John Stone:
Luke,
Can you compare and contrast these 120 refractors? I believe the Esprit to be the better corrected scope because it is supposed to have FPL-53 glass in the lens and in the flattener. The Askar is cheaper glass and less well corrected (look at it's spot diagrams), but the mechanics seem to be exceptional and it has a working 0.8x reducer. Not sure how well the Esprit reducer worked in the real world.
But in real world use, what are the differences in your personal experience?
Hey John!
Sorry about the late reply, I'd be happy to share my thoughts -
I had the Esprit 120 for a couple of years and honestly loved the scope, I used it a great deal over the seasons with a variety of cameras and mounts so I have a pretty good feel for how it performed - sadly, in a 'moment of madness' I decided to part with it to generate some cash for other purchases.
Generally speaking, I found the Esprit to be everything that people say they are, just a beautiful scope optically. - mechanically good too, but with some silly design flaws (looking at you, floppy dew shield)
The opportunity came up to review an Askar 120 Apo, so I decided to take a look and see what it was like.
Truly I was a bit staggered by it, given the pricetag disparity between the two I went into the test/review with the expectation that it wouldn't hold a candle to the Esprit, and yet I feel it matched it in sharpness and colour correction, and exceeded it in build quality.
It might sound like a stretch, or an overly positive review to be saying all this, but at the end of the day I liked it so much that I put my money where my mouth is, after the review was over, I simply bought it for myself! :-)
Overall I couldn't be happier, it's permanently mounted on my 2nd pier and delivers quality results every single clear night I get, I loved my Esprit for all the right reasons, but I no longer miss it.
If you have the time and want to see more about the scope then check out a few of my videos if you are interested:
-'long vs short exposures - broadband at f7' - that will show two versions of m51 with short integrations, 90m in each case.
-'Askar 120 Review - So nice I bought it' - that will show you a few test images, along with its uncalibrated performance with and without reducer + full-frame camera.
-'Big & Long VS Small & Short - Are big telescopes worth it?' - that will show you results on a planetary nebula, m57, when compared side-by-side with my celestron EdgeHD11
Hope that helps!
Clear skies :-)
), but I am keen to know what comes out of the real-world with this lens!
, then sharpness in particular is an important issue 
