Why Buy a STS?

Year after year, these apertures and focal ratios are our hottest sellers and constitute the bulk of the scopes that we've built and sold, and for good reason because:

 

These versatile scopes represent the best compromise between planetary and deep space performance when you're looking for that "well rounded" instrument;

 

Moderate apertures provide stunning planetary, lunar and deep space object details to fascinate the advanced beginner as their first "real" telescope or an experienced observer looking to upgrade from a mass produced scope;

 

Our Truss Ring makes these apertures and focal ratios a breeze to set up and transport;

 

Moderate focal ratios allow for breath-taking widefield views of the Milky Way and large deep space objects when combined with widefield eyepieces;

 

Your choice of Lightholder Optical (LO) or Zambuto Optical Company (ZOC) primary mirrors provide primary mirrors of the highest quality currently available. Antares Optics provides finely crafted secondary mirrors that are a perfect match for either of the above primary mirrors. Magnifications of 40x-50x per inch of aperture are achievable on nights of steady atmospheric seeing conditions.

 

Lightholder Optical (LO) primary mirrors come with printed test reports, while Antares Optics secondary mirrors come Zygo tested. No test reports are provided with the ZOC primary mirrors, but ZOC's reputation in the industry for the highest quality optics is legendary (no test reports need apply!).

 

Further, our Classic scopes come with many standard features, some of which aren't available anywhere else.   Please see What's Included for a full list of standard components.