The Askar FMA135 Astrograph - what you get in the box and first light
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- The Askar FMA135 is a tiny apo Triplet refractor with a focal length of 135mm and a 30mm Aperture.
With an included field flattener it turns into a little astrograph scope, but can also be used as a guide scope or luxury finder scope.
In this video I show what comes in the box and have a first night out to take some test shots.
1st ❤️⛰️☕️🦡
I used it 2 weeks ago with my ASI2600 for Rho Ophiuchi - amazing results!!!!
Now that's one of my hoped for targets for this little scope. It is too low from my garden, so I'll have to take a trip out to somewhere with an unobstructed horizon.
John. I really enjoyed the video. After watching, it I decided to purchase both the scope and mount. I’m just waiting for their arrival. I am an absolute beginner. I will use the scope with a Nikon D3200 which I currently own. I’m 70 years young living in Florida in a light polluted ares. Does this setup allow for filter and if so what if any filters would you recommend? Additional if you read this before Christmas I hope you have a Wonderful Holiday. Bruce
Hello Bruce, hope you had a great Christmas. You will not be disappointed with either the scope or the Star Adventurer mount. I live in an urban area, and reckon that exposure times between 60 and 90 seconds are optimal. I can go above this, but the light pollution washes out the images.
I have been very pleased with my results. The scope keeps the star colours, so you get some lovely coloured star fields. In terms of light pollution filter, I use the Optilong L Pro filter. The 1.25 inch screwed filter will fit on the end of the askar scope as there is a threaded end section. On my filter the thread only engages about 1 turn but this is enough to hold it secure. In theory it is better to have the filter close to the camera sensor, and you could look at a clip in filter to fit into your dslr. I don't like the idea of messing around with the insides of my camera though, so prefer the simplicity of the screw on filter, even if it's not ideal.
This filter is good for moderate light pollution and keeps the colours about right also.
I think you will have a lot of pleasure from your setup. I am waiting for Orion to get above some trees as I want to image the Flame Nebula, Horsehead Nebula, and Orion Nebula, all in the same image. This would be a great target for your first night out as at least you can see the Orion Nebula, so don't have to waste time searching for the object.
Thank you very much for watching my video, and for taking the time to make a kind comment, your support is very much appreciated.
I wish you good luck with your new gear, and clear skies.
Best wishes
John
I think you'd get away with a ball head. Polar align first as you can't see through the SA Polarscope once the ball head is on. Maybe a cheaper and much lighter plastic hot shoe red dot finder will get the weight down. There is also the Z adaptor developed by Alyn Wallace to help compose a shot....oh and throw away that Skywatcher Wedge and splash out on the William Optics one. The wedge is the weakest part of the 2i and has been my main problem in getting good polar alignment. That one wobbles way too much. Really useful video thanks for doing it!
Thank you for your very helpful comments. I was toying with the idea of just using a ball head, so I'll give that a go. I'll check out Alyn Wallaces adaptor also.
As regards the wedge, I came to the same conclusion as you and bought the William Optics one. Whilst expensive, it has proved to be much more effective.
Thanks very much for taking the time to watch and comment, I really appreciate it 🙂
Hello Jon，we didn't find your contact details so we can only ask you in the comments(hopefully you won't mind), we think this video is good and want to translate it into Chinese and place it on our Chinese social media, we will indicate your name and send you the video link.😀
Hello, glad you liked my video. I am happy for you to use it 😊
I believe a better way to mount this rig with the DSLR to the Star Adventurer would be to remove the bar and counterweight and install a ballhead directly on to the Star Adventurer. It works fine that way on mine.
Funny you should mention this. I was thinking about trying out just a ballhead as you suggest. I thought the weight might be a bit much, but it sounds like you have had success with this approach 🙂
@@thecampingastronomer8554 I've mounted my Nikon D700 with a 200mm lens that way on my Star Adventurer and it has worked fine. Clear skies!
I purchased this small scope and I am having difficulty focusing with a corrected diagonal. Could use a little assistance. I can focus with the eyepiece inserted directly into the adapter, but everything is upside down. Do I need to have a spacer to utilize the corrected diagonal? I this doesn’t matter much for star gazing or when used with my camera for Astrophotography
Hi Bruce. It is a spacing issue I think. Are you inserting your diagonal into the visual adaptor, or are you using the diagonal without the adaptor ?
@@thecampingastronomer8554 with the adapter..
@@bruceking2327 I suspect that with the adaptor and the star diagonal, the eyepiece is too far away from the telescope itself. Is it possible to fit the star diagonal without the visual adaptor ?
Thanks for your video! Question: Is the field flattener removable?
