Brief review on a C102 Wide-field

by Richard Navarrete


I purchased (actually, my wife bought it for me) a Celestron 102mm f/5 achromat last week and had it out at Henry Coe State Park on Saturday night. It comes with a 45 degree correct image diagonal (which I was able to switch for a 90 degree correct image diagonal) 25 and 10mm generic plossls, and a 1/4-20 tripod mounting block. No finder scope was provided, but there is a dovetail socket built in which is exactly the same as my 80 ShortTube finder socker. I was able to use the ST finder with no problem. Weight is around 5 or 6 pounds without a diagonal and eyepiece. Cost was approximately $300 plus tax, and was purchased at a store in Mendocino called "Out of this World." The proprietor was VERY nice, and I encourage you to check out their web page at http://www.sciencetown.com. I would do business with this company again.

The scope has a two inch focuser, and comes with a 1.25" adapter. The end of the 1.25" adapter is threaded for a standard T-thread. I used a TeleVu 2" diagonal. Images were crisp and contrasty, there was some purple on Vega, and a bit of coma at the extreme edge when using a 35mm Panoptic eyepiece. There were quite a few observers who were interested in the scope before it got dark, and after having a few views through the scope were talking about having to get one for themselves. The North America nebula was prominent with a UHC and OIII filter, as was the Veil. M17 with a UHC and 9mm Nagler was outstanding with much detail. Comet Linear showed a fairly long, but faint, tail.

I also own an Orion 80mm ShortTube which I enjoy using, but the C102 WF was a very obvious step up in terms of light grasp and detail. This scope is a keeper!