First Impressions: StellaMira 80mm APO doublet review

StellaMira 80mm APO doublet, why do I need it?

Why I decided to try the StellaMira 80mm. APO (SM80). I have been struggling to use my Baader Mark V bino-viewers and my DayStar Quark chromosphere eyepiece in a slew of different telescopes. Trying to find a single scope that works with all this stuff. I keep notes on how to make various types of viewing/imaging equipment with different scopes. It easier to test it first, and keep notes (and pics) of the various spacers needed, adapters, glasspath correctors, etc. to be able to keep track of how to get this stuff to properly focus/work in remote settings for each telescope without reinventing the proverbial wheel each time. What works for one, certainly does not work for all!

My small fourth floor balcony (5x10ft) with two swinging chairs makes big scopes and tripod/mounts problematic (32” projecting third leg problem). So, I constructed a small footprint two dimensional pier from a wedge shaped hand- weight rack and added an aluminum extension to get it to a 36” guard rail height (projects less than 10”). I’ve previously reviewed the iOptron Haz46 alt/azi head discussing its ease of use, portability, and space saving considerations.

Therefore it was a no-brainer to add its little brother, the Haz31, to top off my balcony pier. I liberally bungee cord the pier to the rail to provide more lateral support and the bungees also provide some dampening of any wind or bumps in the dark. Dallas is of course, highly light polluted, and this mount has an easy setup without visible stars, etc. The light pollution is exacerbated by larger aperture telescopes which are also bulky, require larger footprint piers or tripods, are hard to move and mount on my little pier, and when they fall four stories onto my neighbors cars below, cause a lot more damage and unpleasantness. All of these factors left me scrambling to find a suitable ota to use within this limited space that’s easy to setup and move during inclement weather.

After carefully leveling the Haz31, I switch it on and command it to home position (which is magnetic north with the ota direction “horizontal and pointing due south.” If the leveling is perfect and after checking that daylight time setting is correct, lat/long, etc. I turn it off. Then I turn it on and command it to go to the sun, moon, planets, visible star etc. and it goes right to them (with 40mm ep) without any alignment needed. If needed, I can make minor slew corrections and adjust. For example, this morning I did goto the sun and it was in the viewfinder with my quark and 40mm eyepiece immediately (no adjustments needed). It then tracked the sun perfectly all morning, as I tried various visual and camera setups, and imaging.

I am a retired geologist, and while I do enjoy good DSO’s from various dark sky sites, it’s not achievable from my balcony. Seeing planets, moons, and asteroids/comets is the best I can expect from here. But, this setup allows me a lot more viewing and imaging setup practice for those times when I can get to a dark sky site where time is at a premium, not to mention the problem of forget something due to lack of practice (although that has never happened to me, ha).

Bring out the big guns at starparties

So as often as possible I do bring some big guns out to dark sky sites. My favorites are SW 190mm Mak-Newt, an Obsession 18uc dobsonian, and SW 180mm Mak. The same goes for imaging equipment. I was early to the Vaonis Vespera imaging kick starter program. I have been able to bring the Vespera to star parties as well as long “birding” trips with my wife to Florida and around Texas. Images acquired thus, in various dark skies have added greatly to my satisfaction in observing nebulas, galaxies, and open and closed globular star clusters. These features evidence the birth and death of stars, heavier elements, rocks, planets, and our universe. I will continue this quest with the new Vespera Pro and dual band filter which is promising for these pursuits. But none of this stuff is suitable for my home/patio where I spend most of my days!

Tried and true vs. new technology

I have tried some slower, small aperture refractors (ES80cf triplet; Aquilla 90mm double, WO Megrez 110; and SW 102, etc. The SW102 was probably the best fit as it was a fast scope and focus was less of an issue. But even it being on the larger side, made patio use problematic. So, past experience in hand, and after reading up on various refractor types, I began to zero in on fast f/10 plus refractors and started searching for and trying to find a trade etc. for a fast refractor on the Cloudy Nights classifieds. There were several used Vixen and Takahashi scopes in the 60mm to 90mm range, but with older single focus knobs and decades old tech and glass. I was hoping to get an instrument that would address, high power, easy focusing on lunar, and planetary solar system objects (and the sun) that can be easily viewing in light polluted Dallas. From my backyard so to speak.

