Askar Telescopes & Accessories

Askar Telescopes: High-Performance Refractors & Astrographs for Every Astrophotographer

The Askar lineup includes a wide range of refractors and astrographs designed specifically for astrophotography, whether you're imaging large nebulae or chasing fine detail in distant galaxies. With focal lengths ranging from 135mm to about 1400mm, there's an Askar telescope for every level and imaging style.

Askar offers excellent performance across a wide range of price points, making them a great choice whether you're just starting or adding to your collection.

Advanced Optics for Sharp Images

Askar uses premium optical designs to reduce chromatic aberration and deliver pinpoint stars across the frame. Their lineup includes:

• APO triplets: Prioritize high-quality main optics; flatteners and reducers are available separately for flexibility.
• Quadruplet flat-field APOs: Designed to deliver a flat imaging field—ideal for APS-C and full-frame sensors.
• Petzval quintuplets: Feature built-in corrective optics, so you don’t need a separate field flattener.

These designs help you capture sharp, high-contrast images, without star distortion or color fringing, even at the edges of the frame.

Made for Astrophotography

Every Askar scope is optimized for imaging. You’ll find models that work beautifully with everything from smaller 1" and Micro Four Thirds sensors to APS-C and full-frame cameras. The mechanical design is just as impressive, with smooth focusers, rigid build quality, and threaded connections for a secure setup.

Quality Control You Can Trust

Each Sharpstar and Askar refractor goes through detailed optical, mechanical, and cosmetic inspection at the factory. You’ll receive a signed quality control checklist with your telescope, giving you peace of mind before your first light.

Askar offers a full line of well-matched astrophotography accessories to help you get the sharpest, cleanest images possible, especially when using larger sensors like APS-C and full-frame.

Not every Askar telescope needs a separate field flattener. Many of their Petzval and flat-field refractors are designed to produce a flat imaging field right out of the box, with no additional optics required. But for telescopes that do benefit from one, Askar’s dedicated field flatteners and focal reducers are made to perfectly match specific models. That means better performance, less guesswork, and sharp stars all the way to the corners of your frame.

Focal Reducers

Focal reducers are one of the most useful accessories for astrophotography. They shorten the focal length of your telescope, which also lowers its f-ratio, for example, reducing the scope from f/7 to f/5.6. That means your system collects more light in less time.

This boost in light-gathering power is especially helpful when imaging faint deep-sky objects like nebulae and galaxies. It lets you shorten your exposures, which helps reduce noise when imaging under light-polluted skies.

Focal reducers also widen your field of view, allowing you to capture larger targets or fit more of the night sky into a single frame. That’s perfect for framing extended nebulae, galaxy groups, or rich star fields.

Because reducers change the optical path, spacing matters. That’s why Askar designs their focal reducers to match specific telescope models, ensuring proper back focus, sharp star performance, and consistent results from edge to edge.

Field Flatteners

Field flatteners correct an issue that most refractor telescopes naturally have: field curvature. Without a flattener, stars at the center of your image may look sharp, but those near the edges can appear stretched, bloated, or out of focus, even if your telescope is perfectly focused.

This distortion happens because the telescope’s optical path focuses light onto a curved surface, while your camera sensor is flat. A field flattener adjusts the light path so it lands evenly across the sensor. 

Field flatteners don’t change your focal length or f-ratio—they simply improve sharpness across the image. This is especially important when using larger sensors like APS-C or full-frame, where edge distortion is easier to notice.

Because each telescope has a unique optical design and back-focus spacing, using a flattener that doesn’t match your scope can lead to poor performance. That’s why Askar designs their flatteners to pair with specific telescope models. This takes the guesswork out of setup and ensures optimal star performance—no measuring or trial-and-error required.

Other imaging accessories

To complete your imaging setup, Askar also offers:

• T-rings, extension tubes, focal plan adjusters, and camera adapters to help dial in back focus and achieve perfect spacing.
• Off-axis guiders (OAGs) that use light from the main optical path for guiding, no separate guide scope needed. That means tighter tracking and less flex during long exposures.

Askar’s Color Magic filters are built for astrophotography and come in 2-inch (M48) sizes, making them ideal for full-frame and APS-C sensors. This larger format helps avoid vignetting and keeps your image evenly illuminated from edge to edge. These filters block unwanted light pollution while allowing key emission lines like hydrogen-alpha, sulfur, and oxygen to pass through. This boosts contrast and makes faint targets like nebulae stand out clearly in your photos. They're a perfect match for Askar’s imaging refractors and astrographs.

One of the most flexible accessories is the Askar 5-in-1 M54 Filter Drawer. It supports both mounted and unmounted filters in common sizes, including 31mm, 36mm, 50mm, and 2-inch. The drawer comes with interchangeable adapters for M42, M48, and M54 threads, so it works with a wide range of telescopes and cameras. A magnetic or tension-fit mechanism keeps filters secure while allowing quick swaps.

Together, Askar’s filters and filter drawers offer performance and convenience. They make it easier to adapt your imaging setup and capture better, cleaner images with less effort.