Touptek Hope D60 Review: A Compact Refractor That Packs Serious Optical Punch

Introduction

Touptek has built a reputation for cameras and accessories, but the Hope D60 marks their first entry into telescope manufacturing. This 60mm aperture, 280mm focal length refractor with an f/4.66 focal ratio is a Petzval design, which means that once you reach focus, the distance between the telescope and camera does not affect image quality. That makes it an appealing option for astrophotographers who want a compact, portable wide-field scope without the headache of precise back focus calculations.

The Hope D60 is priced at $850 during its early bird period, which runs until November 15th. After that, the price will increase, though the final retail price has not been confirmed. At this launch price, it sits in direct competition with the Askar SQ55, another popular small refractor that costs around $800. The Hope D60 offers a slightly larger aperture, a faster focal ratio, and a more traditional design, but it also weighs more and shows some minor optical quirks in the corners of the frame.

Design and Build Quality

The Hope D60 arrives in a padded case with removable foam sections, allowing you to store the telescope with an electronic focuser attached. The case itself is functional but not as refined as some competitors’ soft cases. Inside, you will find the telescope, a hex wrench, and an M54 back-end adapter that comes with its own dust cap. This is a thoughtful touch, since many small refractors only provide dust caps for the default M48 adapter.

The telescope itself is a compact gray cube of a scope, with a 60mm aperture and a retractable lens hood that slides out from the front of the tube. This design keeps the outer diameter of the telescope unchanged whether the hood is extended or retracted. There is no locking mechanism on the hood, but it stays firmly in place even when fully extended and pointed at the zenith with a flat panel attached.

The tube ring and dovetail setup is entirely standard. You get a traditional tube ring with four screws for a firm hold, a dovetail plate at the bottom, and additional dovetail attachment points on top for accessories like a guide scope or an ASIAIR control computer. The telescope can be moved back and forth within the tube ring, rotated within the ring itself, and rotated at the rear adapter. This flexibility is a clear advantage over the SQ55, which relies on proprietary adapters that can loosen over time.

One minor oversight: the default M48 adapter installed on the telescope cannot accept a 2-inch filter internally, unlike the M54 adapter which can. If you plan to use the M48 adapter, you will need a filter wheel or drawer instead.

Focuser and Handling

The Hope D60 uses a traditional dual-speed knob-based focuser, which is a welcome departure from the helical focuser found on the SQ55. Both the coarse and fine focus knobs are smooth and responsive, with minimal backlash when changing direction. The fine focus knob allows for precise final adjustments, making it easy to achieve perfect focus with a Bahtinov mask.

A small window on the focuser drawtube shows the position of the focuser, which is useful since the focus knobs themselves only have rotation gradations. This window helps you understand where you are in the focus range at a glance.

The focuser has a usable range of roughly 27mm to 57mm of back focus on the sample unit tested. This means that with a typical 55mm back focus setup, you have only about 1.5 to 2mm of tolerance before you run out of inward travel. A setup requiring 57mm of back focus should work, but 58mm would be difficult. Autofocus routines should work without issue at both 55mm and 56mm back focus distances, which covers most common camera and filter wheel configurations.

The telescope weighs about 3.5kg with the rings and accessories, which is noticeably heavier than the SQ55 at roughly 2.5 to 2.8kg. Despite its small size, it is slightly less portable than its competitor, though the standard mounting hardware makes it easy to attach to any compatible mount.

Optical Performance on Paper

The spot diagram for the Hope D60 is genuinely impressive. Across multiple wavelengths from 436nm to 707nm, the RMS and GEO radii remain under 3.6 to 3.7 microns even at 22mm from the center of the field. The Airy disc diameter for this aperture is about 3.1 microns, which means the telescope should be diffraction-limited across the entire field on paper.

This is a better theoretical performance than the SQ55, whose spot diagram shows larger RMS and GEO radii and an Airy disc diameter of 3.2 microns. The Hope D60’s spot diagram remains a perfect circle all the way to 13.2mm from the center, only becoming slightly squareish and arrow-shaped toward the extreme edges.