There were many primary tasks and needs that I had for this “scope.” 1) Portable, with fast f/10 plus focal ratio for ease of focus, 2) dual focus knob, 3) would work with my bino-viewers, quark, and various camera setups (focal extenders, quark, etc.) and 4) a doublet with fancy well corrected glass. With the Quark, aperture and proper use of energy rejection or UV/IR filters is an issue. I’m very reluctant to subject my 127mm triplet or even 102mm petzval scopes to direct solar flux. Their use is precluded due to fear of permanent damage to the lens elements. With the variety of scopes I already own, I have not been eager to shell out major dollars on the solar specific scopes currently available. This may be a mistake, but I have had some past success with the Quark and plan to continue trying off my balcony.

What is available new in the marketplace?

In view of these issues and concerns, I looked at the stats on a slew of new fast refractor scopes including the TS 102 APO (f/11, dual focus, fpl53 and special glass, $1500 plus); Altair Ascent102ED F/11, dual focus, ED glass, $740 plus) and Altair Planeta 101mm APO (F/11, dual focus, fpl53, $1000 plus) and StellaMira 80mm APO (f/10, dual focus, fpl53 and lanthanum glass elements, $900 plus). First off, despite much interest, these scopes are only offered outside of the USA. So shipping and importation was an added concern, etc. These mostly seem to be china made scopes, and mostly the 100mm plus scopes are on backorder. I also began to think they would be a bit large for the patio (after using my TV102 and ES127 on the patio) and so I decided after reading many positive reviews about the StellaMira 80mm APO, that it might be just right (the Altair Planeta had been a heavy contender for a fast scope).

I finally decided to go for the StellaMira after seeing the attention to detail and one reviewers comment that it was one of the finest built scopes he had seen since the WO Megrez (which I agree were very good). Many scopes are listed as backordered, but the SM80 was readily available. So, I decided to order the SM80mm APO from FLO last week. It came via DHL and went to Houston in error first, back to some airport back east and then correctly back to Dallas. I had it within 3 days of ordering. I cannot comment that the SM80mm is better or worse than any of these other new fast scopes as I have not looked through them, but will have comments later about my comparison to other refractors that I have owned.

StellaMira 80mm APO

The SM80 came well packed in a heavy cardboard box, with a well fitted, aluminum case inside. There was no written material, nothing about its use, or construction, warranty, etc. The scope was plastic wrapped and then with a layer of bubble wrap around it inside the padded case and everything was perfect. It came with cdc machined rings and vixen dovetail plate. It looks like Flo opened the crate/box that likely came to them from China and made sure everything was as it should be and then shipped it on to me. I can’t really argue with that, many scopes USA marketed scopes are also produced in China and sold this way. I added my own diagonal and finders, etc.

First Question, visual use with diagonal and bino-viewers

After assembling, I attached the scope onto my pier and on the morning of the 29th, I used the SM80 on the patio, in my skivvies for the first time. It was love at first site, as June 29th just happened to be a parade of planets to test out my new unit. Turned on the Haz31, told it to go to Saturn and there it was. I never felt like I had a great view of Saturn through scattered clouds, before it truncated at my patio roof line, but I noticed that the rings were straight on making it look more like Jupiter, rather than the Saturn we all know and love.

But after some time and a couple hours later, the clouds finally cleared out and I had an easy view of a clear blue Neptune. By the time the moon came up I was ready to not just view but try out my Mark V bino-viewers. I have had some great lunar views, but on my own balcony with the 1.25x glasspath and two Vixen 22mm lanthanum eyepieces, my breath was taken away by the terminator and contrasty views of the lunar mare craters with their dark basalt lavas and the surrounding lighter hued anorthosite lunar crust. Stereo vision and focus of these features was bang on, and I took some iPhone pics thru one eyepiece (for some reason iPhone images show some blue fringe at the edges). They are some of the best digiscoping images I have ever gotten of the moon, maybe I don’t need a mirrorless or dslr camera?

