Stellarvue SVX140T Review + Scope Buyers Guide! 

“My integrity is not up for sale” Great video Ryan, as always.

Loving my SVX130T & 3.5" FT. Still lots to learn in processing... Great review.

Very nice review. What a great telescope and company. Way out of my budget but it is nice to see that such a product is made right here in the USA!

Excellent review of key features that make a premium refractor. I’ve been with Stellarvue for 10 years and the customer service is flawless. Vic’s scopes are true works of art.

I have a 130 from Stellarvue and it's perfect. I'm switching over to full frame this year and was able to call Stellarvue and get the adapters I needed so easily. There is no better company for the price in the US for quality refractors.

Great review Ryan. I've had the SVX130T with FT focuser for almost 3 years now and it is a superb high quality scope. As any professional photographer will tell you "It's all about the glass, camera bodies come and go but quality lenses will last a lifetime". I also recently purchased the SVX90T with their Stellervue focuser for the wife for visual use, and let us tell you their focuser is excellent. I would have no problems ordering any of their telescopes with them in the future. Yes their telescopes are a bit more expensive but they are lifetime scopes, made here in the USA and you always reach a person in the know when you call them. Everthing else you covered in the video was exactly what I have experianced. Frank

I have a 180 and 102 mm scopes from Stellarvue and they are great telescopes. Enjoy your Stellarvue telescope.

I have the SVX 130T and just love it. I also have the SVX 70T and the SVX 80T. Every time I’ve called Stellarvue the customer support has been superb.

Hi Ryan. I am waaay too late to the party (the potato chip dust on the carpet are being vacuumed as I type this.😁), but I just had to share how pleased I was regarding your candour & realistic observations re telescope advertizing & choosing the right brand. I have been in the hobby for 50+ years, and IMHO you absolutely nailed it! (Ok...yes, I am biased...my friends call me a "Refractor snob" as I own 1 Stellarvue refractor (Raptor 102T) & 2 other 'premium' scopes...😁). Also, I have been extremely impressed with your other reviews & tutorials. Your channel is a superb resource!👍 One thing I'd like to add is that going with a brand like Stellarvue, AP, Takahashi, CFF, TEC, etc.) is re-sale value.🤔IF (and it's a big "IF") one can afford one of these scopes, one can be secure in the knowledge that these scopes do not depreciate in value much & sometimes go up in value (esp. AP!), so starting with a top-notch smaller scope & taking really good care of it, then down the road, selling it to fund a larger one, is a great approach. That may not necessarily work for mass-produced brands. 🤔 Keep up the great work Ryan! 👍

As always a great video. Thanks

Thanks for the great info!

Love my SVX130T-R! Congrats on the scope addition!

Great review, Ryan. I’ve had my SCX90T for about three weeks but the weather hasn’t been at all cooperative. I can say, though, that the customer service I’ve received is among the best I’ve ever experienced. Looking forward to getting the scope under a clear sky! Thx again for the review of the scope and the company. Stellarvie is really top notch.

Cup of coffee and dark ranger, perfect start to the morning ☕️

I have the 140 and it is so very nice for imaging. Great with an OSC. Just got a monoline camera, filters and wheel, looking forward to using that setup. I have 4 Stellarvues, and had 3-4 others over the years. Consider reviewing my workhorse, the SVX90T (you will be pleased again). Biggest premium APO in airline carryon size. Easy to take to dark sky sites and put on a strain wave mount. Sharp stars to the corners of an APS-C camera. Great focal length for many targets.

Love Stellarvue scopes. I’ve looked through several of their scopes. Now I just need the $.

I've owned a SVX102T-R with Feather Touch focuser for almost 4 years.....best astrophotography gear investment I've made.

Great review, and what a stunning scope, if only I could afford such a beauty…😮👍🏻

Very nice set up and scope. I have a Stellarvue 80 A and I like it. Use it often. The SVX140T is a very nice telescope. I would like to have one. But More than I can afford.

I was already planning on buying the SVX102T this week. I was torn between the 90 and the 102 and think I'm ultimately going to go with the 102 with reducer. I just hope I can get one now that your Stellarvue review is out!

Great video and content. I have a deposit going down on this scope, waiting for the new field flattener/reducer that is forthcoming.

Nice -that is a comprehensive review AND philosophy. Even I was excited to see the data for just 6 hours - that's CRAZY - and pinpoint - did you use the QHY full frame? Those are some great optics and your review highlighted all the key parts - awesome!

Thank you for sharing your experience. Two brands I don’t see a lot out there being talked about on RU-vid is Stellarvue and even less, TEC scopes. But both are American made and are awesome

I want one!

