Manufacturer: Orion UK
Product number: OGAG16

EUR 12.469,00


incl. 19 % VAT (DE)  
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Orion UK AG16 - 400 mm f3.8 Flatfield Astrograph with Carbon Fibre Tube
Orion´s AG16 has got to be the largest model which can be considered transportable. It also requires a mounting of considerable capacity, anything less than perhaps a Paramount ME2 will not yield the true potential of this telescope. We recommend that all users of this telescope have it sited permanently and in a secure observatory.

What can the AG16 do for you that other telescopes cannot? Well, quite a few things actually. It will open up the skies like you have never thought possible. The detail the AG16 is capable of resolving is breathtaking, it’s just incredible. Large format chipped cameras are usually fitted to the AG16 with some of the largest chips available. Because of the unique 4 element design of our Corrector system, you will be able to capture fields which are (no other word for it), enormous for a 400 mm telescope.

AG Astrographs
Modern technology is now capable of applying space age materials to amateur telescopes. However, it is also relatively easy to produce these materials to different grades and of course, different qualities and prices. Orion UK´s tubes are made from materials which are exactly the same as ones used on both Formula 1 racing cars, aerospace technology and orbiting Earth satellites. The reason the manufacturer uses this extremely high grade of carbon and resin is to achieve a virtual zero expansion rate and incredible strength. Both of which are essential to produce the highest quality images by maintaining a precise focal plane position and an extremely rigid and non-flexible tube. Anything less is susceptible to focal plane movement through temperature change and flexure which produce irregular shaped star images, particularly at the field edge of an image. It is relatively easy to produce significantly lesser quality tubes and the lower price of the telescope is a feature of this. However, this can be a false economy if you are after producing the finest images possible. If you have a tube which flexes slightly or has a lower grade carbon/resin construction, there is virtually nothing you can do about it, you have got what you paid for and must live with it.

AG telescopes are precision computer designed, hand built instruments. The flat fields are achieved by employing a state of the art, lens corrector system, designed especially to produce a wide, flat fields up to 60 mm diameter. All of Orion´s AG telescopes are supplied as standard with their ACU-3 custom designed and built 3" focusers (76.2 mm) to offer excellent stability over a wide range of camera loads. Air cooling fans are fitted as standard in the telescope´s main mirror cell to introduce cooling air to reach ambient temperature quickly and evenly assuring you of steady air within the tube and little or no possible currents to detract from a perfect image.

All these AG telescopes are extensively tested in Orion´s optical laboratories in their factory. However, there can be some small yet irritating effects created on long exposures of subjects on virtually all telescopes which may have a bright star in the field. This effect, if not corrected, can detract from a perfect image of stars and give a little roughness to the edge of a star´s edge. It is caused by microscopic ground pits around the extreme edge of the chamfer of the primary mirror which can disturb ever so slightly the light and create this problem. To counter act this small problem, all AG and ODK primary mirrors have a perfectly formed circular field stop placed around the chamfer of the mirror to eliminate completely this artefact. This stop creates a razor sharp star image, completely free from any slight scattering of light caused by this effect to yield star images, second to none in sharpness and contrast. Correct engineering and testing are essential to create designs such as this. Orion employs every design feature possible to get that little bit extra out of your telescope, they like to think on a par with the engineering success of F1 cars where nothing is spared for that little bit of extra power.

The AG series of astrograph Newtonian telescopes are the best available anywhere, Orion´s optics are the key, which is proven even further by some of their OEM competitors buying optics from Orion to fit into their own telescopes. There can´t be a better recommendation.

Wynne Corrector
The AG corrector design was formulated after several months of designing and field trials on different types of cameras and telescopes. Not only is this corrector used on all AG models but, it also performs incredibly well on other manufacturers telescopes, mirror sizes and focal ratios.

The AG X0.95 Wynne corrector is very easily and efficiently used on many different sizes of paraboloids from the smallest up to large 500 mm mirrors. They illustrate this by displaying 8 options, 4 different mirror sizes with 2 popular imaging focal ratios for each.