Second Question, DSLR/Mirrorless single shot imaging

So on to imaging with a 3x barlow and Sony a7s camera strapped to the back and some highly refined, high res images sans any blue fringe. So for me a big success, the scope makes for great visual and bino-viewer use, and is great for single shot lunar imaging (which I plan to do frequently). So after the full parade of planets to follow the moon, i.e., Mars, Uranus, and Jupiter with three moons that I could see, I went off to bed. Note: its easy to setup the camera with a remote shutter release and take 100 plus tracking shots or various objects and then using an Affinity 2 workflow (I use for Vespera imaging) to stack and stretch some images. Will comment later on success/failures.

Third Question, Quark Testing

After a day or so, the morning clouds had passed through and I was on to Quark testing. I arranged the Quark straight thru in combination with several extensions and a 40mm Vixen eyepiece which gave me some great solar views during this weeks solar storm. In addition to sunspot activity, solar prominences, there was a thin jet of plasma coming out on the SW edge of the sun which may have been part of a flare or coronal mass ejection. A few weeks before, there was a circle of sunspots that may have been associated with the aurora producing gigantic solar storm. In the eyepiece I was able to focus extremely accurately and get great views of these features as well as adjusting the quark for the chromosphere. I could pick out the graininess and sunspots readily at that setting.

Once I added my Sony a7s I found it very difficult to focus, albeit, its an old camera and has to be set for either view finder or screen each time (auto no longer works). But with the days brightness, etc. I just was not happy with the imagining I tried. So I brought out the Sony a9 and tried it. I was focusing on sun spots and the edge of the sun, and kind of tried blind to get something. Once downloaded, I did not achieve anything as noteworthy as some of my prior attempts with other telescopes nor what I had just seen visually. A day later, I tried the Quark with a diagonal to avoid squinting directly into the sun trying to achieve focus through a dim screen or viewfinder. I still failed to see enough in a quick test to be happy with the imaging focus, etc. but visually I could see that the solar activity at the margin of the sun was much reduced. The imaging performance leaves me unworried for now, since its so great visually. I am sure I will get there with digital imaging, eventually. But what I can say is that with an f/10 focal ratio, you get about 80% of the disk with a 40mm eyepiece and about 25% with the camera attached. So, my first off the cuff attempt, a failure, needs work and I will keep trying.

Final thoughts on the StellaMira 80mm APO

It is well built, beautiful, and highly suited for visual and imaging use. It rains a-lot, pretty hard in Dallas, sometimes with green skies and tornadoes. Unfortunately, often I must pull the scope off, and move the entire pier/electronics inside to avoid heavy rains. I can dismantle it all in less than 5 minutes and everything is safe and sound. Setup is a reverse process with more attention to leveling, but still 5-10 minutes with light and then awaiting a clear night and off I go. The light weight and reasonable size of the OTA makes these gyrations easier on me physically. Visually, the SM80 is an observers dream for planets and solar viewing (especially with bino-viewers engaged). It suits my purposes perfectly. I do plan to test its apparent high-power focusing against some of my slower triplet and petzval scopes.

This ota will spend most of its life on my balcony, and while it does not compare to an ES165mm or 127mm triplet, it is fairly equal to past WO110mm mergrez and SW102mm doublet refractors I had (at least to my eyes). But for ease of use, fine focus, and sharpness of the well color corrected field it’s superb. In the SM80, the surrounding silky black sky (well good contrast, it is Dallas after all) make this an ideal scope for my particular needs. I think many others could equally benefit from one of these fast, modern glass and mechanicals refractors. It is not cheap, none of this stuff is, but it so far outclasses other doublet single focus refractors that most of us moved up from early on in our astronomy interests. As light pollution progresses to more remote areas, smaller aperture refractors may become a thing (think West Texas and all the recent shale gas/oil drilling and operations.

Setup with 2” AP diagonal

Eyepiece projection with iPhone