ASTRONOMY - Baader Planetarium€¦ · Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY 39 BAADER APO 95/560 CAF2 TRAVEL COMPANION The RiDK Series represents the new reference point for all modied Dall-Kirkham

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QHY12 • WILLIAM OPTICS GRAN TURISMO 102-MM APO REFRACTORADM DV-SERIES SADDLE • OLIVON WA PLÖSSL, ZOOM AND UW80° EYEPIECES

BAADER APO95/560 CAF2

TRAVELCOMPANIONA TOP-QUALITYGRAB-AND-GOCROSSOVERAPOCHROMAT

The amateur astronomer has a largechoice of compact refractors today. Com-panies like William Optics, Takahashi,Stellarvue, Tele Vue, TMB, TEC andothers offer short APOs in aperturesranging from 80 mm to 110 mm. Ama-teur astronomers often have to go on themove to find clear and dark skies and asmall but excellent telescope can do won-ders visually and photographically farfrom city lights.

The champion between compactnessand diameter is surely Astro-Physics withthe legendary but elusive Stowaway 90mm, a compact oiled-triplet APO offeredfor a time as an f/5, then as an f/7 in-strument. The shortest one (actually withaperture of 92.5 mm f/4.9) is only 36-cmshort and weighs 3 kilograms. Very fewwere produced: Roland Christen foundit difficult to work with the central fluo-rite element of the triplet. Later, he foundthat even producing the f/7 was as ex-pensive as making the 105-mm Traveler,and the Stowaways were discontinued,

much to the chagrin of many amateurs.If you’re very lucky, you can sometimesfind one of these little gems but at an as-

tronomical price!Ninety-five millimeters. That seems

an odd diameter, but that may well be

Baader Apo95/560 CaF2Travel Companion

Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY 37

Image 1 - The Baader Travel Companion mounted on the author’s Vernonscope/Unitronalt-az mount.

A Top-Quality Grab-and-GoCrossover Apochromat By André Van der Elst

38 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

BAADER APO 95/560 CAF2 TRAVEL COMPANION

the best aperture for a pocket-sized tele-scope for the traveling amateur as-tronomer. It gives enough resolvingpower for interesting views of the Moonand planets and enough light gatheringpower for deep-sky while maintaining ca-pacity and light weight, even for airline-cabin storage. I have used, in the past,many 70-mm to 80-mm APOs, and I’vealways been somewhat disappointed onthe Moon and planets.

A 100-mm APO is another story! Itcollects as much light as 125- to 150-mmcatadioptrics, depending of the coatings

and obstruction of these instruments.But 100-mm APOs are or long, or heavy,or both. With 95-mm aperture, the fastBaader Travel Companion nears nicelythe power of a 100-mm but with thephysically dimension of most 80-mmshort-focus refractors.

Until now, in my opinion the onlycompact APO in the league of the Stow-away is the 92-mm f/5.5 Signature APOdesigned by the late Thomas Back (TMBOptical). But its weight is 4.3 kilograms.Now Baader Planetarium, the small butdynamic and innovative German com-

pany, offers the 95-mm Travel Compan-ion, a short APO made 100 percent inGermany. I had an opportunity to testthe prototype for several months and putit through its paces.

Travel CaseThe refractor is shipped in a heavy-

duty plastic case (Outdoor Case) madeby B&W International (Image 2).These cases have pressure-compensatedvalves and are made for extremeconditions. They are almost indestructi-ble and can survive temperature between

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Image 2 - The Travel Companion isshipped in a heavy-duty plastic case (Out-door Case) made by B&W International.

Image 3 - Disassembling the scope reveals a 60-mm-long tube extension.

-40° and +80°C and are completely air-tight. There is room enough for severalaccessories.

The Travel Companion itself is verywell made and gives a feeling of soliditywith its monolitic tube and a multitudeof knife-edge diaphragms machined di-rectly into the tube. It kills any erraticlight without hampering the free airflowwithin the tube, avoiding turbulence togo into the light cone. With so many di-aphragms machined inside the tube wall,

no wonder that the inside is the darkestI’ve ever seen. No way to get stray light orreflections: it’s as dark as in a coalpit!

Design and ConstructionThe lens is a triplet APO with the

central CaF2 (fluorite) element in con-tact by means of a thin oil film with theother two glasses. This gives only two air-glass surfaces (like Zeiss, Astro-Physicsand TEC). The oil is actually the sameexpensive and exclusive one as used by

Zeiss, matched perfectly to the fluoriteindex. The objective has the seven-layerBaader proprietary Phantom Groupmulti-coating with transmission opti-mized for 520 nm. All this keeps haze toan absolute minimum: the glass seems todisappear with this seemingly invisiblecoating!

The optical tube is 455 mm long, in-cluding the focuser (540 mm with ex-tended dew shield). But by unscrewing a60-mm-long extension tube (Image 3),



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Image 4 - By unscrewing a 60-mm-long extension tube, the tubelength is reduced to only 395 mm, allowing use of a binoviewer ora Herschel wedge without the need of additional transfer lenses.

Image 5 - The Steeltrack focuser is a black-anodized 50.8-mm(2.0-inch) Crayford type. The right knob has a 1:10 precision reduc-tion gearing. The drawtube travel is 75 mm and the focuser fea-tures a scale graduated in millimeters and inches.

this is reduced to only 395 mm. In thisconfiguration, one can use a binovieweror a Herschel wedge without the need ofadditional transfer lenses (Image 3). Thediameter of the OTA is 99 mm (dewshield is 110 mm) and the weight only3.1 kilograms.

The Baader-designed Steeltrack fo-cuser is a black-anodized 50.8-mm (2.0-inch) Crayford type (Image 4). It’s readyfor motorized operation. The right knobhas a 1:10 precision reduction gearing.The drawtube travel is 75 mm, and thefocuser features a scale graduated in mil-limeters and inches. It too has extensiveknife-edge baffling. Three clamp knobsin 120 degree distance extend pressureagainst a bronze compression ring on astar diagonal and other accessories. Alarge locking ring with three chrome griplevers permits easy rotation of the focuser.

The precision ball bearings ride onhardened and polished stainless-steel rodsinset into the aluminum drawtube. Thisgives a buttery-smooth motion with al-most no feeling of friction. If you thinkthe celebrated Feather Touch is smooth –and it is – try this one! As a note: the

Steeltrack focuser is available for other re-fractors, Newtons and catadioptrics ofmost brands. A new short 50.8/31/75-mm Click-Lock reducing ring clamps allaccessories with a gentle twist withoutmarring them.

For mounting the OTA, Baader of-fers a pair of sturdy rings threaded fordovetails from Astro-Physics, Vixen, Sky-watcher, and the like (Image 5). Therings have a flat top with other threadspermitting connecting accessories on theTravel Companion (guide-scope, finder,etc). Mounting the scope with the pro-vided pair of rings via an 8-inch Astro-Physics sliding bar on myVernonscope/Unitron Alt-Az mountfrom my earlier Brandon 94-mm f/7APO is straightforward. The telescope iseasily balanced (it is half as long as theBrandon) and after removing the alu-minum cover, the captive dew shieldglides smoothly in place. The dew shieldhas generous length, and I never experi-enced fogged optics.

I compared the Travel Companionfor several months with my APQ100/640 and a 90-mm f/5 Stowaway.

Like always when I have a new telescopeto test, I was clouded out for severalweeks! But clouds are not a problem fordaytime tests.

Daylight ObservationsNature observing shows immediately

that this small scope is a very high-qual-ity apochromat. Even a bright reflectionof the sun on a window gives no trace offalse color. A nearby tree (at this shortdistance, the air is calm) shows a wealthof small contrasty details exquisitelysharp up to 280x with an Abbe 4-mmand Zeiss 2x Barlow. There is no imagebreaking down at even higher magnifica-tion, just loss of light.

It surprised me that this 95-mm apogives brighter images than the 92.5-mmStowaway, despite the minimal differencein diameter. The difference is small butnoticeable, nonetheless. That is the resultof Phantom Coating, the special oil, andthe fluorite element that put the lightwhere it belongs: in the image. No inter-nal glare or ghosts, but a clean high con-trast image. The baffling (Image 6) is afar cry from the one and only baffle in


Image 6 - The Travel Companion ships with sturdy mounting ringsthreaded for dovetails from Astro-Physics, Vixen, Skywatcher, andthe like. The rings have a flat top with other threads permittingconnecting accessories.

Image 7 - The baffle configuration of the optical tube are continuedthroughout the entire length of the dew shield.


the APQ OTA! In short, the Travel Com-panion is a perfect spotting scope orlong-distance microscope for naturestudy and photography when mountedon a sturdy tripod with pan-head.

When the skies eventually cleared, Ichecked a bright white star image insideand outside the focus. Star images are al-most perfect – just a small hint of greenon intra-focal and orange on extra-focalimages at 140x with an Abbe 4-mm. Thisis very close to what my reference ZeissAPQ 100/640 shows, but the later has anf/6.4 focal ratio, not f/5.9. Vega andVenus are clean white when focused inboth scopes. But there is an importantdifference between the APQ and theTravel Companion: While the APQ re-quires a prism star diagonal to obtainperfect achromatism, the Travel Com-panion needs a mirror star diagonal.

