Subject: New Arrivals: Pentax XW Eyepieces, an Askar 120 APO and an EdgeHD 800
Four Pentax XW Eyepieces Just Walked In — Made in Japan, One of Each
Some weeks nothing much comes through the door. This was not one of those weeks. Yesterday we listed four Pentax XW eyepieces — the 5 mm, 7 mm, 10 mm and 20 mm — at $319 each instead of $449. The XW line is the eyepiece serious lunar and planetary observers save up for, and used ones almost never reach us as a matched run of four focal lengths.
Alongside them: a pre-owned Askar 120 mm f/7 APO ED triplet with a free $306 flattener at $1,949, a pre-owned Celestron EdgeHD 800 OTA at $1,749, an open-box StarSense Autoguider V2 at $999, and a pre-owned PrimaLuce Lab ESATTO 2" robotic focuser at $945. Plus brand-new products we've just added to the line-up.
And if the budget is the obstacle rather than the choice: we finance through PayPlan by RBC™ and Affirm, and we buy used gear and take trade-ins — smart telescope trade-ups included. More on all three further down.
The timing is not an accident. The Moon reaches first quarter tomorrow — this is the best week of the month for detail along the terminator, and Saturn is now clearing the eastern horizon before midnight on its run toward September opposition. High-power nights start now.
The Pentax XW Series — 70°, 20 mm of Eye Relief, and Optics That Have Never Been Beaten at the Price
If you have never looked through an XW, here is the short version of why observers who own them stop shopping. Pentax builds these in Japan to a standard that has barely changed in twenty years because it did not need to: a 70° apparent field that is sharp corner to corner even in fast scopes, 20 mm of eye relief at every focal length so eyeglass wearers get the whole field, and multi-coatings that give you a genuinely black background instead of the milky scatter cheaper glass leaves behind.
They are also fully waterproof and nitrogen-filled — you can leave them out on a damp Ontario night without worrying about internal fogging — and the adjustable eyecup twists up and down to whatever position suits you. On the Moon this week and on Saturn later in the evening, the 5 mm and 7 mm are where the XW reputation was made.
All four are $319 each, regularly $449 — a saving of $130 apiece — and there is exactly one of each focal length. When they're gone, we have no idea when the next set arrives.
70° apparent field · 20 mm eye relief across the range · waterproof, nitrogen-filled · made in Japan. The XW is the benchmark for high-power lunar and planetary work and one of the few premium lines that stays comfortable for eyeglass wearers at every focal length. Sharp to the field stop, superb contrast, and built to a mechanical standard that makes twenty-year-old examples still feel new. Each of these has been through our bench and inspected before listing.
View the XW 5 mm →
View the XW 7 mm →
View the XW 10 mm →
View the XW 20 mm →
✔ Every used item is inspected by our technicians before listing. We offer a 30-day warranty from date of purchase on all used gear. Open Box items are new and carry the full manufacturer's warranty unless otherwise noted. Financing is available through PayPlan by RBC™ and Affirm, and we buy used gear and take trade-ins — see below. Call 416-783-4140 or visit us at the store anytime.
An Askar 120 mm f/7 APO ED Triplet — Still Here, Still One Only, at $1,949
Pre-owned apochromats of this calibre don't sit on our shelf for long, and this one arrived in excellent condition. A 120 mm air-spaced ED triplet at f/7 is a genuinely serious instrument — enough aperture to split tight doubles and pull real detail out of the planets, and clean enough colour correction to image with. Askar's mechanics are the other half of the story: a dual-speed focuser with 100 mm of travel, a full 360° rotator, and a 290 mm extended Vixen dovetail, all in a 6.5 kg package with rings included.
It comes with the 1.0× Askar flattener included free — a $306 accessory — which means it is ready to image the night it arrives. There is one.
120 mm aperture · 840 mm focal length · f/7 · air-spaced ED triplet. Aperture is the one thing you cannot fake, and 120 mm of it in a well-corrected apo gives you light grasp, resolution and contrast that a 4" simply can't match. The dual-speed rack-and-pinion focuser carries 100 mm of travel with a 360° rotator for framing, and the 290 mm extended Vixen dovetail gives you real balance range. 6.5 kg complete with tube rings — light enough for a Star Adventurer GTi-class mount to handle comfortably. The free 1.0× Askar flattener ($306 value) makes it imaging-ready out of the box.
A Celestron EdgeHD 800, a StarSense Autoguider V2 and an ESATTO 2" Robotic Focuser — Put Them Together and You Have a Complete Imaging Setup
These three arrived separately but they belong in the same paragraph. The EdgeHD 800 is Celestron's flat-field 8" astrograph — the aplanatic Schmidt-Cassegrain design that holds stars round out to the corners of a full-frame sensor, where a standard SCT would smear them. The StarSense Autoguider V2 guides it without a guide scope, a guide camera, or a calibration routine. And the PrimaLuce Lab ESATTO 2" takes focus off your hands entirely, down to 0.04 micron per step.
That is optics, guiding and focus — the three things that decide whether a night of imaging is worth keeping. All three are one only.
203 mm aperture · 2032 mm focal length · f/10 · aplanatic flat-field SCT. The EdgeHD corrects both coma and field curvature, so the whole frame is usable rather than just the middle third — the reason it became the standard 8" imaging tube. It also carries Celestron's tube vents with filtered air intake for faster cool-down and mirror-support clips that hold collimation through a slew. Supplied with the CGE dovetail. OTA only — no mount, no diagonal.
Plate-solving autoguider · no guide scope, no guide camera, no calibration run. The StarSense Autoguider photographs a wide field of sky, solves it, and feeds corrections straight to the mount — which means no differential flexure between a guide scope and the main tube, and nothing to set up when the clouds finally break. It also handles the alignment and pointing model for you. Open box: new stock, full manufacturer's warranty.
50.9 mm free aperture · 15 mm draw tube travel · 5 kg load capacity · 0.04 micron per step. If you have ever watched a night's data drift out of focus as the temperature dropped, this is the fix. The ESATTO replaces your focuser entirely rather than bolting a motor onto it, so there is no backlash to compensate and no slip under a heavy camera train. Control it three ways — through a PrimaLuce Lab EAGLE, over USB from a Windows machine, or over WiFi from the Virtual HandPad on your phone or tablet. Add the ARCO robotic rotator later and you have framing and field de-rotation as well.
New This Week: the Explore Scientific 8" Dobsonian in Ruby Red — $995, and We Have Eight
We added this one to the shelf yesterday, and it is the most telescope you can put in a beginner's hands — or a second scope for someone who wants aperture without a mount to babysit. 208 mm of aperture at f/5.9, on a Dobsonian base with a spring tension system that actually holds position when you let go, and a 2" Crayford focuser rather than the plastic rack-and-pinion you'd expect at this price.
It ships genuinely ready to observe: a 70° wide-view 25 mm eyepiece (49×), a 10 mm Plössl (122×), a 2× Barlow, a red-dot finder and a smartphone adapter are all in the box. Nothing else to buy on night one. And the ruby-red tube means it does not look like every other Dob at the star party.
208 mm aperture · 1219 mm focal length · f/5.9 · Dobsonian alt-azimuth with spring tension. Eight inches of aperture is the point where the Moon stops being a picture and starts being a place — and where galaxies, globulars and planetary nebulae become genuinely rewarding from a suburban back yard. The 2" Crayford focuser takes wide-field 2" eyepieces as you grow, and the alt-az base means you are observing sixty seconds after you carry it outside. Includes a 25 mm 70° eyepiece, 10 mm Plössl, 2× Barlow, red-dot finder, smartphone adapter and dust cover. Tube 19 lb 15 oz, base 18 lb 11 oz.
The Celestron Luminos Range Is Back on the Shelf — New and Pre-owned, Side by Side
The Luminos is Celestron's 82° ultra-wide line, and it is the sweet spot for anyone who wants the immersive spacewalk view without Ethos money. Fully multi-coated, blackened lens edges, twist-up eyecups, and the 2" models come with the eyepiece barrel threaded for filters.
We have four new Luminos in stock — and, listed yesterday, two pre-owned examples at a considerable discount. If you have been waiting for a used 31 mm, this is it.
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Three Things Worth Knowing Before You Decide You Can't Afford It
A fair number of the emails we get start with "I'd love that scope, but not this month." Often that's a solvable problem, and people are surprised to learn we handle all three of these in-house.
Easiest way to start any of the above: call 416-783-4140 or 1-800-580-7160, or email info@khanscope.com. For estates and larger collections, write to ray@khanscope.com directly.
A word about the Pentax XWs specifically: I have been selling eyepieces in this city since 1987, and the XW is one of a very small handful of lines where I have never had a customer come back disappointed. One of each focal length is all we have, and used XWs do not linger.
If you are not sure which focal length suits your scope, call us at 416-783-4140 and tell us what you're observing with — that's a two-minute conversation and it will save you buying the wrong one. And if the budget is the sticking point rather than the choice, ask about financing through PayPlan by RBC™ or Affirm, or about trading in gear you've outgrown — including an older smart telescope you'd like to move up from. And if you're in the Toronto area, come in and try them: we have over 50 telescopes on display and the technicians are here to help.
Clear skies,
Ray Khan
Khan Scope Centre