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telescope Stellarvue manufactures
comes with its own color interferometric
test report taken at full aperture in the
Stellarvue shop. This document con-
firms the accuracy of your individual
objective.
All of these features taken together
ensure a f lat field, no false color, and
pinpoint stars — all crucial for a
demanding astrophotographer like
myself. But having great optics means
nothing if the telescope itself is not of
the same quality. And while every SVX-
designated telescope from Stellarvue has
this level of performance, the 102T has
some features that make it really shine.
First are numerous well-placed baff les
inside the tube and along the focuser to
help stop unwanted light from reaching
the eyepiece. These and the rest of the
interior are sprayed
with a matte non-
ref lecting black paint,
ensuring a telescope
with extremely high
contrast, both visually
and photographically.
This becomes impor-
tant when trying to
tease out faint details
famous in some of
the sky’s best targets.
To further enhance
this scope, Stellarvue
also offers two field
f latteners. For
“straight through”
f lattening, there is the SFFX-1, which
converts the scope to a 714mm f/7 astro-
phograph/telephoto and allows you to
capture perfect stars from corner to cor-
ner. Alternatively, for those wishing to
compress the telescope to a shorter focal
length and faster speed, there is the
SFFR.74 reducer/f lattener that gives a
focal length of 535mm at f/5.25.
Putting it to the test
After using this scope for a few hours,
you can easily see why views through
a well-made refractor are addicting.
The optics are virtually perfect. With
this scope, stars are not just pinpoints
— they are microscopic. Open clus-
ters become brilliant jewels hung in a
canopy of black. The crescent Moon is
another treat as the color correction and
the contrast are simply off the charts.
The f lip side of a small refractor is
that you need really high-power eye-
pieces to explore the other end of its per-
formance. One good example is viewing
the famous Double Double in Lyra, com-
prising two pairs of double stars. I love
these stars for testing because the two
pairs are aligned 90° to each other, mak-
ing them nature’s test for astigmatism.
And the 102T proved itself astigmatism
free. The stars split into perfect dots
with identical inside and outside perfor-
mance. A smaller scope already has an
advantage in poor seeing conditions.
And with the 102T, the stars jumped
around instead of smearing out.
For me, the best performance test for
any scope is your memory. After a nightof viewing, can you still see in your
mind what you looked at the previous
night? With the 102T, my head was full
of my previous night’s observing.
While it doesn’t show diffuse objects
as well as a large Dobsonian, double
stars, open clusters, the Moon, and the
planets are a joy to behold in this scope.
And, after seeing what the 102T can do,
I’m eager to see how other scopes in
Stellarvue’s lineup perform. In fact, the
highest praise I can give the 102T is that
I’ve already ordered its bigger sibling,
the SVX 140T — a 140mm refractor at
f/6.7 — to add to my collection.Stellarvue’s SVX 102T
Aperture: 4 inches (101.5 mm)
Focal length: 714mm
Focal ratio: f/7
Length: 23.5 inches (59.7 centimeters)
with focuser
Weight: 9.8 pounds (4.4 kilograms) with
adapters
Price: $2,995 with Stellarvue focuser;
$3,495 with Feather Touch focuser;
$5,399 with Moonlight Computerized
NiteCrawler focuser
Contact: Stellarvue
11802 Kemper Road
Auburn, CA 95603, USA
530.823.7796PRODUCT INFORMATION
The Horsehead Nebula (center) is a dark nebula in
the Orion constellation. To take this image, astro-
photographer Alex Roberts used the SVX 102T
scope with his QHYCCD 268C camera. ALEX ROBERTSOn the border between Monoceros and Canis Major
constellations lies the Seagull Nebula (IC 2177).
Using the SVX 102T scope, Roberts took this image
with a ZWO ASI1600MM Pro camera. ALEX ROBERTSTony H allas is one of the world’s top
astroimagers.