Should I care about star tests? (1 Viewer)

[shaggyegret]

I've mostly been lurking around here and trying to learn a thing or two and this "star test" thing keeps coming up and I'm in the market for a scope. I understand its a rigorous test for optics quality, but do you guys actually see real world translations from good star tests? How important are they to determine good optics? Can a mediocre star test still be a good scope?

Most people seem to go through multiple returns to get what they are looking for which sounds like a huge hassle. How do optics dealers handle the returns without getting upset or barring you from purchasing?

 

[tenex]

Welcome to Birdforum! It mostly depends on how much you use high magnification, or are able to with conditions in your area. And some brands have more consistent quality. I was satisfied with my Meopta S2 right out of the box, and a star test just confirmed why.

 

[jring]

Hi,

first of all, welcome to birdforum!

As tenex has correctly stated, it really depends on your use case. If you only plan to use your scope at a certain magnification like a 30x wide or the maximum magnification of the stock zoom EP, the minimum requirement should be a crisp image at that magnification with an easy to find point of best focus as opposed to a wider range of least blurriness.
Even if an example looks crisp for you, somebody with 20/10 vision might see a difference between that scope and a much better one.

Also bad seeing is a factor which can make even a perfect scope deliver a mediocre image... otoh, a lot of mediocre scopes have been excused with bad seeing...

So, if you plan to use extenders or astro EPs for higher magnification, you probably should do a star test...

Joachim, whose 35 year old TSN-3 cherry (not a perfect star test but very good over .9 strehl) with a current zoom adapted still shows more detail than most in a row of current alphas...