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Astronomy Technologies AT111 Tom Trusock - 11/08 Astronomy Technologies AT111 Design Aperture Focal Length Focal Ratio Focuser Weight Options Price Available From Triplet (FPL-51) 111mm 777mm f7 2.7" R&P focuser 14.7 lbs Case included $1895 Astronomics / AT Dealers Worldwide Ah, the refractor.   It's quite possibly the perfect design for a telescope.  In smaller sizes anyway.  If you start heading much beyond the 4-5 inch range, the increasing demand for a larger and (more expensive) mount. In case you haven't noticed it lately, there's been something of a boom in the middle to low end of the scale on these puppies. If you're a lenshead, there's more here to love - and at lower prices - than ever before. Through the deluge of common offerings, every once in a while you find one that stands out - and the AT111 does just that. This TMB designed 111mm diameter f7 focal ratio triplet refractor is well constructed, offers a (proprietary?) 2.7" rotating focuser with a ton of focus travel, knife edged baffles, collimatable lens cell, and touts it's use of O'hara glass. The dew shield is retractable, and the cap is a press fit.  The cap is black - aesthetically as I think this scope is a real looker, I'd prefer it to be either grey or green to match the trim, but that's a niggle.   The weight of the OTA alone is listed at 14.7lbs. The fit and finish is quite good.  The tube is painted with an apparently automotive quality paint, and while it's not quite as durable as a powdercoat, it's well done, and should stand the test of time with the standard precautions.  The focuser looks to have been CNC'd with a grey anodized finish and is a very nice part - but more on that later. The styling is first rate.  The white ota  is offset by the grey focuser and trim, and both are complimented by the green trim right found on the tube.  The focuser has a TON of focus travel - most likely for astrophotography.  I had some issues reaching focus with my Denk Binos, but binoviewers with a shorter light path shouldn't have a problem, and I've heard reports that they indeed work without an OCA.  The focuser is the heavy duty rack and pinion that I first saw on the TMB 130ss (on that scope it's since been replaced by a Feathertouch), and honestly, I'm glad to see it back on the market.  It's a definite step up from the typical focusers from Kunming or GSO that so many of the imports sport these days. And that leaves us as to where the telescope is manufactured - I can't tell you were it comes out of, but I can tell you that as a package, it's fairly unique in - which in and of itself is a surprise in this modern clone world. I love a good focuser - I think we all do.  There just something mechanically sensual about it.  Rack it in, rack it out.  There's something calming in the motion.  The smoothness, and yet there's a sense of strength.  And this focuser conveys that quite well.  It's a  2.7 inch custom heavy duty focuser, which  I found to be quite smooth and features an 11-1 reduction gearing - a definite luxury for visual use, but a bit more critical for photography.   It's a rack and pinion, and a good one at that.   In a slight twist (no pun intended) the end of the focuser rotates, but leaves the focus knobs in the same place.  I've been using the scope for several months as of this writing, and until recently the focuser had been quite solid.  As summer has turned into fall (and as fall is turning to winter) I think the cold weather has caused one off the adjustment screws to contract a bit the end result is there's a little shift in the focuser that wasn't there earlier this year.  More than likely it's a simple adjustment, but it's not bothered me enough to deal with it yet.  UPDATE: In one of those - I'm not exactly sure what happened moments - the next time I used the scope, the problem had nearly vanished.  Go figure.  A very very very minor amount of image shift remains, but for my useage, it's not nearly enough to bother with. The case for this scope is smaller than you would expect - it's pretty much large enough to store only the OTA, although you can store the rings on the tube as well.  You won't, however, be leaving the diagonal on for storage tho, nor can you leave the dovetail plate attached. This is a minor point, but something of a pet peeve of mine.  I tend to use cases both for storage and transport, and am very fond of a case that allows you to store the scope with diagonal, rings, dovetail and finder.  It would also be a bonus to have space inside the case to store a few eyepieces.  As it is, you are committed to taking another case along for the necessities.  The case is of fairly decent construction and will do it's job protecting the scope, but you this telescope is a nice piece of gear and you may with to consider getting an additional case (ala ScopeGuard) down the road.  (It's interesting to note that the case shipped with the telescope is not covered under the AT two year warranty.  