However, an optimized spot diagram can come with a cost. When manufacturers push for the sharpest possible theoretical performance, manufacturing tolerances and lens alignment become more critical. The real-world results will tell whether the production unit can live up to the promise of the spot diagram.

Real-World Imaging Performance

Testing with an APS-C sensor, the ZWO ASI 2600 MC Air, on a rich star field shows beautiful, pinpoint stars at the center of the frame. The stars are sharp and well-controlled, matching the expectations set by the spot diagram. There is a slight artifact, described as a horn, on the central star, but it is minor.

Moving to the corners of the APS-C frame, some chromatic aberration and slightly elongated star shapes begin to appear. The stars take on a subtle starburst pattern toward the edges. This is only visible when pixel peeping, and the overall performance remains very well controlled. The corner behavior was not predicted by the spot diagram, which suggests some tight manufacturing tolerances may be at play.

With a full-frame sensor, the Touptek Sky 24 AC, the story is similar. Center stars are sharp and clean. At the corners, stars show some oblongness, though the larger pixels of the full-frame sensor make this less obvious than on the APS-C sensor. A starburst pattern appears on the brightest stars in some corners, but it remains well controlled.

One standout result is the illumination uniformity. A flat frame analysis shows that the corners of a full-frame sensor retain almost 90% of the center’s luminosity, with a corner value of 0.359 compared to 0.420 at the center. This is an excellent result, likely better than the SQ55, and means vignetting is barely an issue even at the borders of APS-C.

Image Quality Results

When comparing the Hope D60 directly to the SQ55 with the same camera and exposure time, the results are revealing. At the center of the field, the Hope D60 performs remarkably well, with very small stars that look sharp and clean. The two telescopes are very close in central sharpness.

At the corners of the APS-C frame, however, the SQ55 shows better-controlled star shapes. The Hope D60’s stars have a slight oblongness, as if a paintbrush has extended them. This pattern repeats across all corners, with the SQ55 consistently delivering rounder, better-controlled stars at the edges.

This means that while the Hope D60 excels in the center of the field and offers superior illumination uniformity, the SQ55 has an edge in corner star shapes. For most users, the difference will only be noticeable when pixel peeping, but it is worth knowing if you plan to image with a full-frame sensor and care about edge performance.

It is also worth noting that a luminance filter used during full-frame testing caused significant reflections at the edges of the sensor. This was confirmed to be the fault of the filter, not the telescope, since a test image without the filter showed no such reflections.

Buying Advice

The Hope D60 is a good alternative to the SQ55 for anyone shopping for a small refractor. At its launch price of $850, it is $50 more expensive than the SQ55, and the choice between the two is genuinely difficult.

The SQ55 is lighter, has better corner star shapes, and comes with a more refined, camera-lens-like design. However, it relies on helical focusers and proprietary adapters that can be cumbersome and may loosen over time. The Hope D60 offers a standard tube ring and dovetail setup, a traditional dual-speed focuser that works very well, a retractable lens hood, and superior illumination uniformity across the field.

If the Hope D60’s price stays around $900 after the early bird period, it remains a strong alternative to the SQ55. If it climbs toward $1,000, the SQ55 becomes the safer recommendation for most buyers. At $950, it becomes a matter of personal priority: standard mounting hardware and better vignetting control versus lighter weight and better corner stars.

Conclusion

The Touptek Hope D60 is a well-executed first telescope from a company known for cameras and accessories. It delivers sharp, pinpoint stars in the center of the field, excellent illumination uniformity, and a standard, user-friendly design that avoids the proprietary pitfalls of some competitors. The corner star shapes are not as clean as the SQ55, and the back focus tolerance is tight, but these are minor trade-offs for a scope that performs this well at this price.

For astrophotographers who want a compact, portable wide-field refractor with a traditional mounting system and the flexibility of a Petzval design, the Hope D60 is a compelling option. If the price remains competitive after the launch period, it deserves serious consideration alongside the SQ55.