Ritchey Chretien Astrograph for visual

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hello, this maybe a silly question, but can a Ritchey Chretien Astrograph be used as a visual scope or are they primarily used for astrophotography?

I apologies in advance if this has already been asked and answered!

[RobH]

You can use them visually, but as a visual scope they are by no means the best.

They have a very large central obstruction which isn't good for contrast, and a lot of what you pay for is the hyperbolic optics, which give a large flat field for imaging.

Visually, a good SCT will be much better, and cheaper.

Rob

[Keith Howlett]

I have an old 14 inch RCOS and visually it's okay. Visually I would put it on a par with a 14 inch Meade RCX that I owned previously. I am sure that both would be out-performed visually by a similar sized Newtonian.

The back-focus available is quite limited. Mine is adequate for visual binoviewing but some R-C's would have trouble reaching focus.

Cheers,

Keith