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Dream planetary refractor? - Nikon 100mm F12 APO!


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I was on the APM website looking for a small accessory and came across this beauty : http://www.apm-telescopes.de/en/onstock/nikon-100-mm-f-1200-mm-ed-apo.html

Forget the price tag, just look at the scope and the pictures: is that not just one of the best looking, "come and spend hours looking through me" fracs and mounts you have ever seen?

For the record, in real money it's about £7200 - used - and I doubt that would include shipping the UK. 

But what a beautiful scope!!:hello2::happy6::headbang:

Dave

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31 minutes ago, Peter Drew said:

No doubt a lovely telescope but only 4" for planetary??

Peter, for image quality, sharpness and contrast it would do for me :-). To say nothing of double splitting, clusters etc. I think there are plenty of 4" frac users out there who absolutely buy their scopes for planetary. And indeed, many manufacturers/distributors market their 4" scopes for planetary use for both visual and imaging.

Dave

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Looks a lovely scope - congratulations on accidently buying it Dave - how are you going to break the news to your other half ? :icon_biggrin:

For me though, I'd want a 5" aperture - something like the TMB 130mm F/9.25 Super Planetary apochromat perhaps ?

At a more practical and affordable level, there is an Intes MK 72 mak-cassegrain on UK Astro Buy & Sell that I keep "stumbling across". I guess that could have close to 6" apochromat performance and it's well under £1K.

 

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54 minutes ago, DaveS said:

OK, I can see it now, possibly a browser thing. Didn't realise that the price included the mount. Still think you could do better though, Tak 100 mm Fluorite?

I'm sure the Tak would be better value for money, even with the mount included (and you'd either have to be mad or very rich to pay that much for it). But optically I don't know. Nikon make good stuff. A shoot out between a Tak 100mm Fluorite and this Nikon would be something I'd love to read about!

 

Dave

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Nice looks, but still, it is only 4" in diameter. If you insist on obstruction-free optics, the dream planetary scope is this one:

http://www.apm-apo.com/apo530_6500-cnc_e.htm

This is in the category: if you have to ask about the price you cannot afford it :D

Bigger Intes-Micro Mak-Cas designs with their tiny CO would be the more "affordable" option

http://www.apm-telescopes.de/en/telescopes/reflecting-telescopes-ota/maksutov-cassegrain/intes-micro-alter-m1610-deluxe-apm-special-delivery.html

In terms of detail (not contrast) and for imaging, even my humble C8 will hit any 4" for six on planets.

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10 minutes ago, John said:

Looks a lovely scope - congratulations on accidently buying it Dave - how are you going to break the news to your other half ? :icon_biggrin:

For me though, I'd want a 5" aperture - something like the TMB 130mm F/9.25 Super Planetary apochromat perhaps ?

At a more practical and affordable level, there is an Intes MK 72 mak-cassegrain on UK Astro Buy & Sell that I keep "stumbling across". I guess that could have close to 6" apochromat performance and it's well under £1K.

 

Hi John,

Can't disagree with that, often thought that 5" is the sweet spot for refractors. I'd love to see someone making and offering Apo/ED fracs in an F10-F12 focal length for visual mainly..I would have thought that it shouldn't cost much more to make an F10 or F12 ED doublet than it does to make the F9 ones we see so often? I appreciate that at 5" even an F10 will be fairly long and thus present some mounting challenges (although when you've been nuts enough to use a 1.9m long 5" F15 on a CG5, that doesn't seem daunting at all!)

The TMB would be marvellous, I'm sure. I remember some years ago seeing an 8" 200mm TMB achromat on display at the Astronomy Centre at Ely in Cambs, (used to be home to Scope n Skies and Pulsar Optical). It was a real beast, and I have no idea how you'd mount it, but it didn't half look the business.:hello2:


Dave

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2 hours ago, Peter Drew said:

No doubt a lovely telescope but only 4" for planetary??

Absolutely! And i m well aware of the effort you've put in over the last 13 years to hide your 4" Vixen fluorite from the AC membership, because it whops those Schmidt's into the ground on planetary. :hello2::hello2::hello2:

Here's a quote from a seasoned planetary observer who recently had first light through his Tak FC100DL F9 that he just bought from AstroFest. As you read just keep in mind that this guy also uses a TOA 130 and a TEC 140.  "I cannot remember seeing so much detail on jupiter, so quickly and so obviously in any other telescope, regardless of aperture. Contrast levels are excellent with this telescope."

I did once see a 8" Schmidt Cass at the AC give a truly great view of Jupiter, but that was only once in 37 years.

As you know, I'm one of the thousands of crazy people who would choose a good 4" refractor for planetary over any other off the shelf scope, with the exception of larger high quality refractor. And I feel so sorry for those tiny photons that, after travelling countless light years, end their resistance as road kill on a Schmidt corrector plate. :icon_biggrin:

Your mate Mike :evil4:

PS, Remember this?

