Optolong L-Pro filter for galaxies, would I be better with an IR/UV cut filter instead?, I live in Bortle 5 area. Must say those last two galaxy images looked real good. Clear Skies Luke
Hey mate!! Thanks so much for your message, I hope you're enjoying that new scope! 👍👍
Re: filter, generally these days I'd always advise just UV/ir cut for galaxies - I find LP filters to be a little too damaging overall to the data, but the best way is to experiment both ways
I was thinking about buying the 120apo but the images with Imx571 on Astrobin, look kinda blurry and missing in detail. I'm so confused.
Looking for a new scope for months now
Hey mate! - I think a lot of it is down to processing, all I can say is I really like the scope and think it's rather sharp! :-)
Did you get any flairs on bright stars?
None observed so far mate, I can test on something specific if you need me to though! 👍
There are some reports of them being fine photographically but exhibit low strehl ratings so not so good for visual. Any personal experience on that?
No experience visually I'm afraid, but nothing to me suggests it'd have a low strehl rating - I can't actually find any strehl tests of these online so i'd probably take it with a pinch of salt for now until there's more information to go off :-) Cheers! (and sorry about the late reply, youtube is being weird with some comments lately!)
I know you mentioned a couple of times that you did not use a UV/IR filter, but doesn't your astrocamera sensor window already have a UV/IR filter incoporated in it?
The full frame camera does mate yeah, the player one Zeus - the Uranus-C Pro however with the imx585 does not :-) cheers!
@@lukomatico got it thanks!
Looks nice but I just can't do another scope at present... (I must keep telling myself that!) lol
You and me both haha!! (I'm definitely kidding myself with this 😅😂)
Clear skies mate!
Hi very good video. What about the data? :)
I'll definitely share some soon if needed, I'm just super low on cloud storage at the moment from all the review/tutorial videos!! 😅
I'm surprised you chose this over the 130phq with zero issues. Why?
Price really! That's about it 😅
Didn’t you have Esprit 120 long time ago? Is this better?
Watch the video
It can’t be better given the glass that’s used. But it’s probably as good as it can get with the lesser quality glass.
I did have one yeah :-) loved the scope but felt like I was done with it, so I sold it! - I immediately regretted it however, so when the opportunity came to review this I was interested, then after testing I didn't want to give it back! 😂
I feel like it's equal to the esprit optically 👍
@@lukomatico Interesting. So, which scope will you use most?
I have Esprit 120; it is great. Actually, got it based on your advice. However, it is least used compared to Edge 9.25 (most popular) and Epsilon 130. When I want scope for large object, then prefer Epsilon. When small object, then prefer Edge.
I thought “well, I understand now why he sold it, despite Esprit is great scope”.
So, did someone who just bought an Esprit 120 waste their money then? There’s no way these things are equivalent in performance given the glass quality, right?
I wouldn't say wasted money nah, the Esprit is a beautiful scope and will hold its value well - that said, I do think this thing is optically equivalent to it, cheaper as it may be.
Clear skies!
Between you, Cuiv and Trevor, ya'll are gonna run me out of money... 😅
So sorry mate hahaha 😅😅
Askar 120 apo + bluXterminator = 130phq?
I found the 130phq and 120apo to be close performers really! So I feel the 120apo and BXT would easily exceed the 130phq without 👍
отлично
You keep stating that a uv/ ir filter should be used but does that not depend on your specific light pollution area. Where I have to set up, walking is almost impossible for me, there is a street light about ten feet away plus the neighbours, I stress neighbours, lights. No they won’t turn them off I’ve asked.
Hey Melvin! - if you wish to use a light pollution filter instead that's fine, but I find they can be damaging to data even when in a light polluted area - my own testing on this was done here in bortle 7 skies for example. Cheers!
@@lukomatico Thanks, could you advise me please which would you say is more damaging to an image, heavy light pollution or the use of a filter. although I have managed some, to me, good images do you think I’d be better off using no filter?
@@melvinatkins3443 Hey Melvin! - I'd say it depends a bit on what targets you wish to shoot, and how you want them to look too - for example if shooting an emission nebula region you may indeed wish to use the light pollution filter, or better yet a dual narrowband filter - but if your goal is to shoot broadband targets such as galaxies and reflection nebula etc, then you would likely be best served with simply uv/ir cut.
An experiment would be the best way to find out for sure from your location, pick a broadband target, shoot a couple hours with filter, a couple hours without, stack and process them both - that's all I really did! I found colour was much better on the uv/ir cut images vs light pollution filter images, even though the individual sub exposures looked more washed out.
hope that helps!
Warning: Cherry picked scopes are sent to youtubers for "review". Regular users mileage will vary.
I'm sure that's happened before mate, but I have no reason to suspect it's the case here! It's just a good scope performing as advertised, many are happy with them 👍
@@lukomatico I don't doubt your review but I have been burned once and others have too. Regular users experience will vary.