Sharpstar

Sharpstar 61EDPH III Triplet APO

A 61mm triplet ED astrograph at a genuinely accessible price, the tube that lets a beginner start wide-field astrophotography without the premium-brand outlay.

84/ 100

Polaris Score

#3 of 7 compact imaging refractor

See the breakdown ↓

Aperture

61mm

Focal Length

360mm

Focal Ratio

f/5.9

Mount Type

None (OTA only)

Optical Design

Triplet APO

Weight

2 kg

From$605

Lowest in 90 days

Price tracked by PolarisObserved 28 timesTracking since Mar 2026

Try in simulator →

Where to buy

High Point ScientificBest price$605→

Verified yesterday · prices tracked daily

What it's built forOpen these in the simulator →

This telescope was built for sweeping wide.

A short, fast refractor with a generous true field — the whole sword of Orion in one view, star fields that spill past the field stop. It rewards low power and dark skies far more than chasing magnification.

Widest true fieldsTack-sharp to the edge

The view people remember

The Pleiades, blue and blazing.

A knot of hot young stars wrapped in the faintest haze of reflected light — best at the lowest power, where the whole cluster drops into a single glittering field.

See The Pleiades through this telescope →

Where else it shines

Needs patience

Orion Nebula

Bright core visible, outer wisps need patience and dark adaptation

Open view →

Rewards a dark sky

Hercules Cluster

Soft round glow — looks more like a comet than a cluster

Open view →

Rewards a dark sky

Andromeda Galaxy

Faint elongated smudge — averted vision helps

Open view →

Also excellent on

Saturn

Small bright disk — featureless point at low magnification

Open view →

✦

Tight planetary detail belongs to a longer scope. This one trades reach for a breathtaking field.

01What it's good at

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

Best at

✓The three-element ED design controls color well and, with the matched reducer-flattener, delivers a flat field at a fast f/4.4 for imaging

✓360mm at f/5.9 frames large nebulae and the Milky Way, an ideal focal length for a first astrophotography scope

✓At about 2kg it rides on the lightest star trackers, keeping the whole rig portable and beginner-friendly

✓It undercuts the premium 60mm-class astrographs while delivering most of the image quality

Trade-offs

!The dedicated reducer-flattener is a separate purchase for the flattest, fastest field

!61mm and 360mm keep small targets small in the frame

!As an OTA it needs a tracking mount, camera and often a guide scope

!The front optics can dew and benefit from a heater

02In plain English

What These Numbers Mean

Aperture

61 mm

Small aperture, chosen for field width rather than reach. It records the large nebulae and star fields cleanly with a few hours of integration, but faint compact targets need far more time or a bigger telescope.

Focal length

360 mm

Wide field. The Veil complex, the Pleiades, the Heart and Soul and the Andromeda Galaxy all frame comfortably on APS-C, which is most of the popular first-year target list.

Focal ratio

f/5.9

Moderately fast, and combined with the very short focal length it is extremely forgiving of tracking error. This is a telescope you can learn imaging on without an expensive mount.

Optical design

Triplet ED apochromat

Three elements including ED glass keep bright stars free of colour fringing, which a doublet at this speed would not manage as cleanly. Add the matching flattener or reducer to keep corner stars round.

Weight

2 kg tube

Around 4.5 lb, comfortably within star tracker limits even with a camera attached. It travels in hand luggage, which makes dark-sky trips a realistic habit.

Mount

OTA only

No mount included, but very little is needed. A tracker with reasonable polar alignment produces round stars at 360 mm, keeping the total cost of a first imaging rig low.

02The Polaris Score

How it scores, and why.

84/ 100

Sharpstar 61EDPH III Triplet APO

#3 of 7 compact 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.

03Who it's for