Starmaster Telescopes only uses the finest optics, from the most reliable and consistent optical companies who are committed to the highest standards of excellence.  We work with these opticians as valued members of our quality system to maintain, and where possible, improve optical quality insuring that you will see the difference at the eyepiece.

We do not ship telescopes that have astigmatic mirrors, turned edges or other visible optical defects that we believe will affect in-focus performance.  We critically star test and use a professional grade 85 or 133 LPI (lines per inch) Ronchi grating to evaluate the primary and secondary mirrors in each telescope we deliver.  On rare occasions, we have sent mirrors back because they they had defects that were not detectable on the optical test bench, but were detectable in our critical star tests.

All optical companies that supply mirrors to Starmaster Telescopes support our Optical Quality Guarantee:

Primary mirrors in Starmaster Telescopes are guaranteed to equal or exceed the performance of any other primary mirror of equal aperture and f-ratio which is readily available to the general public, numbers be damned. Mirrors in our scopes will perform beyond the theoretical limit of 50 power per inch of aperture with no visible breakdown in the image.  This is, of course, conditioned upon excellent seeing conditions, a well collimated telescope and with all mechanical components in proper adjustment.

Starmaster Telescopes secondary (flat) mirrors are now independently tested and refigured by Mike Lockwood. Each secondary must meet our strict standards over its entire surface.