The corrector comprises of 4 elements of special glass types, two single lenses and a cemented doublet which enable the light from the telescope to be brought to a very wide, flat, false colour free focal plane of up to 60 mm diameter field. The key to the design is the choice of some rare earth glass types and computer enhanced designing of the curves of the lenses. There are 4 lenses in this corrector, one more than competitors use for a specific reason. Orion has found that 3 lenses, which are commonly used in many systems, can produce good image qualities but to get the best out of very accurate mirrors, you have to incorporate a fourth lens which enhances even further the optical performance. World famous imagers are unable to find any faults at all in their images. Cutting down the number of lenses in a corrector reduces the weight a little and reduces the cost a great deal, but it also reduces the performance, of that there is no doubt.

Orion Optics UK designed the AG corrector to be a world leader in imaging performance, it lives up to it’s design parameters.

Adaption of your camera to the M85 thread
At the camera side, the Wynne corrector has a male M85x1 thread, an adapter to 2" is supplied.

With the optional adapter ORM85-M68, a connector to the professional M68x1 Zeiss style thread system is available to you. The adapter has only 5 mm optical path and provides a female M68x1 thread at the camera side. The working ditance from the female thread is 74 mm. More adaptions (like a conversion adapter to a male M68 thread or an adapter to the M48 connection) are directly linked at the adapter.

Mirror Optics
All Orion UK AG primary mirrors are made from Schott Borosilicate Low Expansion Suprax glass (virtually identical to Pyrex), as are all Orion primary mirrors on all ranges of telescopes. The mirrors are all produced to exacting standards to an F4 paraboloid configuration. How exact are they? Well, the specialists don’t release one to their coating department unless it achieves a surface accuracy of 1/16 wave or better. How do they know when they have achieved that very high degree of accuracy? They use one of the worlds most exacting measuring devices, a Zygo Laser Interferometer. Take a few minutes and visit the Zygo page and be amazed at just how good this machine is at measuring optics, it can measure optical distances which are smaller than 2,000, yes, 2,000 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair.

Without a Zygo or similarly accurate and reliable measuring instrument, it is impossible to know the optics’ or telescope’s performance exactly. Only the best manufacturers in the business of making telescopes use them because they are not suitable for mass produced telescopes, they are slow to use and need highly skilled technicians to operate them, it just does not lend itself to anything other than the highest quality, hand figured optics, definitely not mass produced optics to a tight budget.

The elliptical secondary mirrors are also made and Zygo tested to the highest standard, again in most instances (the larger sizes) Orion uses Suprax to give stability and accuracy. These, along with the primary mirrors, are Hilux coated for the highest possible aluminium protected reflective surfaces available.

Mirror Cells
The best optics in the world can be literally ruined unless they are supported correctly in a telescope’s body. Finely hand figured surfaces, no matter how good they are, will not give their best unless the mirrors have a firm but resilient method of holding the mirror. Badly designed mirror supports (cells) are more than capable of turning the image from a 1/10PV wavefront mirror into worse than a whole wavelength of inaccuracy. How do they know this? Because they have not only seen it on many competitors telescopes that they have been asked by astronomers to check out the telescope and collimate it for them, based on the customers appraisal that the telescope was performing badly due to incorrect collimation. Badly made and/or badly adjusted cells are one of the main reasons for what appears to be a quality problem in a telescope.

Orion carried out extensive tests on cells, even after their computer software designed the cells for optimum performance, they wanted to check by themselves, so they tried the same mirror in different cells and, after months of trials, came up with the current design. A 9 point, nylon66 tipped suspension system which spreads the ‘load’ of the mirror as evenly as possible over those 9 points at the back of the mirror.

Featured here is one of their cells which shows the machined, anodised aluminium surfaces. All of Orion´s cells are CNC machined for super accuracy but they are all then carefully hand finished to ensure no small irregularities in the machining or threading of holes restricts movement of the parts. Anodising adds a protective layer to the aluminium which not only gives the aluminium protection against corrosion, it also produces a harder surface which reduces the risk of scratches or wear in the threaded holes. These cells will last a lifetime if looked after and cleaned very occasionally.

