$Askar 130PHQ Quadruplet Refracting Astrograph — image 1$

Askar

Askar 130PHQ Quadruplet Refracting Astrograph

Name: Askar 130PHQ Quadruplet Refracting Astrograph
Brand: Askar

The flagship of Askar's PHQ line: a 130mm f/7.7 flat-field quadruplet that reaches 1000mm of focal length, the tube for imagers who want galaxy-scale reach with corners already handled.

90/ 100

Polaris Score

#1 of 5 large imaging astrograph

See the breakdown ↓

Aperture

130mm

Focal Length

1000mm

Focal Ratio

f/7.7

Mount Type

None (OTA only)

Optical Design

Quadruplet Astrograph

Weight

9 kg

From$3,499

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Where to buy

Agena AstroProductsPartnerBest price$3,499→Starizona$3,499→High Point Scientific$3,499→

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What it's built forOpen these in the simulator →

This telescope was built for the camera.

A fast f/7.7 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/7.7 — 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 →

Where else it shines

Within reach

Orion Nebula

Colorful nebula captured with live stacking — wings and filaments

Open view →

Rewards a dark sky

Andromeda 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 four-element flat-field design delivers pinpoint stars across a full-frame sensor with no separate flattener to buy or tune

Best at

✓The four-element flat-field design delivers pinpoint stars across a full-frame sensor with no separate flattener to buy or tune

✓1000mm at f/7.7 reaches galaxies and smaller nebulae that shorter astrographs cannot resolve in detail

✓130mm of aperture gathers the light needed to keep exposures reasonable at this longer focal length

✓A heavy-duty rack-and-pinion focuser holds large cameras square without slipping during long exposures

Trade-offs

!At 9kg it demands a heavy, accurate equatorial mount to track well at 1000mm

!1000mm is unforgiving of guiding and polar-alignment errors

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

!The long focal length narrows the field, so large targets will not fit

02In plain English

What These Numbers Mean

130mm · f/7.7 · 1000mm FL

Aperture

130 mm

Five inches of light grasp feeding a camera directly. It records faint outer galaxy structure and dim narrowband detail that a 70 mm or 80 mm astrograph would need several times the integration time to reach.

Focal length

1000 mm

A metre of focal length is galaxy and planetary-nebula territory: M51, M81, the Eagle's pillars and small clusters fill the frame properly. It also means guiding errors show, so mount quality matters more than at 400 mm.

Focal ratio

f/7.7

Not a fast system. Exposures run longer than a wide-field astrograph needs, which is the price of the image scale. Under light-polluted skies, plan on narrowband filters and multi-night integration.

Optical design

Quadruplet flat-field astrograph

Four elements with the field flattening built in, so there is no separate flattener to space correctly and no extra glass to introduce tilt. Stars stay round into the corners of a full-frame sensor straight out of the focuser.

Weight

9 kg tube

Around 20 lb before the imaging train, so a fully loaded setup approaches 13 kg. This needs a serious mount and it is a two-person job to move as an assembled rig.

Mount

OTA only

No mount included, and at 1000 mm the mount defines your results. A well-tuned equatorial in the 20 kg class with autoguiding is the entry requirement.

03The Polaris Score

How it scores, and why.

90/100 · #1 of 5 large imaging astrograph

90/ 100

Askar 130PHQ Quadruplet Refracting Astrograph

#1 of 5 large imaging astrograph

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