I just got the SVX 130T. A month of clouds and rain so no testing yet. I sold an old Sv doublet, a camera lens I was not using, and work gave us a bonus this year. So I figured 'the stars aligned' to get me an heirloom quality refractor. I was looking for something longer than my 400mmFL refractor to get vlser to small targets. I'm excited to try and hopeful I can get good results. I also have the G11G, but have not had good luck guiding my C11 with it. Hoping I can guide this well enough.

Nice scope! Easy out of my price range but it's definitely a dream rig!

Love your work, this is out of my price range however my TS Optics 130 Photoline is very similar in glass and class.

Join our growing Community for additional help and support including 1 on 1 time if needed! www.patreon.com/DarkRangersInc? Support the channel and a company that supports astrophotography for all gear related purchases Agena Astro has the best prices and fastest (free) shipping times ! agenaastro.com/?rfsn=7545037.59bc8b

Hey Ryan . Could you please do a review of the Svx 102 Raptor ?

Fantastic video, do you think is there much difference from the 130? I think the 140 will have 16% more light gathering power but everything else is basically the same? F ratio only 1.1 faster.

As a novice astronomy enthusiast, if I were to have the SVX140T and the Askar 140APO or a 151PHQ side by side, observing the same targets. What would I see different from one to the other to justify the extra cost?

Surely a bigger aperture collects more light than a smaller aperture?

Great review! Wish it was in budget for me, but I have to stick with my Sharpstar for now, bad enough I am shooting beside a friends AP Starfire 130 most nights😂

Looks like images worthy of a $7000 telescope.

great review, so what is your full workflow now? NINA?

Any concerns about the Eagle venting hot air on to the scope?

Whilst I certainly understand the sentiment, I can tell you this much. I came back into Astrophotography last year after a 13 year break, and I'd previously owned a Takahashi FSQ85ED, WO FLT132, TMB80/480SS, and a TEC110 over the years... I knew my way around good scopes... I wanted a scope that would be free from the need for a flattener, so I was looking at quintuplets/quadruplets mostly... and in the same way as you, I had a big question mark over the PHQ/FRA series scopes because they did not reveal the type of glass they used, and I was very used to Ohara glass in the Tak/WO/TEC scope, and russian OK4 in the TMB... Not mentioning the glass in the PHQ scopes made me wonder how it would actually perform. I had basically written them off entirely on account of that alone, however one came up on a local astronomy forum for considerably below retail, so I thought, why not give it a go... worst case, I'll sell it and be no worse off for having tried it. it's now 6 months later, it's the only scope I own and I aboslutely LOVE it. Its just the baby 65PHQ, and optically, I think you'd have to be a REAL stickler to ever notice the difference between the 65PHQ and the Tak FSQ85ED. Sure the Tak FSQ106 is in a different league all together - but it's also (in australia) almost $6000 more expensive... I would strongly suggest if you get a chance to do so, give the PHQ line up a test one day... Mine is 100% flat across APS-C sized sensors, though I use a 4/3" CMOS sensor, I get no CA, or Spherical Aberration, the focuser has 2% tilt based on what PEMPro can tell me, and that tilt is resulting in a 3% shift in HFR from top left to bottom right - which is indistinguishable even zoomed to 200% I get that the glass is important - but what I've learned over the years (I've been into astrophotography since 2005, and into optics since 1998, is that optical design is FAR more important than the glass used. An example is my William Optics Megrez 110T. that was FPL53, triplet design, had a dedicated field flattener... and compared to the TEC 110 which was also an FPL53 Triplet, with a dedicated flattener, the WO M110T was garbage. I had a Megrez 88 SS too, that was an FPL53 Triplet with a dedicated flattener, and compared to the TMB80/480SS that was a OK4 triplet, using an off the shelf flattener, the Megrez was garbage.. I don't know what's in the PHQ still, but I know it beats out the TMB optically, and I know it beats out the FSQ85ED, so no matter what glass it is, it's a better scope... Exceptionally built too. Just my 2c worth.

If you take out the price requirement which other companies fitted your requirements

I wish Vic would design a smaller refractor in the 250-300mm focal length range

Maybe I'm ok with fpl51 or like triplet, so by them not telling me, I know it's the other grade. I really like my Astrotech AT80EDT. I guess I'm not your target audience. Very nice scope. I wonder how well it would compare to an 8 or 10 inch newt for image quality.

So you'd eliminate Astro-Physics scopes from consideration because they don't list the glass they use? Now the fact they're pretty much unobtainable new unless you luck out in the lottery for their newer scopes probably eliminates they from the running, but I wouldn't sweat the glass type if the maker has a stellar reputation. Plus they make some of the only scopes you can buy that appreciate in value.

Wow, that's a big scope!!!! 😀 Looks awesome tho! I love that they have carbon fiber options on some of their scopes, too, to help with the weight.

Size doesn't matter 😂