I got a chance to try the ATC out and make some impressions.
It feels quite solid and well made. The focus was a bit uneven in its smoothness. The field of view was lovely and wide.
On an artificial star inside focus showed slightly oval almost diamond like rings vertically and outside focus it was harder to discern the rings (usual under correction of spherical aberration), but an interesting phenomenon showed itself with the top part of the defocussed star seemingly in a planetary partial eclipse ie a crescent shaped section was missing. I should add that outside focus the rings did not stretch horizontally, so I don't think I was seeing classic astigmatism. I should add I'm not an expert on star testing but enjoy testing scopes out when I can.
I had a look through a window at some birds and at lower powers felt the image was perfectly satisfactory and I wouldn't like to comment further as I had nothing to compare it to.
I'd like to see another sample but for now I think it's potentially the best small scope available and worth the extra price over the Kowa 553/4 for the wider field of view.
It feels quite solid and well made. The focus was a bit uneven in its smoothness. The field of view was lovely and wide.
On an artificial star inside focus showed slightly oval almost diamond like rings vertically and outside focus it was harder to discern the rings (usual under correction of spherical aberration), but an interesting phenomenon showed itself with the top part of the defocussed star seemingly in a planetary partial eclipse ie a crescent shaped section was missing. I should add that outside focus the rings did not stretch horizontally, so I don't think I was seeing classic astigmatism. I should add I'm not an expert on star testing but enjoy testing scopes out when I can.
I had a look through a window at some birds and at lower powers felt the image was perfectly satisfactory and I wouldn't like to comment further as I had nothing to compare it to.
I'd like to see another sample but for now I think it's potentially the best small scope available and worth the extra price over the Kowa 553/4 for the wider field of view.