All cells have a cooling fan fitted which run off any 12 Volt DC supply to reduce significantly the risk of dew and to allow the mirror to reach observing site temperature.

Orions simple and extremely robust collimation system ensures your mirror stays exactly in the same collimated position night after night after night. The robustness of the design also gives security of constant focus. They have heard of several telescopes fitted with these cells which are observatory sited, maintaining their focus for several months, a sure sign of good design and manufacture.

ACU-3L Focuser
To improve even further the quality and performance of the AG range, Orion has introduced a completely new product in their focusers. The model used on the AG series is the ACU-3L focuser. It has a full length draw tube with 3” (76.2 mm) diameter, and is internally threaded to accept both Orion´s celebrated 3” Wynne corrector and other accessories. These are not just pushed in, they are screwed in by precision threads. This gives an incredible amount of strength and freedom from any flexure, so common in large, push fit focusers.

The initial focusing is carried out by the silky smooth main focusing knobs and then, when perfect positioning is required, the slow motion knob with added internal weights takes over to give very, very smooth movement down at a reduced ratio speed of a factor of 10:1, it just glides along at a very smooth, slow and precise pace, you have to actually feel this to appreciate just how good it really is.

Coupled with this smoothness comes strength. The ACU-3L carries most cameras on the market with ease, it really is a design which lends to smoothness, attractiveness and power which ensures you have no problems at all with this focuser.

Tube Rings
To give maximum security and exactness, Orion Optics manufacture, on their own CNC milling machines, aluminium tube rings which are machined from solid pieces of aluminium and later black anodised to protect the surface which are felt lined to give a gentle but firm grip to the polished tubes. Pressure adjustment is made by the large knurled knob on each tube ring to give precise amounts of friction on the tube outer surface.

Astrophotographic results obtained with this telescope on Astrobin
Here you can find some astrophotographs made with this telescope model: Link to Astrobin
Primary mirror diameter:400 mm
Focal length:1520 mm
Focal Ratio:f3.8
Camera side thread of the corrector:M85x1 male
Focus Distance from M85x1 Thread to Image Plane:79 mm
Tube Weight (no additional equipment):approximately 33 kg
Tube Diameter:450 mm
Tube Length:1320 mm
Tube Material:Carbon fibre sandwich
Secondary Size:130 mm
Mirror Cell:CNC Machined alum. 9 point suspension
Focuser:3" Crayford with 10 to 1 reduction
Corrector Design:4 lens ED
Flat Field Size:50 mm
Spot Size on Axis:4.1 µm
Spot Size at Field Edge:6.6 µm
Mirror / Tube Cooling:3 Controllable fans
Attachment Method:CNC machined alum. cradles + dovetail (optional)
Optical tube assembly with focuser base
Focuser with inserted Wynne corrector
Adapter M85x1 to 2"
Adapter cable 2 crocodile clips to 3.5 mm audio jack

Astrophotographic results obtained with this telescope on Astrobin
Here you can find some astrophotographs made with this telescope model: Link to Astrobin


The surfaces of mirrors - Information from Orion UK
Manufacturing precision optical surfaces, (in this category we include both mirrors and corrector lenses), involves many specialised procedures to achieve the high degree of optical precision, some of which occasionally leave surface blemishes on the optic (mirror and/or lens).

If there are a few sleeks or scratches on the optics’ surface they in no way effect the performance of the lens or mirror either visually or photographically and cannot be considered as an acceptable reason for any complaint. Small pits are occasionally visible due to processing in the polishing and figuring process, these again cannot be accepted as reason for complaint. We endeavour to have blemish free surfaces but cannot guarantee such. Accordingly, we have set our cosmetic surface finish at a high standard production tolerance as is practical. We apply an optics industry standard to our surfaces of 80/50 scratch dig which is a measure of an acceptable level of surface blemishes per optic is acceptable.


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