Evidently AT's take on it is that a free case is better than nothing, but don't expect to drive over it and have the case stay in one piece - and I'd have to agree.) The optics are first rate, as evinced by the star test.  There's a small amount of spherochromatism and false color, but it's not terribly objectionable.  People  tend to make much of false color - too much in my opinion.  (Probably because it's the easiest thing to pick up on in a system.) Yes, there are definite advantages to a color free system, but the fact of the matter is very very few refractors are going to be truly color free - and those are going to be very expensive.  With the AT111, there was only a small amount of fringing on Luna - either purple or yellow green depending on which side of focus you're favoring.  I noted no astigmatism, and no issues with pinch or cooldown (things that seem endemic with medium level refractors these days).  Visually I noted no field curvature.  As per photographic performance - I'm loaning the scope out to an astrophotographer buddy of mine and I'll update the article when I get some photos. Viewing Luna and Jupiter was a hoot with this optic, it took magnification well, and what little CA there was I didn't find intrusive.  I found the effects of differential refraction to be more profound on Jupiter than the CA.  Significantly more profound in fact.  In good seeing conditions, even with Jupiter so low in my northern sky, we easily caught several belts, and occasionally glimpses of detail within those belts.  The Galilean moons were obvious little disks (of course, I wasn't really seeing the disk of the moon, but rather rather the diffraction effects - the resolution on a small scope isn't quite up to that), and even managed to catch a shadow transit or two.  The sight of an  inky black dot making it's way across the face of a planet is always inspiring. There was a definite snap to focus, and the optic took magnification quite well - especially on Luna, where it easily handled 300x with little signs of image breakdown.  On Jupiter, I was typically limited to magnifications more in the 220-240x range - right around 50x per inch. Bottom line is, I'd be pretty pleased with it if it were my personal scope. The 110mm objective does buy you a bit in resolution and light gathering compared to a 102mm objective, but it's not a ton.  There's about an 18% increase in light gathering, which translates into about a tenth of a magnitude difference.  The Dawes limit with a 102mm scope is 1.14 vs 1.05 in the 110.  It's not a huge difference, but if everything else is equal, it is noticeable. The telescope pairs well with an ASGT/GP/GM8 level mount, although if you want to get into astrophotography, you'll want to step that up just a bit.  While I think the Voyager is a great bang for the buck,  Personally, I thought the AT111 was a bit too much for for it - but I've gotten to the point I like a really solid mount (the quicker the settle time the better).  I understand the Voyager HD (heavy duty) is coming down the pike, and suspect that would be a good match.  I mounted the 111 on a G11 (in my observatory) or a Unistar w/ medium duty tripod.  With both of those options, settle times were minimal, inconsequential on the G11, and 1-2 seconds max on the Unistar.    I'd recommend the Unistar for grab and go, and the GEM for work requiring moderate magnification. Another couple of options you'll want to consider - a finder of some sort, a dovetail plate in your chosen flavor, and a set of mounting rings.  While AT offers a set of 124mm rings for this telescope, they aren't included.  They'll set you back an additional $120 if you need them.  As per finders, I'm pretty fond of the ubiquitous MRF (Multi Reticle Finder) that's popped up over the last few years.  The price isn't too terrible and it's got a very nice build quality - metal vs the plastic you find in many others. You'll also need a diagonal and if this is your first apochromatic refractor, I'll recommend a 3-6 nagler zoom.  Heck, even if it's not, I'll recommend it anyway.  That eyepiece is just about perfect for this telescope, as it forms an entire high power set, yeilding 259x at the 3mm setting.  Be aware that if you need to wear glasses to observe (a rarity at short focal lenghts, but none the less) the eye relief is fairly short, and you may want to seek out something with a little more eye relief. Overall, I found the performance quite good, rivaling other similar sized doublets in it's price range and perhaps even a bit beyond.  There are some disadvantages associated with a triplet - namely cool down and end user collimation, but these seem to be the minor trade offs for this telescope.  It's not perfect, but I've seen very very few that were.  The bottom line is if you're looking for a scope in this price range, the 111 has a lot going for it, and is definitely worth consideration. What we liked What we didn't like Good optical performance Good bang per buck rating Very Nice Focuser TMB Design 111mm aperture is nearly as portable as "standard" 102mm scopes while providing a touch more light grasp A bit heavy Focuser developed some very minor image shift Case could stand improvement