Exploring the Suffolk Virginia Night Sky – Astronomy, Astrophotography, Telescopes, EAA – Planets and Stars and Nebula and Galaxies – Looking, Learning, Sharing… Let's see what we can see…
The nights have been cloudy for over a week now, and the weather has been cold, wet, and windy. This is probably mostly my fault as I ordered a new optical tube assembly (OTA), a SVBONY SV503 102ED F/7 Refractor. I have been looking at a few different 102mm aperture refractors, I love my AT66ED but wanted some more aperture and something with a faster focal ratio than my SCTs. I finally decided on and ordered the SVBONY SV503 for the features, the cost, and the availability.
The OTA arrived last weekend just in time for the wind and rain from an off-shore low churning out in the Atlantic.
It was packaged well and delivered quickly, safe and dry.
The SVBONY SV503 102ED F/7 Refractor seems to be well made and I like the white matte finish. Both the coarse and fine focus are very smooth. The focus lock screw and rotation lock screw work as expected. The retractable dew shield fits well on the scope and operates smoothly. The glass looks good with no dust specs and the lens cap fits nice and tight. Very nice fit and finish over all.
It’s not balanced or anything, just have it on the mount in the garage to admire it a bit since the weather is not cooperating.
I purchased the scope as a bundle which included the SV165 30mm Guide Scope. I am going to use the 30mm guide scope with my AT66ED and mount my SV106 60mm Guide Scope on the SV503 102ED. I will have two great EAA refractor setups.
The OTA weighs around 9 lbs, about the same as the Celestron C6 SCT. With guide scope, focal reducer, spacers, cameras, and such the total weight of the setup will probably be close to 15 lbs, well within the payload capacity limits of the old Celestron Advanced GT mount.
