Brent - I purchased the 5" Meade apo from Les. He still has his Astrophysics (5"?). Depending on the date you observed with him, he may have even had the 5" Takahashi that was later stolen. I don't have enough experience with refractors to compare the Meade with anything, but I am generally very pleased. I have noticed some spurious halos around bright images, but that is probably due to the ultra-wide field eyepieces I've been using. I would like to try some high-power Orthos for comparison. -----Original Message----- From: Brent Watson [mailto:brentjwatson@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, March 24, 2003 6:42 PM To: Astronomy in Utah Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] SCT or Newtonian? My experience with the Astro Physics refractors is looking through two of them. The first I saw was at Riverside. I was not impressed compared to my 8" Brandt, Joan Carman's 6" Brandt, and Siegfried's 9" Clark. I thought the image lacked contrast and detail. The second time was at a star party in Flagstaff. Again, the image lacked definition and contrast. I had my 8" Brandt there for comparison. Both of these refractors were the 130mm guys, I believe. The Brandt is 150mm. I have seen some great images through Les Christopher's refractor at Elizabeth Ridge. I am not sure which it is, maybe someone on the list knows - Kim, didn't you buy it from Les? I have also seen some stunning views of Saturn, Enke's Division, spokes, etc. through Joan's Junior Refractor (the 6" Brandt). All of the commercial refractors are much more portable than my 8" Brandt, but my Brandt is still pretty portable. Sorry I can't help more than that. I will make a broad statement that an apo does not produce as good an image as an achro, IMHO. The achro has secondary color that can be distracting at times, but the detail and contrast are still better. I used to think that SCT's were the best for portability, but I can set up both my 12.5" and my 6" dobs in less time than an 8" SCT. The 6" takes about the same physical space as an 8" SCT, but will produce better images generally speaking. The 12.5" takes up more space, but can still be set up and I can be observing in less than 5 minutes. As always, these are just my opinions, but I believe I can substantiate them all if required to do so. Brent --- UTAHDEB@aol.com wrote:
Brent,
What brand of doublet refractors do you prefer? I hear the Takahashi doublets are not as well corrected as the Astro-Physics refractors. Correct me if I am wrong. I'd like to get my hands on one the AP 130mm f/8.35 refractors doublet or triplet. I wish they would start making them again.
Deb
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com
http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop! http://platinum.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy