Is there a highly regarded achromat refractor ?

[TSRobot]

Love my little Revelation 80 HR achro. Don't need no fringe killer. Achro delivers so much. Yes I wish the build quality was there for the achros though.

[saarmason]

I have enjoyed observing with many achromatic refractors over the years.  Three stand out as my favorites.   My all time favorite achromatic refractor is my "Old school" 🙂Zeiss Telementor 63mm / 840mm mounted on it's original solidly built GEM mounting system.  Sharp, high contrast color free viewing for Lunar, Planetary (Jupiter and Saturn) and splitting double stars.   I enjoy the Zeiss 4 ep turret system which incorporates an amici prism for upright viewing to match star charts.  A few .965 inch Jena H & Ortho eyepieces and a 1.25 adapter to hold a wide field "modern" eyepiece which is very enjoyable in this scope.  I have owned many other achromatic refractors, both Japanese and Chinese which were okay also, but this Telementor is the best of the best for a small aperture scope.  Second on my list are my two Edmund Scientific Voyager 6000-esc 60mm F8 short tube refractors which incorporate the much vaunted Rank designed cemented doublet.  That thick doublet was rated as "almost" as good as Zeiss cemented doublets and air spaced offerings from Japan.  Nice for both daytime and night sky viewing.  Can provide higher power with very slight image breakdown.  Nice for Lunar, Jupiter, Saturn and doubles up to around 100x on most nights.  Third is a more current Chinese built 152mm F5.9 short tube Astro Telescopes achromat from Kunming Optical.  Very nicely configured 6" doublet which provides well corrected wide field views of DSO's with 100 degree quality 2" eyepieces.  Nice for Lunar and planetary viewing also up to around 150X or so.  Minus violet filter helps cut down on fringe color at higher power.  On my WO EZ Alt Az mount system with extension pier, it is a joy to use seated in my astro chair scanning the Milky Way objects within it's viewing parameters.  Love those well configured achros!

 

Edited May 29, 2019 by saarmason