Atair 66mm with .6 reducer for very wide field..will it work?

[pubquiz]

Hi All

I have  seen a combination of an Atair Lightwave 66mm and the .6 reducer for sale and wondered if anyone had used the same or similar combination

I have been thinking of trying some widefield stuff and been contemplating a camera lens setup.

But wondered if the above would be a good alternative

The scope is this http://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/review/telescopes/altair-astro-lightwave-66ed-r-refractor 

Which has a focal length of 400mm but with the .6 reducer here https://www.altairastro.com/lightwave-0.6x-reducer.html

would bring it down to 240mm which would be great for what I want to try like Heart and Soul nebs and Rosette etc and general wide fields

The cam I would use would be my QHY163C which is a 4/3 sensor.

Anyone used these 2 together or similar? ....I dont mind doing some very  small cropping if it doesnt flatten the field perfectly

[John78]

You can buy that fr for about £79 if you shop around - I've tried it on my SW 80ED using a qhy174m, 11x7mm sensor, its not flat (enough for mosaic), so it will be worse to the edge of your 17.7 chip, but maybe its better matched to an Altair scope (I doubt it).

If this was available at the time I made my purchases, I'd buy it and the ff/fr without hesitation.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/pro-series/sky-watcher-evostar-72ed-ds-pro-ota.html

 

[Macavity]

Dunno, but ever interested!

I have that (IMO excellent) scope. But classical imaging is not a speciality. 
But I'd be sceptical re. reducing the f/6 to f/3.6? You'd have to "check the
corners"! Otherwise focal reducers are splendid FUN. I have an Antares 2"
(and a bog-standard Atik 1.25" 0.5x) for sundry & various experiments! 

I think I will eventually get the matching ff/fr(!) for my SW ED80. I'm quite
surprised something I would imagine as "complex" is fairly inexpensive! 
But they tend to only reduce by a factor of 0.85x, not 0.6x or more. Aside:
I noted Celestron(?) "gave up" on their 0.33x reducer some time ago too...

[pubquiz]

Thanks for that John and Chris...My 1st thought was to buy that scope and 0.6 reducer which are for sale at £280 on a site and sell my Megrez 72 ....

BUT I have since thought why not buy the 0.6 Altair reducer and try it on my Megrez72 this would bring it's focal length down from 432mm (not much more than the 400mm of the 60mm scope) to 259mm which should do

Have looked for some reviews on that combination and seems the jury is out ...one picture of the Horsehead showed some weird looking stars quite a way in from the edge...not just elongated but 'spikey' artifacts some have said it's not too bad.

The cheapest I have seen it is at £99....cant find it as low as £79 John do you have a link?

It seems the 0.8 reducer is a better match and WO do one for this scope but I want to try even wider than that will drop it.

So at £99 I think I will give it a punt....if the pics turn out horrible due to incompatibility I can always sell it on.

 

If I do get one I will post some before and after pics on here.

 

Tom