Askar

Askar FRA600 108 mm Quintuplet APO Astrograph

Name: Askar FRA600 108 mm Quintuplet APO Astrograph
Brand: Askar

No longer sold

A 108mm f/5.6 flat-field quintuplet astrograph that steps the FRA line up to a larger aperture, pairing sharp full-frame corners with enough focal length to frame galaxies as well as nebulae.

88/ 100

Polaris Score

#2 of 7 wide-field imaging refractor

See the breakdown ↓

Aperture

108mm

Focal Length

600mm

Focal Ratio

f/5.6

Mount Type

None (OTA only)

Optical Design

Quintuplet Astrograph

Weight

4.4 kg

Try in simulator →

No longer sold

Discontinued by the manufacturer (per Agena Astro). We keep the page for reference — see current alternatives below.

See alternatives ↓

What it's built forOpen these in the simulator →

This telescope was built for the camera.

A fast f/5.6 astrograph designed to throw a wide, flat, well-corrected field onto a sensor. It is an optical tube first — give it a tracking mount and a camera and it rewards long exposures, not eyepieces.

f/5.6 — built to imageNeeds a tracking mount

The view people remember

Andromeda, wider than the Moon.

A vast soft oval with a blazing core — two and a half million light-years of galaxy, spilling well past the field of view under a genuinely dark sky.

See Andromeda Galaxy through this telescope →

Where else it shines

Within reach

Orion Nebula

Colorful nebula captured with live stacking — wings and filaments

Open view →

Rewards a dark sky

Whirlpool Galaxy

Long-exposure capture revealing galaxy core and outer structure

Open view →

Easy first target

The Pleiades

Field rich with stars — long exposure pulls in fainter members

Open view →

Also excellent on

Saturn

Processed planetary capture with rings or bands clearly visible

Open view →

✦

There is no eyepiece experience here. Its reward shows up on a sensor, after the exposure — not in the moment.

01What it's good at

What it's best at — and the trade-offs.

The five-element Petzval design bakes the flattener into the tube, so stars stay pinpoint to the corners of a full-frame sensor out of the box

Best at

✓The five-element Petzval design bakes the flattener into the tube, so stars stay pinpoint to the corners of a full-frame sensor out of the box

✓600mm at f/5.6 is a versatile middle focal length that frames larger galaxies and nebulae without cropping them

✓108mm of aperture collects meaningfully more light than the smaller FRA and PHQ tubes for shorter exposures

✓A locking focuser and rotator make back-focus and framing repeatable from session to session

Trade-offs

!It is a dedicated astrograph with a narrow visual use case

!At 4.4kg it needs a mid-weight tracking mount, not a small star tracker

!As an OTA it requires a mount, camera and guiding to produce results

!The front optics can dew and benefit from a heater

02In plain English

What These Numbers Mean

108mm · f/5.6 · 600mm FL

Aperture

108 mm

Over four inches of corrected glass in a fast astrograph, which is an unusual combination. It gathers roughly 44 percent more light than a 90 mm and makes narrowband work from suburban skies genuinely practical.

Focal length

600 mm

A versatile middle focal length. Large nebulae still fit on APS-C while galaxies and clusters get enough scale to hold detail, so one telescope covers most of a target list.

Focal ratio

f/5.6

Fast for this aperture, which is where the value sits: it combines the exposure speed of a small astrograph with the light grasp of a four-inch. Focus and tilt still need care at this speed.

Optical design

Quintuplet Petzval astrograph

Five elements with integrated flattening deliver clean full-frame corners with no accessories in the train. The correction is strong enough that it also gives excellent wide-field visual views with a 2 inch eyepiece.

Weight

4.4 kg tube

About 10 lb, which most mid-range mounts handle comfortably even loaded with camera, filter wheel and guiding. Portable enough to remain a travel telescope.

Mount

OTA only

No mount included. Pair it with a tracking equatorial rated around 10 to 15 kg and autoguiding to get the most from the optics.

03The Polaris Score

How it scores, and why.

88/100 · #2 of 7 wide-field imaging refractor

88/ 100

Askar FRA600 108 mm Quintuplet APO Astrograph

#2 of 7 wide-field imaging refractor

Performance

Ease of use

Portability

Upgrade potential

Polaris weighs optical capability, how easy the scope is to live with, how portable it is, and how far it takes you before you outgrow it — not list price or brand.

04Who it's for