Explore Scientific ED102 Essential Series Air-Spaced Triplet APO Refractor Telescope 102mm dia. f/7

This telescope is well constructed. It looks solid build, and has a nice glossy look to it. Very nice finish. The optical quality is amazing for visual use. I see virtually no chromatic aberration even at some high magnifications. My only issue was packaging. Explore Scientific could do better than this. Their AR102 packaging is wonderful. Also, the lens cap is just plain weird, keeps falling off. Perhaps a design similar to the AR102 would be good.

I don't know what kept me from buying the ED102 other then stubbornness. It turned out to be one of the best purchases I've made. The resolution is absolutely wonderful and the construction is flawless. A real precision instrument there is absolutely no CA and views are near perfection.

My first Explore Scientific telescope was damaged in shipment due to missing foam. My second one was missing documentation and screws. They sent replacement screws, but they were the wrong size. They never wrote documentation for this scope! They will email you the documentation for a completely different scope nothing like the ED102. So you are stuck asking every question over email, and that can take up to a week. I regret this purchase. I have three other similarly priced scopes, and they all came with all the parts, and actual proper documentation.

I been wanting one of these for some time, found that HPS had them in stock, bought it and paid for overnight shipping, The refractor is high quality throughout, it's a must buy, this is my 3rd refractor, 127mm, 102mm and the 80mm

I bought my telescope locally in the Springdale area, so I can't speak to shipping, but the telescope itself is wonderful. Paired with an EQ6r-pro, I've been using mine for astrophotography work. I've taken some of my best photos yet using this telescope. The image scale that comes with a ~700 mm focal length is a marked improvement over wider-field telescopes when it comes to smaller targets like galaxies. A tiny bit of chromatic aberration shows up in my final images, but it's hardly noticeable and is easily fixable during image processing. Overall an easy recommend - especially at this price.