Stellarvue 90mm Raptor arrived

[Cyclops]

Yay, after just waiting a week for it to get here, the man in the brown suit delivered it yesterday. It was packaged great and arrived in one piece. The scope is beautiful and the Feathertouch 2.5" focuser is superb. This will replace my trusty ED80T as my main pick-up and go-to scope, I just wanted a little more light gathering capability for AP without the extra weight. The scope came with a very nice soft case (with hard side inserts for protection). The case has removable cut outs that will store several EPs and my diagonal nicely. All in all, I'm very pleased with it. The proof is in the pudding, and unfortunately all I can do is look at it until my iEQ45 arrives later this month or early May. I got the screw in Flat Field adaptor for the Feathertouch focuser also, only minor issue is that in order to remove the focuser cap, you need a sub-atomic size (4-40) allen key to remove the cap in order to screw in the FF adaptor. Would have been nice to include the allen key. Sigh, hardware store here I come.

Here are some pics of the scope:






Now come on mount................

Paul

Looks a beaut! Carbon fibre?

[Astronewb]

Yep, it's Carbon Fiber, and it performs as well as it looks. During a multi-hour imaging session, I only have to refocus if the temp drops 5 degrees or more. The carbon fiber helps in that respect, although the experts say aluminum is the way to go on refractors over 110mm...? I just love the way it looks, and it doesn't dent easily like a alloy tubed scope.

Clear skies

Paul