IMG_20160215_152951.thumb.JPG.c40d667d27

 

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1 hour ago, mikeDnight said:

Absolutely! And i m well aware of the effort you've put in over the last 13 years to hide your 4" Vixen fluorite from the AC membership, because it whops those Schmidt's into the ground on planetary. :hello2::hello2::hello2:

Here's a quote from a seasoned planetary observer who recently had first light through his Tak FC100DL F9 that he just bought from AstroFest. As you read just keep in mind that this guy also uses a TOA 130 and a TEC 140.  "I cannot remember seeing so much detail on jupiter, so quickly and so obviously in any other telescope, regardless of aperture. Contrast levels are excellent with this telescope."

I did once see a 8" Schmidt Cass at the AC give a truly great view of Jupiter, but that was only once in 37 years.

As you know, I'm one of the thousands of crazy people who would choose a good 4" refractor for planetary over any other off the shelf scope, with the exception of larger high quality refractor. And I feel so sorry for those tiny photons that, after travelling countless light years, end their resistance as road kill on a Schmidt corrector plate. :icon_biggrin:

Your mate Mike :evil4:

PS, Remember this?

IMG_20160215_152951.thumb.JPG.c40d667d27

 

How much for the Fluorite Vixen Peter??lol

Dave

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4 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

This seems like a lort of money for the aperture but who knows? I wouldn't chance a swap from my TEC140 to that. However, the CN link is a good reminder that you never know, and the particular targets and intentions do matter.

Olly

Don't change that TEC140, gorgeous scope! :D

The CN post was interesting, especially in terms of the advice to take time viewing the image, to wait patiently for those rare moments of good seeing. There may also be another issue behind the excellent views of the F/12 scopes mentioned. An F/12 has the advantage of being VERY forgiving on the EPs (even more so than the C8 I have), and apart from better control of aberrations, this means longer EPs give the desired magnification. Most often, that means more eye relief (especially with simpler designs favoured by many planetary observers), which in turn leads to more relaxed observing. More comfortable observing leads to better views. This is why my observing chair was one of the best additions to my kit a few years back.

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15 minutes ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

Don't change that TEC140, gorgeous scope! :D

 

Heh heh, no immediate danger of that, Michael! It's hardly worth repeating that old yet agile phrase but sometimes you just have to repeat it: if it ain't broke...

Olly

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10 hours ago, F15Rules said:

I was on the APM website looking for a small accessory and came across this beauty : http://www.apm-telescopes.de/en/onstock/nikon-100-mm-f-1200-mm-ed-apo.html

Forget the price tag, just look at the scope and the pictures: is that not just one of the best looking, "come and spend hours looking through me" fracs and mounts you have ever seen?

For the record, in real money it's about £7200 - used - and I doubt that would include shipping the UK. 

But what a beautiful scope!!:hello2::happy6::headbang:

Dave

It is a beautiful setup Dave !

Have you read the article on 'Dark Star', an Italian language astro review site. 'Google translate' does an ok job, not brilliant, but readable translation.

http://www.dark-star.it/astronomia-articoli-e-test/test-strumentali/nikon-100-ed-f12/

 

Cheers,

Andy.

 

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20 hours ago, YKSE said:

That surely looks like a dream scope for hard core refractor-man:icon_biggrin:

As discussed in this thread(A 65mm f12 Nikon got more attention than 8" TEC Apo)

http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/513540-4-vs-5-vs-6

Yong,

That's a great point..one of the scopes I owned and sold, and bitterly regretted selling it afterwards, was a Pentax J80 D80mm F12 refractor. It put up probably THE best ever stellar images I have seen. I remember looking at the Mizar system with it, always a favourite of mine, and it was just like a photograph, stunning. The seeing was clearly (sorry!) excellent that night too, but I will never forget that lovely scope and would buy it back again in a heartbeat.

My Moonraker'd Kenko 80mm F15 gives stellar images approaching that quality. There is something magical about looking at a pair of tiny bullseyes at different angles to each other, different separations, with their tiny diffraction rings joining them. A lot of non-astro fans would think I'm barking mad - but I can't get enough of them!:happy10:

 

Dave

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On ‎15‎/‎02‎/‎2016 at 16:09, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

Nice looks, but still, it is only 4" in diameter. If you insist on obstruction-free optics, the dream planetary scope is this one:

http://www.apm-apo.com/apo530_6500-cnc_e.htm

This is in the category: if you have to ask about the price you cannot afford it :D

Bigger Intes-Micro Mak-Cas designs with their tiny CO would be the more "affordable" option

http://www.apm-telescopes.de/en/telescopes/reflecting-telescopes-ota/maksutov-cassegrain/intes-micro-alter-m1610-deluxe-apm-special-delivery.html

In terms of detail (not contrast) and for imaging, even my humble C8 will hit any 4" for six on planets.

6.5m length, id like to see the roll off roof obsy that takes it lol.

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