Officina Stellare Veloce RH 320 AT

The fastest Veloce ever designed by our Company. An incredible native f/2.2 ratio, with a stunning high definition over the wide full corrected field of view. Our Veloce RH320 AT represents the Evolution of Veloce family.  His new athermal design is ready to work at any temperature, in the whole word.  The full mechanical system has been redisegned to satisfy every rigid demand for scientific application.  It will work always at best wherever you'll place the telescope.  We spent a lot of time to create a new reference point in high-end astrographs.

Optics has been improved and optimized for large field imaging and surveys, with a better image quality even on small pixels size cameras. Getting closer to perfection we now add an innovative Nano Coating (copyright) with a better transmission over a wider wavelenght bandwidth range, a feature appreciated by professionals, and an amazing resistance to dust and moisture. The RH320 AT has an athermal construction, perfect for guarantee the maximum focus stability at any temperature variation. We definitively banned out straylights from the RH320 AT.

The RHVeloce is a really unique design, and uses several unique solutions, created by Riccardi and Honders (from this the "RH" in the name).  You can now expect an even better large field photographic performance thanks to an innovative light baffles coating will give you a much better reduction of ghosts and scattered light. 

The Officina Stellare Veloce RH 320 AT (Riccardi-Honders) Astrograph offers a fast f/3 focal ratio combined with a very high image definition over the whole corrected field. Veloce in Italian means fast, to indicate its primary vocation: to be a great astrograph capable of stunning performance. It has 320mm of clear aperture and a focal length of 720mm.

The Veloce RH 320 AT is an unique astrograph of its kind, thanks to its renewed optical design from the originally Honders design, made from our master optician Massimo Riccardi. The optical scheme uses a full aperture corrector lens and a Mangin primary mirror. Normally in other optical design the front lens has about the same aperture of the primary mirror, but we decided to change rules. The large corrector lens is bigger respect the primary Mangin mirror, to provide a full illumination, avoiding vignetting over the full corrected field. The secondary mirror is separated from the front lens, assembled on a second, temperature comensated, cell.

Near the focus we have 2 elements rear group, to provide the best definition and corrected field. Its position offers no chromatic aberration and a correction over the whole visible spectrum.

Going deep into details, the RH Veloce uses a big full aperture lens that is weakly convergent, and the primary mirror is a "Mangin" mirror (from the name of its French inventor). A Mangin mirror is a mirror that is coated on the back surface, not on the front. The light passes through the glass, is reflected by the coating and then passes again through the glass. For this reason, a Mangin mirror is called a refractive-reflective optical element, and opens exciting possibilities to optical engineers. This complex design includes also a corrector group before the focal plane, achieving performances impossible otherwise, with extraordinary "fast" photographic performances over wide focal planes.

A curiosity about the RH Veloce: since the full aperture (frontal lens) is convergent, the Mangin mirror is smaller than the "nominal" diameter of the scope, while the meniscus itself is bigger than the nominal diameter, to ensure a good illumination over the wide field of view of such scopes. For example, the 200 mm model has a 220 mm meniscus and a 190 mm primary mirror.

For this reason, we talk about "entry pupil" and not "primary mirror diameter", for this instruments.

 The RH 320 AT is a real astrograph, designed to be the best companion of advanced amateurs and professional. A curiosity about the Mangin mirror: normally a primary mirror is front alluminated, but this is not our case. A Mangin mirror is back alluminated. This offers more design possibilities to optical designers.

We developed the Veloce RH 320 AT without compromises both on mechanically and optical, using only premium materials (alluminium 6061/7075, titan, bronze, stainless steel, carbon fiber) and CNC machines to work parts from solid blocks. This offers the best precision available in the market today.

When we selected the materials for each Veloce RH 320 AT component, we considered the derivated problems from thermic dilatation and environmental conditions. This makes our RH 320 AT stronger and capable to get the best performance every time it’s used, providing  a stable focal plane, fundamental when operating with a so fast focal ratio, thanks to a athermal design.

Researches uses the Veloce RH 320 AT to do surveys , for example, on:  variable stars, supernovae, asteroids, space debris, extrasolar planets, amateurs to get stunning deepsky images.

The corrected and illuminated field is 52mm.  If the user needs to compensate the small misalignment in the imaging train, is possible to adjust the planarity of the focal plane with 3 screws located on the back plate. 

Collimation is not only stable, but also intuitive: primary mirror cell has 3 points with large diameter preloaded cup springs (one for each point) operated from oversized bolts. What’s the advantage of this new solution? Well, you only have to rotate right/left each bolt to reach the collimation. No more difficult pull/push screws and locking screws as well.  Light scattering are avoided with a circular mask placed on mirror borders. Inside light shield we use micro baffles, combined with special opaque dark painting and flocking, nearly to zero the possibilities to get parasite stray light. If some special customizations are needed, we can evaluate them together. Our big staff is ready to find the best solution.

The Veloce RH 320 AT offers an incredible fast f/2.2 focal ration with a 52mm corrected field, small stars, great transportability, great optics and great mechanics: this is the best professional astrograph to reach new horizons!