SV48P Achromatic Telescope 90mm f/5.5 Refractor OTA for Deep Sky Astrophotography and Visual Astronomy

I'm getting back into astronomy after 46 years. I had a 6 inch reflector on an equatorial mount back then. I always wanted a telescope like the SVbony SV48p 90mm f/5.5. The quality is amazing and so far I have used it to observe the moon and sun. The optics are great. I also purchased a few Plossl eyepieces that made viewing very pleasing. This makes a great first time scope, travel scope or an addition to your larger scope. I'm looking forward to taking it to my first star party and solar observation day. I would highly recommend this OTA and SvBony Products.

This relatively inexpensive telescope is surprisingly good. Although there is some chromatic aberration compared with more expensive telescopes, it's not bad and the objective lens is actually very sharp. Use good eyepieces and you're all set. The view of the Moon with a 6mm eyepiece were really nice. At the other end of magnification, the view with a 22mm eyepiece of general star fields was very pleasing. This would make an excellent scope for a young person, someone interested in general observing, or an expert who wants a grab-and-go scope or for outreach events.

I have larger scopes (both reflectors and refractors), but here I was looking for something that would be smaller in size and easier to carry on my desert trips. In addition, I must admit I was rather curious to experiment and see, with my own eyes, what a less expensive scope could do in comparison to other, fancier telescopes ! The SVbony SV48p 90mm f/5.5 is described as an air spaced doublet achromat refractor telescope of 500mm focal length, with a large 2-inch rotatable Crayford double speed focuser. The term achromat refers to the fact that the optics is in part color corrected, and the 2-inch focuser is a very nice feature since it allows the use of 2” eyepieces, as well as large DSLR cameras and possibly even dedicated astro cameras of varying resolutions (as made by SVbony, RisingCam etc). The double speed (1x and 0.1x) feature on the focuser allows very precise focusing, which is done using the smaller golden knob on the side of the focuser. A set of stainless hex screws under the focuser allows in principle further fine tuning, for ex. adjustment of the focuser resistance to slippage. A large thumbscrew under the focuser allows the focus to be locked in place, thus reducing focuser tube movement as well. In addition, the whole focuser can be rotated by loosening a large thumbscrew, so that a celestial subject can be properly framed with a camera. Since this is an optical tube assembly (OTA) only, you will need to supply your own t