Dear Sirs:

I wrote to you in December 1999, singing praises about my 130mm Starfire EDF[S] f/6
which, by then, I owned for aproximately 6 months. Now, as the StarFire's third birthday is approaching,
I still can't stop marveling about its performance, and I feel compelled to congratulate you once again to this telescope. Thank you for manufaturing telescopes that provide amateur astronomers like me with such unique images of celestial objects!

I spend most of my time with deep-sky observing, and 6 months per year I can do so from La Palma in the Canary Islands. Only there, under there, under the clear and steady skies is it possible to take the StarFire to its limits. Therefore, I wish to tell you of my limiting magnitude at a power of 150x is about 16.0 mag visual!!!!
I'll be honest: if I would read this statement from someone else, I wouldn't belive it, because, theoretically, that should not be possible with 130mm. But I have seen two independent starts of magnitude 15.7 on several nights with a certainty of 100%. Judging from my experince and the ease of visibility of brighter stars (see below), I would asses the abosolute limit at approx. 0.5 mag fainter, but then with less than 100% certainty.

Stars brighter than about 14.0 can be seen easily, after a few seconds at the eyepiece, and may be hold steadily with averted vision. I have also seen various stars in the range of 15.0 to15.2, all with absolute certainty, but without beinf able to hold them longer than a few seconds.
According to observing guides, test reports and catalogues form telescope-manufacturers, 15th magnitude can not be reached with anything less than a 10-inch, maybe an 8-inch. I guess my observations must be attributed to the extraordinary high contrast of your optics and the exceptional sky conditions on La Palma. Naturally, in Germany things are different and come much closer to 'conventional wisdom'. There my (less extensive) tests from a good site indicate about 14.0 to 14.5 mag as the visual limit - still a highly respectable valuse for a 5-inch aperture. The deep-sky views also rival much largers instruments, and the amount of detail I see usually competes with reflectors or Schmidt-Cassegrains twice as large.While most will argue otherwise, I say the 130mm f/6 is a perfect deep-sky telescope. Wide-field views of the Sagittarius starclouds, large galactic nebulae, dark nebulae and open clusters can not be topped!

Since January 2001, I'm writting a deep-sky column for "Strene un Weltraum", Germany's largest astronomy magazine. Each month I present a detailed observation of a specific object, and many readers are absolutely amazed of how far deep-sky observations can be taken with a 130mm refractor. In my opinion a high quality optic (here astro-physics remains unsurpassed!) and a dark sky are much more important than a large aperture.

Your 130mm StarFire EDF[S] f/6 has made my astronomical paradise on La Palma complete, and I am convinced to have found the observing companion for the rest of my life. Thanks and my best wishes for your business.

Your's sincerely,

Boris Fritz