Sizes for SBIG, QSI, FLI

Durable to extreme weather �uctuations

Non-re�ective

20+ years of thin �lm design

Manufactured in Vermont


Image 8 - This image was captured through the Travel Companion using a Baader Her-schel wedge.



Observing DoublesThe Travel Companion is a nice in-

strument for double and multiple starobservers. Stars are textbook-sharp airy

discs surrounded by a very faintfirst ring. The Dawes’ limit forthis aperture is 1.2 arcsecondsbringing many interesting dou-bles in its reach. The beautifulDouble Double in Lyra is easyat 93x using an Abbe 6-mm,while the colorful EpsilonBootes (magnitude 3 and 6.3,2.8 arcseconds separation) splitsnicely at 140x.

The next target, the bi-nary Lambda Ophiuchi (magni-tude 4.1 and 5.1) is moredifficult with only 1.4 arcsec-onds between the componentsin 2012. This binary needspushing further to 187x, 224xand 280x to be clearly split. Thetwo white stars of Pi Aquilae

(magnitude 6.3 and 6.8) have a 1.4 arc-seconds separation. The pair is elongatedat 70x, just split at 112x and even better

when switching to 160x. Higher magni-fications up to 364x give a clean splitwith a dark separation between the com-ponents, confirming that the resolvingpower of this instrument can be easily at-tained.

Delta Cygni is another binary of un-equal brightness (magnitude 2.9 and 6.3)and the companion lays just on the firstring at 160x. The current separation is2.7 arcseconds. Despite my brightly illu-minated Brussels sky, I could detect com-ponent E, the fifth star in the OrionTrapezium at 140x in steady seeing. Nodoubt that F would also be visible underdarker skies. My naked eye limit is aboutmagnitude 4.

That means deep-sky observing ispoor where I live. Anyway, this short-focus APO will give impressive imagesand pictures of the most popular objectsunder dark skies, thanks to the verytransparent fluorite glass, only two air-

Image 9 - We don’t normally associate fast apos withhigh-resolution planetary imaging, but the TravelCompanion holds its own nonetheless.


glass surfaces, and very high-transmission coatings. Ac-tually, when shining through the lens with a greenlaser, you can’t see the fluorite element!

Deep-Sky ViewsWith only 560-mm focal length, a Panoptic 41-

mm wide-field eyepiece gives 14x and an expansiverich field of almost 5 degrees, for an exit pupil of 6.9mm. With such a wide field, a finder is not really nec-essary. The large fields provided by those 2-inch wide-field eyepieces in the 30- to 40-mm focal range arefantastic for large deep-sky objects like the Andromedaand M33 galaxies, the Pleiades, the Double Cluster inPerseus and other large, bright open clusters, etc. Be-cause of the fast optics, modern highly corrected wideand ultra-wide eyepieces are best suited to get flat fieldssharp to the edge. The high light transmission andcontrast gives impressive images of globular clustersand planetary nebulae as well. The brightest globulars


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Image 10 - The Travel Companion manages impressive image scale asevidenced by the detail in this lunar image.


begin to resolve even under my Brusselssky at higher magnification.

Solar System ObservationsDespite its modest size, this APO

shows a wealth of details on Jupiter andSaturn. The sky background is jet blackright up the edge of the planetary discs.With the right planetary eyepieces thereis no scatter of light. The ringed planetwas unfortunately low above the horizonin 2012, but the images are sharp andcontrasty at 140x, 160x (Pentax Ortho 7-mm + Zeiss Barlow) and 187x (Abbe 6-mm + Zeiss Barlow). Jupiter presents amagnificent sight. The belts are sharplydelineated at 112x (Pentax XO 5-mm)and 140x, and colors, serrations, loop fes-toons, dark clumps, small spots areclearly visible at 160x and 187x. TheGreat Red Spot is easy with some detailin it. The Jovian moons are tiny diskswith different color hues. The shadowsduring transits are coal black. All this is afar cry from what you see in manypopular small catadioptrics in the 89-mmto 102-mm aperture range, whatever

their price.Lunar details are breathtaking at

high powers, again with the sky back-ground very dark up to the edge of thelunar disc, something that will pleaselunar occultation observers. Magnifica-tion can be pushed up to 280x withoutimage breakdown on this bright object.The narrow rille Rima Birt near theStraight Wall is clearly defined and irreg-ular at 160x, ending in a small shallowdome-like feature. Many fine rilles are inthe reach of this APO. Even the more dif-ficult ones near Prinz begin to show. TheHadley rille where Apollo 15 landed iseasy. The rille complex near Ramsden isalso an interesting target, rimae I, III andV being easy and hints of some parts ofrima II. The large formation Ptolemaeusreveals at least half a dozen shallow de-pressions depending on illumination andas many craterlets, A, D, M, S and Cbeing the easiest. The difficult rille nearthe wall begins to show. In the landingarea of Apollo 11 in Mare Tranquilitatis,a few craterlets were named after the firstlunar explorers. Armstrong (4.6 kilome-

