I thought I would treat myself to something – just before Christmas – and got myself a widefield refractor with only 264 mm of focal length: the Askar SQA55.
The gizmo was immediately fully kitted out by me: guidescope on top, new ASIAIR Plus attached (which, of course, immediately did not work properly – as it should be), camera mounted – and onto the mount it went. First impression? I am impressed by the image correction. No aberrations at the edge of the frame, no egg-shaped stars, no weird colours. Just clean. All of that without any flattener fiddling or reduction calculations. Thanks to the Petzval design, the thing is surprisingly uncomplicated to handle – even the backfocus can be approached fairly roughly, without endless messing around and calculating with adapters and extension rings.
A few first test shots are already in the bag – and yes, there is potential. A few images will follow soon. If the sky wants to. And the ASIAIR. And the human.