Hi Bill, I had a proper look at mine, and although there is a knurled ring that looks like it might be used to unscrew the flattener section, mine appears to be fixed. I looked at the manual online and there is no mention of being able to unscrew the flattener part. Consequently, I suspect this is not possible.
@@thecampingastronomer8554 I had ordered one before I got your reply, but on mine, the flattener does come off 🙂
@@billblanshan3021 out of interest Bill, what are you using in place of the flattener, or are you connecting your camera straight onto the telescope part ?
Great review Jon and excellent results for a few quick test shots. I have just purchased the FMA180 and intend to do the same as you very soon, once we get some clear skies. Very useful review. 👍👍👍👍
Thank you Perry 😊. I have seen and read some great reviews of the FMA180 so I am sure you will not be disappointed 👍
That's a really cool little widefield scope. Looks high quality and very solid - actually Askar is know for... And it's so cool there is a flattener already attached. Very nice review, John! Clear skies :)
Thanks Tully. It's lovely here tonight so I am going to have another go with it.
Thank you for posting this! This video helped me make a decision to purchase this little scope. I am in North Dakota and although I am blessed with very clean and clear skies when the weather permits, ultra-portability is essential for me since I am busy during the warmer months as a USDA soil scientist. During the colder months... well... did I mention North Dakota? I actually have a TPO (Third Planet Optics) UltraWide 180 Astrophotography Lens, which is basically a re-branded Sharpstar Optics/Askar FMA 180 Astrograph, and I am very pleased with it. I finally made the decision to purchase the FMA 135 as I wanted wider shots to frame up some of the larger deep sky objects easier. I also have a Canon EOS 1500D, although it is called the Rebel T7 over here, so this video was definitely the one to watch for me. I recently got mine modified and I cannot wait to see the difference from my shots this summer and fall compared to this upcoming spring! Thank you for this informative video!
I'm glad you found this video useful. I am very impressed with the FMA135, it produces good star colours and I reckon the field of view is perfect. I am looking forward to trying to get the Orion, Flame and Horsehead Nebula in the same frame this winter.
Thank you very much for watching and commenting on my video - I really appreciate it.
Clear Skies to you 🙂
Good morning John, Will pop this video on with porridge and tea this morning, everyone loves a new kit day! 😀 hope you are well, have a good Sunday, Ceri and Kat ❤️ ☕️ 👍 🗺
Morning folks, hope you are both well and enjoying the weekend 😀
Good Sunday John - unboxing is fun no matter if it is gear for camping or for Astronomy! And there is no doubt that you are enthusiastic about both fields! Is this something you will bring with you while camping in the dark season; or do you prefer to bring other kit for outdoor observation? Best wishes, Ant P.S I do not think you mentioned the price:)
Good morning Ant, hope you are well. Whilst the scope itself is very small and light, it requires a star tracking mount to avoid star trails because of its focal length. This would add quite a lot of weight to my backpack sadly. In general a wider 24mm lens lens lets you take 15 seconds or so exposures on a normal tripod, so is a easier option for carrying in a pack.
You I right, I forgot to put the price in.
It costs about £280. The device would compete with the Samyang/Rokinon 135mm camera lens which is often used for astrophotography. This lens costs about £420 and has a lower f stop of around f2.5, so can let in more light. However, to avoid distortions you tend to have to stop the lens down to about f4, so is comparable to the Askar. The Samyang is also heavier I think.
@@thecampingastronomer8554 So sometimes small is not small when everything is taken into account:)
Something very different John and interesting nonetheless. Could you attach the camera and lens directly to the SA head without the declination bracket and use a ball head? That would fix your framing issues, or is it too heavy? I’ve seen some renowned TH-camrs use the Samyang 135mm lens like that. I have that lens but have a dovetail plate and pair of rings to mount it to the SA declination head. It’s just far too heavy.
Very strange that you had star trails at 30” exposures too. I would expect at least 2 minutes with that lens, which I can comfortably get with the Samyang. Hope you haven’t done some damage to the SA😩
As always, thanks for sharing your efforts. I always enjoy everything you do 🤝
Hi Ian, in theory the set up is too heavy for a ball head, but I'll try it anyway.
Keeping my fingers crossed that my SA head is OK 🤞
I have used the ball head on bracket configuration with a 75-300mm lens without any issue (and Sw star adventurer mini)
Lovely scope and great content John, hope the SW 2i is ok :-)
Hi Simon, thank you. The scope is great, I am very pleased with it. The SW mount is very good although I swopped the wedge out for the William Optics one whi h is expensive but made a big difference.
Hope you have a great weekend 😀
Awesome video John. Looks like a Super Wide Field Scope, nice Photo of The Sadr Region. I just Shot the Wild Duck Cluster, This Week!