ter diameter, 670-m deep) is easy at 160xand 187x. Aldrin (3.4 kilometer) andCollins (2.4 kilometer) are at the limit ofthis scope but just visible by steady seeingand the right illumination. The resolvingpower of a 95-mm telescope on theMoon is about 2.4 kilometers.

Moon, Sun and planets are evenmore impressive with a binoviewer incombination with a Barlow lens or, evenbetter, with Baader’s own FFC quadru-plet lens. By removing the 60-mm ex-tension tube, focus can still be reachedwith the Grossfeld bino and Baader 2-inch Herschel wedge. This combination,plus a polarizing filter on each eyepiece,will provide the best views ever ofsunspots, faculae and granulation!

Freezing RefractorsI was curious about the behavior of

the Travel Companion under freezingconditions. Many APOs I tested in thepast are better in the summer than in thewinter! One could heat the lens ele-ments, but it is better that a refractor per-form at temperature extremes withoutneed of such measures. No APQs, eventhe large 150-mm, ever showed imagedeterioration in the winter. No wonder:Zeiss tested their lenses ten years in harshconditions (centrifugal forces in all di-rections, wide range of temperatures dif-ferences, even in a vacuum chamberdown to 1/10 atmosphere!) to come upwith a cell design and an oil that wouldnot shrink or freeze at considerable lowtemperatures. Baader has tested the ob-jective of the Travel Companion in a coldchamber down to -50°C and uses thesame oil. No wonder, again, that the im-ages remain perfect under my lighterfreezing conditions!

AstrophotographyI gave the Travel Companion and the

dedicated photographic 2-inch Field

Image 11 - In this image of the stellar field surrounding M27, the Travel Companion gen-erated nice, round stars from corner to corner.



Flattener for a few weeks to Bart De-clercq, one of the best astrophotogra-phers in Belgium. (See Images 8-12.) Hetoo praises the mechanics of this verysolid refractor, with really smooth and ac-curate focuser. The only annoyance isthat when releasing the screw to allow ro-tation of the focuser, the image shifts sev-eral arc minutes. Tightening the screwagain does re-center the image perfectly,but when framing an object, one doesn’twant to have to tighten it every time tocheck if the position is correct. Someshift is acceptable, but it is too much.

The high-resolution Jupiter, Moonand solar images are very significantlybetter than with an 80-mm apo withwhich we compared the Travel Compan-ion. The provided Field Flattener is per-fectly tuned, and the test images showpin-point stars anywhere in the field ofview of Bart’s APS-C sized Canon 60D.The weather circumstances during thetests prohibited really long series of ex-posures, so it is hard to comment on thestability of the focus over longer periodsof time. But, from the feel of the focuserand the sturdy tube, it would be very sur-prising if it is less than excellent with nofear of flex-issues.

ConclusionIn summary, the Travel Companion

is a top-quality grab-and-go crossoverapochromat, well thought out and a joy

to use. It’s an awesome richest-field tele-scope and capable of high resolution,high power views, as well. Its perform-ance is very close to that of my ZeissAPQ 100/640, only in a much shorterand modern package with much betterbaffling and modern focuser. All that andfor a much lower price (the APQs are nolonger in production and are collectoritems).

However, some people thought thetransport case too large and heavy whenI showed the scope at club meetings. TheB&W case is great and surely the mostsecure way to protect this fine instru-

ment, but may be overkill for many am-ateurs. A soft bag, like the one of theStowaway, would increase the appeal andversatility of the Travel Companion andwould have no problem qualifying as air-line carry-on luggage. A padded shoulderbag and a slimmer, lighter pair of rings(or a short, fixed dovetail bar like on theAPQ) would also make this compactAPO an even more-perfect go-any-where/anytime instrument. It would bemore attractive to amateurs travelinglight and demanding portable perform-ance in the spirit of the original Stow-away.

Image 12 - Few instruments are better at producing rich fields of view than small, fastapos, as demonstrated by this image capturing M31, M32 and M110 in a single frame.



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ASTRONOMY - Baader Planetarium€¦ · Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY 39 BAADER APO 95/560 CAF2 TRAVEL COMPANION The RiDK Series represents the new reference point for all modied Dall-Kirkham