Askar SQA55 Quintuplet Refractor — image 1
Askar

Askar SQA55 Quintuplet Refractor

A 55mm f/4.8 quintuplet astrograph the size of a camera lens, a flat, fast, pinpoint wide field that rides a tiny star tracker. The most portable serious imaging rig you can buy.

86/ 100
Polaris Score
#1 of 6 compact astrographs
See the breakdown ↓
Aperture
55mm
Focal Length
264mm
Focal Ratio
f/4.8
Mount Type
None (OTA only)
Optical Design
Quintuplet Astrograph
Weight
1.6 kg
From$795

Lowest in 90 days

Price tracked by PolarisObserved 55 timesTracking since Aug 2026

Try in simulator →
What it's built forOpen these in the simulator →

This telescope was built for the camera.

A fast f/4.8 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/4.8 — built to imageNeeds a tracking mount
The view people remember

M57, a perfect smoke ring.

A tiny, flawless grey ring floating in a rich star field — the blown-off shell of a dying star, and one of the most satisfying small targets in the sky.

See Ring Nebula through this telescope →
01What it's good at

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

A five-element quintuplet delivers a flat, colour-free field to the corners with no separate flattener needed.
Best at
✓A five-element quintuplet delivers a flat, colour-free field to the corners with no separate flattener needed.
✓At f/4.8 and 1.6kg it images fast and rides the smallest star trackers, a true travel astrograph.
✓Short 264mm focal length frames the largest nebulae, the Milky Way and wide constellations whole.
✓Built-in tilt adjustment and a proper imaging spec make it punch far above its size.
Trade-offs
!Only 55mm of aperture, this is a wide-field tool, not a light bucket for faint detail.
!OTA only; it still needs a tracker or mount and a camera.
!The short focal length makes small objects tiny in frame.
!Best matched to APS-C / small sensors; very large sensors may outrun the corrected circle.
02In plain English

What These Numbers Mean

55mm · f/4.8 · 264mm FL
Aperture
55 mm
Barely two inches of glass, so this is not a telescope for faint or small targets. It exists to cover extremely wide fields cleanly, and it needs long total integration to reach dim nebulosity.
Focal length
264 mm
Very wide. It frames whole constellations' worth of nebulosity: the Orion complex end to end, the Cygnus loop, or the Rho Ophiuchi region in a single frame. This is closer to a fast camera lens than a conventional telescope.
Focal ratio
f/4.8
Fast and forgiving. Short exposures build usable signal, and at 264 mm even mediocre tracking produces round stars, which makes it the easiest possible entry into deep-sky imaging.
Optical design
Quintuplet Petzval astrograph
Five elements with built-in flattening give clean full-frame corners at a very wide field, where lesser designs show elongated edge stars. No flattener, no spacers, no arithmetic.
Weight
1.6 kg tube
Around 3.5 lb. Any star tracker carries it, it fits in a camera bag, and it is realistic to take on a plane, which is what makes it a dark-sky travel scope.
Mount
OTA only
You supply the mount, and almost anything that tracks will do. This is the cheapest complete imaging setup in the Askar line once the mount is counted.
03The Polaris Score

How it scores, and why.

86/100 · #1 of 6 compact astrographs
86/ 100
Askar SQA55 Quintuplet Refractor
#1 of 6 compact astrographs
Performance
85
Ease of use
84
Portability
96
Upgrade potential
78

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

An honest fit check.

Travellers and grab-and-go imagers who want quality without hauling a big rig.
Buy it if you
✓Travellers and grab-and-go imagers who want quality without hauling a big rig.
✓Beginners entering imaging on a small star tracker rather than a heavy equatorial.
✓Wide-field shooters chasing large nebulae, the Milky Way and constellation-scale fields.
Look elsewhere if you
!Anyone after small, faint targets, 55mm and 264mm is deliberately wide, not deep.
!Visual observers; like other astrographs it is built for a camera, not an eyepiece.
!Imagers who need long focal length for galaxies and planetary nebulae.
05Build your rig

What to buy next — and where it leads.

7 pieces of gear, ordered by what changes the view most
Recommended upgrades
Observe all night, no AA batteries★ Top pickCelestron PowerTank Lithium

Runs the mount (and heaters) all night off one pack.

Make nebulae popOptolong UHC Filter 2″

Lifts nebula contrast out of light-polluted skies.

No fogging on long sessionsPegasus Astro Multi-Channel Dew Controller

Stops dew from ending an imaging night.

Imaging path
Better tracking & light imagingSky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro SynScan GoTo Mount✓ Compatible

Commonly paired with this telescope

Portable astrophotographyZWO AM5N Harmonic Equatorial Mount✓ Compatible

Start capturing images of the Moon and planets

A versatile upgradeSky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi GoTo EQ Mount Kit✓ Compatible

Commonly paired with this telescope

Start imagingZWO ASI533MC Pro

Start capturing images of the Moon and planets

Wide-field deep-sky imaging
Excellent, flat field
Lunar & planetary
Small image scale
Visual use
Possible, but an imaging tube
06The numbers

Full specifications.

6 measured and stated values
Optics
Optical DesignQuintuplet Astrograph
Aperture55mm
Focal Length264mm
Focal Ratiof/4.8
Mount & drive
Mount TypeNone (OTA only)
Physical
Weight1.6 kg
07Alternatives

For a different goal, start here.

2 alternatives, each mapped to the goal it wins at
more reach

Apertura 90mm Triplet

A bigger 90mm apo with longer focal length for tighter framing, heavier, needs a real mount.

→
much faster

Celestron RASA 8

An f/2 astrograph with 8 inches of aperture, vastly more capable, vastly less portable.

→
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Community

Used in these setups.

Real builds from the community that include this product.

Widefield Nebula Imaging

Featured

Wide-field deep-sky imaging built around big emission nebulae. The SQA55's fast, flat field covers the whole ASI2600MC sensor, and the 7nm dual-band filter cuts the sky glow that otherwise buries Ha and OIII from a suburban backyard.