Thanks Avanteesh, it gives something like a 9 x 6 degree field if view with my dslr.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend 😃
@@thecampingastronomer8554 cool. By the way. I posted a New Video (premiere at 4:00pm GMT)
@@avt_astro206 ooh good, I'll have a look at that 👍
Nice review John! 'd guess you are correct when you say it's the worlds smallest refractor. It looks really cool and I can think of so many uses for it as well.
Thanks Joe, I just need to figure out why my Star Adventurer mount is now only giving me 30 sec exposures (and only 60 secs with a 50mm camera lens). These are at least half what I would expect. However, I notice that my SA wedge is very rickety after the whole assembly took a bit of a knock and has a lot of play in it. I have ordered the William Optics one which is much sturdier and should turn up tomorrow. Hopefully that will get me sorted.
@@thecampingastronomer8554 I heard those are really nice! I expect you'll be quite happy with it. I noticed that Kurt from Astroquest1 has one on his and he seems pretty happy with it. I've thought about getting AZGT Star Adventurer before, but I'm always looking at new scopes and now possibly a printer hahaa, the rabbit hole goes so deep.
@@JoesAstrophoto it is never ending Joe. I'd like a William Optics Redcat 51 in an ideal world 👍
Looks like a great little bit of kit. Nice one. Any suggestions on what to be looking out for this time of year? Either with binoculars or a 200mm dslr
I reckon at this time of year if you can get a view to the South you will see the core of the Milky Way. This has loads of good stuff in there, stats, star clusters and nebulae.
Sadly for me, my view to the South is obscured by trees, houses and a street light.
Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend 😃
@@thecampingastronomer8554 nice one. Thanks John. I know how you feel with the street lights. But luckily I'm not far from the coast so clear Sky's that way
@@TheSussexOutdoorsman I sometimes go to Birling Gap, it's really dark there.
Thanks Jon… I was thinking this would be good for a compact viewer in my car, so I appreciate you advising that a good set of binoculars may be a better bet 👍
Hello Pebbles 👋… it’s been a while since I’ve seen either putty-tat 🥰
Yes, binoculars would easily be the best bet for you. A pair of 10 x 50 binoculars would pretty well be ideal.
Pebbles spends most of his time out in the summer, coming home for his dinner, whereas Pops spends most of her time under the bed where its cool, again coming down for her dinner.
Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend 👍
@@thecampingastronomer8554 I’m with Pops… it’s shade all the way for me when I can 🥵.
Have a good week Jon 👍
@@h.bsfaithfulservant4136 same for me, I'm not good in heat. In the recent heat wave I spent one night sleeping on the South Downs (video up next weekend) and another sleeping in the garden.
@@thecampingastronomer8554 I hope you enjoyed both those ‘camps’ Jon 👌🥳
Great video once again...thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it. Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend 👍
Impressive little telescope!!
It is amazing what this little scope cn do. Hope you have a good day 😊
How’d I miss this one?! Wow! That is a really cool little astrograph! I love that field of view on the beautiful butterfly nebula shot!!
It is a really nice little scope. I used it quite a lot over this Summer and have been very pleased with it.
@@thecampingastronomer8554 it really has piqued my want this scope interest! Have to think about what I’d like to do with it.
@@AstroAF mine sits permanently on a star adventurer mount. It is very good for widefield shots of areas like the Milky Way.
@@thecampingastronomer8554 oh is it? That is what I would like. I would also like to get wide field meteor showers. This last pleiades event I didn’t get a single meteor!! Field was too narrow. I really like the compact, put it in a backpack and go size too.
@AstroAF the field of view with a cropped sensor dslr is about 9 deg x 6 deg, so it's reasonably widefield but still well suited to large deep sky objects shown in the context of their surroundings.
Hey Jon good to see this being used, I've seen this before but not seen many people using it. It's always good to have widefield options as well. Will be nice for fitting in the Horsehead and Orion when it's round next. 👍
Funnily enough the Horsehead ab Orion Nebula in the same shot is one of the things I'd like to do with this.
I might have to sort out how I can rotate my camera to get my desired field of view though.
One possibility is to put it on a dovetail and use my eqm35 mount, but it would be nice to sort something out for a star adventurer.
@@thecampingastronomer8554 Yes I actually use my little lens on my full size mount too quite often. It makes it much easier to find and frame targets. If you can John I'd look into getting a EQDirect cable(about 35 pound) to connect your laptop to your mount and then get the free software called NINA. You can then install the free software ASTAP and use plate solving, it makes finding and framing objects a breeze. Sounds a little complicated but makes finding and framing objects a breeze. Clear skies!