Altair Wave Series 130 F7 ED Triplet APO

Product Description

A premium air spaced triplet Apochromat SFPL-53 Synthetic Fluorite optic in the ever popular 130mm aperture and ideal f7 focal ratio, suited to advanced imagers and discerning visual observers. Excellent colour correction for high resolution imaging with demanding new generation Colour CMOS cameras. Over the last 10 years Altair Wave Series telescopes have gained a reputation for performance well above their price range, not just with visual observers, but with astro photographers too, even in comparisons with telescopes costing several times the price. Every Wave Series telescope is tested at the final stages of production, and a laser interferogram optical test report is included to match the lens serial number.

Guaranteed optical quality
Every lens and just as importantly the cell must meet our strict criterial of 0.95 Strehl minimum, tested in green light, and your telescope is guaranteed to arrive in perfect collimation no matter where you are in the world.

2022 Updates: In response to a growing demand from the astro-imaging market, our 2021 optical tube includes a better designed front tilt adjustable lens cell, a more robust M92 dual speed 3.7" "Rack 'n Pinion" focuser, front dew-shield with adjustable fit, and a longer Losmandy dovetail bar for easier balancing. An aluminium push-fit dust-cap is included for the front lens.

The Altair Astro 130mm F7 ED Triplet APO refractor uses a 905mm F7 focal length ED Triplet lens which can be reduced to 724mm F5.6 for astro photography with 0.8x M92 Planostar reducer. The objective glass is annealed, therefore free of internal stresses and striae which can affect optical quality in large size refractors. Glass batch data is used to inform final figuring, unlike any other telescope in this price range. The result is colour aberration free high power views for performance at the limit of the 130mm aperture.

Suitable for astro imaging or visual use, this is an extremely capable telescope in all areas. The telescope is ideal for serious planetary viewing, enabling faint and subtle details to be observed in high contrast. The moon, Jupiter and Saturn are very good targets for the Wave 130. .

A rigid aluminium tube gives the ideal thermal properties for any large air-spaced triplet refractor, allowing the use of Altair DewZapper dew control heaters to conduct heat to the optics, and of course quick thermal equalisation and relative freedom from tube currents when it comes to cool-down.

Lightened CNC machined tube rings give a stable mounting platform for astro photography, and a top handle allows easier mounting of this ~13kg telescope. A large dewshield (with improved mechanism) delays the onset of dew and keeps dust and pollen away from the objective.

The new Rack and Pinion dual speed focuser has a smooth teflon lined rotation system, and the end cap can be removed to attach the M92 PlanoStar TM 1.0x Flattener or M92 0.8x reducer.

Quality Control at every stage
Wave Series means the ultimate QC for the price: The 130mm Wave Series triplet APO optics are carefully finished at the final stages of production and repeatedly tested until signed off by the optician in charge of the production run. Before anti-reflection coating, the lenses are placed on the Altair owned testplate to assess the deviation from the ideal design curvature for figuring until the correct curvature is achieved. During assembly, the individual lenses are assembled in the lens cell, marked and rotated and re-centred with reference from a double pass autocollimator. Many iterations are required to get the best alignment and centering combination - there are 6 glass surfaces to deal with in the case of a triplet lens assembly. This final QC increases the cost of the telescope, and may introduce a 2-3 day delay in shipping, however it also allows our optical guarantee to be met on arrival, anywhere in the world.

Each lens cell is tested between adjustments, and small changes are made in rotation or centering, or re-spacing of the elements relative to each other. Sometimes this can result in very small dust particles between the lenses, which have absolutely no effect on the performance of the telescope whatsoever (because they are at the entrance pupil), but are inevitable during this iterative process. If you are concerned about this please get in touch and we will recommend another optical tube with lesser assembly time, slightly different glass, and almost but not quite the same performance. We do believe that, at this aperture, it is preferable to have a lens which has been adjusted for optimum performance instead of a lens which is cosmetically perfect. Each lens cell has a serial number, guaranteeing it's originality as a genuine Altair Astro optic.

Lens numbers start afresh with each major change in production. Once the optimum setup is reached, the lens is signed off, a laser interferogram image in 532nm green light is inputted into AtmosFRINGE software to produce a test report showing the lens characteristics, which is included with each telescope.

The image is a snapshot in time of the lens after assembly. Altair Astro has been performing this QC process since 2008, and to our knowledge no other UK company is capable of performing this level of quality control, which is the essence of the Wave Series concept.

Altair Astro 130mm F7 ED Triplet APO Features:
130mm F7 multi coated objective lens using top quality ED glass from Japan. Excellent colour correction for imaging with demanding Colour CMOS cameras.
Highest practical magnification 250x, light grasp of 67% more than a 102mm (4") refractor.
OTA weight with rings and finder is about 13kg.
New 92mm (M92) Rack 'n Pinion dual speed focuser with 1:10 ratio coarse and fine knobs.
2" to 1.25" Self-Centering eyepiece adaptor.
Tube rings with standard M6 hole pattern, 3 holes with 30mm centre to centre spacing.
Losmandy-style dovetail bar included with carry handle.

Case * Please note: The case is sold as "packaging only" and is provided with this telescope to protect it during shipping. The product guarantee does not extend to damage of the case during shipping, nor failure of the case, catches, zips, foam, or other fittings, and you are not being charged for the case when buying a telescope. If the case has absorbed damage, it is considered to have fulfilled it's function to protect the contents (which are of course guaranteed to arrive undamaged). Regardless, it is very rare for a case to be damaged.