[AZ-Observing] Re: Refractor Comparison
- From: DBogan3220@xxxxxxx
- To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2004 22:52:43 EDT
Will Stan I can tell you if your in the market for an Astrophysics telescope
and your not on the waiting list your not likely to get one for yourself, not
unless you surf Astromart daily the 5 inch F6 and the 6 inch F7 do show up
from time to time. Currently there are two AP's on the Astromart Auctions the
155
F7 is currently at $6600 and there is an older 6 inch F12
As far as the optics go. My AP 130 F6 the color correction is phenonominal?
The sharpness of the optics well instead of talking 1/10th wave we can safely
say we are in the .98 to .99 strehl Basically when I took delivery of my 130 F
6 eight years ago I compared it on Jupiter with my Quantum Six Maksutov this
scope for some who may not know had a focal length of around F16 and was a 6.5
inch instrument and it beat the pants off of a Questar seven at one the RTMC's
in the 1980's well 8 years ago my AP 130 at F6 beat the pants off of the
Quantum Six. With either of my 130 F6 or my AP 155 F7 I can use 100x per iinch
power with either scope when the seeing permits. that is 500x of the 130 and
600x
for the 155 F7 Never really had the powers higher although I have talked to
people who had taken there AP's to the Florida Keys for the annual winter star
party and they were using powers in excess of the above without breakdown.
Putting it bluntly there is not a Chinese made scope that cannot even touch an
AP
or even a Takahashi for that matter. The wide field performance has to be
seen to be believed. 20 to 30x and the stars are tiniest pin pricks with
absolutely dark sky in between the double cluster is a knockout with my AP 130
Takahashi scopes are the next grade where you can use ridiculously high
powers without image breakdown the drawback with the Taks since they are
imported
by Texas Nautical are generally priced higher that the AP's Currently however
you can get a decent sail price for Takahashi FS128 and its around $4500 and
available right now it you want it. They are nearly every bit as good as the
AP's I say nearly every bit as good for one reason the FS series are doublets
and
they do not focus the blue however it is so slight most people don't notice
it. I know its there because my eyes seem to pick up on color more so than
other people.
This brings us to TMB optics This next group the optics are made in Russia to
the Specifications of Thomas Back there are two outlets for TMB scopes one
through Astronomics AKA where Thomas himself checks out the optics for USA
sales
and then there is Markus Ludes out of Germany where you get what you get. I
will not elaborate. Just take my word you want the optics to go through Thomas
Back before you get your hands on them.
http://www.tmboptical.com/
Next source for TMB is Stellarview and they seem to have a really neat short
tube 115 mm Triplet made by TMB optics its F7 and looks like a real winner and
has a steep price to go with it but if your interested you can check out the
WEB site below
http://www.stellarvue.com/
Next there are the Televue 4 inch refractors I myself am partial to the
Televue NP101 I found this scope to compliment my Astro-Physics F7 Stowaway.
The
NP101 has some really sharp optics and is essentially color free. What really
neat about this scope is that it can be used at 300 x and then at something
like
around 12x with a big whopping 5 deg field of view all in one package.
Last there is one other manufacturer out of Colorado and that
is TEC for Telescope Engineering Company they make a killer 140mm F7 triplet
that is also every bit as good as AP and Takahashi there WEB site can be seen
here and the waiting list is mush more manageable
http://tec.idcomm.com/tec_us/index.html
Astro-photography with all the instruments mentioned above have been
absolutely stunning, both film and CCD these scopes really can do there stuff I
have never seen a disappointing image with one of these scopes. Tony Hallas,
George Greeney and a whole host of others have used Astro-Physics instruments
for
film and now CCD with Rob Gendler using the SBIG STL 11000 and his STL 6303
with his AP 155 F7 and John Gleason using an AP 130 F6 and an AP 180 F7 to
capture some really neat imaging in both Hemispheres both with film and his
ST-10
camera
http://www.astrophoto.com/
http://www.astrophoto.com/
http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/
http://www.celestialimage.com/index.html
The last thing I might mention is that it all depends on what you want to
do with you scope. Just comet hunt with low power widefield views then you
common imported refractor may be all you need. or attempt high res work and
then
photography then you might try to go for one of the above scopes
Clear Skies
Dwight L Bogan
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