Before I post the DPAC results here is my first impression that I posted to the looong Askar 185 thread that has been ongoing for the last few months.
Late.
Seeing was okay. Average by coastal California standards.
So I picked the scope up from Agena about 11:00 AM. They moved to a bigger warehouse. Lots of stuff in there. I think I was the first customer to take delivery of the Askar 185.
The thing is boxed like crazy. Double boxes with lots of foam. Then the case. The case must weigh forty plus pounds. The total weight of the boxes, the case and the scope was close to 100 lbs. Two guys loaded it into my SUV.
Then I had to dolly it to my backyard. Cut open the boxes and take the scope out of the case. Wow, the scope by itself is manageable.
I mounted it onto my iOptron tripier with an extension. Still the eyepiece height was too low. I can likely get it a few more inches higher but I will likely need a bigger tripod/pier/whatever. I mounted it on a CEM 60. The CEM 60 was okay. Jiggles were manageable. But I was on my knees and butt most of the time.
I have a Pegasus NYX-101 and a CEM 70. I think both those mounts are sufficient. I didn't put the CEM 70 on the iOptron tripier because it has an adapter for another tripod hooked up to it. These mounts can handle the Askar 185. But the tripod/pier needs work, at least in my setup.
The build quality of this scope seems great. The tube is robust. The machined rings are awesome. The focuser seems solid, including the captains wheel extension. It seems so very nice. My gripes with Chinese scopes has been the anodization which fades with exposure to the sun.
I have had this issue with almost every Chinese scope/equipment whether ES, SW, WO, etc. I would hope this holds up here, but time will tell.
Shining a flashlight down the tube was amazing. Hardly any dust. If any. That is unusual.
So I set both the Askar 185mm up and my carbon fiber 150mm Quantum which has the Esprit lens. It has always been an awesome scope for me. It is an FPL 53 triplet. I DPACed that scope. The optics IMHO are top notch.
Looked at Jupiter through both scopes and my friend had his newly acquired Orion 85mm ED-X2 set up too. Jupiter could only take about 150-185x. Sorry Chas, it was not going to take 300-600x tonight. I didn't seem to see any false color. Belts were clear. The SW 150 seemed the same.
Looking at M42, it was clear that the increased aperture of the Askar 185mm showed more nebulosity. Stars were equally sharp. But the extra aperture was nice.
Looked at M35 and some other clusters. The Askar 185 was great.
Magnified Rigel and Sirius. Again, didn't see any false color that was objectionable. The seeing wasn't perfect. But the scope seems to perform very well.
Need much more use to further evaluate it. Tomorrow I will DPAC it.
But, jeez, for $5000 or so with tax. Seems to be pretty nice.
Honestly I was hopeful this would be a very nice large aperture refractor. I was skeptical about a non-FPL53 or equivalent triplet.
The glass is undisclosed. But I was pleasantly surprised.
Needs more testing, so take this with a grain of salt.
I will start another thread tomorrow.
Joe