If you had a plan for a bigger Refactor, did you do it?

[Stu]

I have mainly had 2.5” to 5” Apo refractors and have enjoyed them a lot. I did own a very lovely Vixen 150ED f 9 apo doublet a while back; a right beast at about 20kg fully loaded and quite long. I ended up with an AZEQ6 on a Meade Giant tripod with pillar extension which worked well but was a bit of a pain to set up.

The secondary picture shows it side by side with a 120ED, not a tiny scope in its own right!

My main ambition now is to own a top notch 130mm apo, probably an AP or LZOS of some description. I think that would sit perfectly well on the AZ100 and Planet tripod. Funds are the limitation at the moment, I would need to seek the Mewlon 210 and I think I would miss having that bit more aperture available to me. Still, I think I could be happy with a decent 130mm as my main observing scope knowing my preferences and skies.

[Peter Drew]

I went from a 102mm to a 220mm but I had to make the scope, the mount and the observatory to house it.     🙂

[Guest]

@Stu Everytime you had to slew that round using the mains power, would the local street lights dim?🤔  Was that the plan all along, to reduce the local light pollution?🤔🤣

[Stu]

47 minutes ago, merlin100 said:

@Stu Everytime you had to slew that round using the mains power, would the local street lights dim?🤔  Was that the plan all along, to reduce the local light pollution?🤔🤣

I was more worried that a police helicopter would think it was a missile launcher! 😱

[Chris]

1 hour ago, Peter Drew said:

I went from a 102mm to a 220mm but I had to make the scope, the mount and the observatory to house it.     🙂

I would love to see some pics of this! Do you have any to share, Peter?

[Dr Strange]

Absolutely yes! I had a 150mm TOA-150 and loved it! It competed with my Mewlon 210 so well that I would use it over the Mewlon even with having to deal with the massive weight of it. a 150mm+ APO really opens up things dramatically. So much so I had a TEC 180mm on order until a medical issue forced me to cancel it. Each 2.54 cm step in a APO refractor from 80mm to 150mm is a big step up in performance. After 150mm the size, cost, and weight of it becomes a big issue and mitigates the value. I was looking at selling all of my other scopes and spending a significant amount of additional money then ending up only owning the 180. 

The TOA-150 was a really heavy scope. But that was because it was built like a tank and had two FPL-53 elements in it that were widely spaced. However it was brilliant on even globular clusters and very small planetary nebulae. And not the bright ones like M57. I mean the more obscure NGC ones. Since you have a permanent setup using a 150mm class APO is significantly easier. And the value of it is huge in terms of visual use. It really does get close if not dead on equivalent to a 203mm reflector in terms of performance. 

[Peter Drew]

The mount moves very smoothly and takes no more power to run than an EQ6.  Slewing is manual and overrides the motors through clutches.      🙂

[Peter Drew]

8 hours ago, Lockie said:

I would love to see some pics of this! Do you have any to share, Peter?

If you go to our website <astronomycentre.org.uk> and click on "Instruments on site" there should be a photo.     🙂

[kirkster501]

I love my 140mm TEC140 F7.  And I've been tempted by the 160mm TEC160, it's obviously slightly bigger and fractionally better colour corrected - even by the already superb TEC140 standards.  If I had that 160 scope then I'd wish I had the 180 and if that why not the 200 or even the 250???? It goes on and on. The best scope is the one you *use comfortably* and *enjoy*. In every walk of life there is always something bigger and better.

 

[Rusted]

6" f/8 mounted beside my 7" f/12. Currently using a dinky, little, 6" f/10 for Solar H-a.

 

[Stu]

54 minutes ago, Rusted said:

6" f/8 mounted beside my 7" f/12. Currently using a dinky, little, 6" f/10 for Solar H-a.

 

Very nice! I’d almost forgotten that I have a 6” f10 around that I am planning on using for solar Ha soon. It needs a focuser and some work aligning the objective which I’m hoping a certain nice gentleman on the forum will help me with.

[Rusted]

58 minutes ago, Stu said:

Very nice! I’d almost forgotten that I have a 6” f10 around that I am planning on using for solar Ha soon. It needs a focuser and some work aligning the objective which I’m hoping a certain nice gentleman on the forum will help me with.

Thanks Stu.

With respect, I don't think you'll need a conventional focuser because the PST etalon is in a fixed position.
A helical focuser will provide the necessary focusing beyond the etalon. I am assuming you are doing a PST mod?

[JeremyS]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

I’d almost forgotten that I have a 6” f10 around

Too many scopes, Stu?

🙂

Mind you, I can't talk ....

🙂

 

[Doc]

I have plans to build a 6" F15 refractor  to go on my Fullerscope IV Mount I'm restoring and adding Go-To .

I would love to find a Clave 6" lens to go with the 80mm I have but I have more chance off going to the moon. So my next choice will be a Jeager 6" lens or one of those iStar Optical 150mm F15 lenses.

This will be a big project for the future.

[John]

If I had been able to mount it in in observatory like @Rusted has I would probably still have my Istar Perseus 150 F/12

As a free standing scope that needed to be setup and taken down each session it was just not a practical proposition

 

[Stu]

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

Too many scopes, Stu?

🙂

Mind you, I can't talk ....

🙂

 

Of course! 🤣

To be fair it has been tucked out of site for quite a while until I can get it sorted.

[John]

If you can keep a 6 inch F/10 hidden away you must have quite a lot of space available !

or is it just the objective and cell ?

 

[Stu]

15 minutes ago, John said:

If you can keep a 6 inch F/10 hidden away you must have quite a lot of space available !

or is it just the objective and cell ?

 

🤣, that I certainly don’t John.

The objective is in a box along with the OTA in the garage. Going to dig them out this weekend sometime to make a start.

[Rusted]

My 6" f/10 for H-a looks like this in my 10' dome.

 

[Rusted]

But if you want two refractors side by side you get this.
I use a 4x3, yachting, block and tackle, attached to the zenith board, to lift the 7".
The 7" is presently "resting" while I concentrate on H-alpha close-ups.
Do not underestimate the difficulty of supporting so much weight and moment.