Refractors or Reflectors ?

[Penwith24]

Hi all last night I was invited to join my local Astronomy Club via a Zoom meeting because of Covid-19. Im led to believe that a Refractor Telescope would be ideal to view as well as taking photographs, so may I ask what's the view of the Lounge please, as I have mentioned on my profile I have not as yet purchased any equipment as yet, I'm waiting till the Club starts to meet up again so I can attend on one of there meetings and experience looking through various scopes, so in the mean time dose anyone have any opinions on any particular Scopes for me to look into in the mean time would be helpful thanks for reading.

Regards

Roger

Edited August 28, 2020 by Penwith24
inserted a new phrase

[gilesco]

To start with I would go for a Refractor, if the budget allows, get an Apochromatic Refractor.

No one telescope is right for everything, the Refractor will allow you to see/image Deep Sky Objects. Bear in mind that what you see in the eyepiece is not what the camera can see with a long exposure.

In order to take long exposures, then there are many more important pieces of equipment than the OTA itself. Look for equatorial mounts, motorised GOTO and tracking functionality.

For even longer exposures you will want guiding, either via a Guide scope and Guide camera, or via an Off-Axis Guider and Guide camera.

If you want to view and image planets the you should start looking for a Reflector, perhaps look for an OTA that can share the mount and imaging train with your refractor.

I think it would be best to get experience looking at what others see through their equipment, both visually and through imaging. This helps as it is easy to have very high expectations be completely daunted by the reality. So good to have a realistic expectation before parting with your hard earned cash.

[Louis D]

If you can spring for a 150mm APO triplet with FPL-53 glass on a very heavy duty EQ mount, it would be very nearly ideal for both imaging and viewing.  However, that approach can be cost prohibitive (well over $10,000).  Most folks go with a largish reflector of some sort on an alt-az mount of some sort (under $1500 total) for visual work and an 80mm to 100mm ED or APO refractor for imaging on a heavy duty EQ mount (under $2000 total).

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Are you more interested in observing with some dabbling in imaging or dedicating most of your time to the dark black magical arts of astrophotography?

With some practice one can take photos of solar system planetary objects with just about any telescope and a smartphone, DSLR camera or webcam attached.

However, dedicated astrophotography can be a time consuming money pit that takes a great deal of practice to become reasonably competent. Which is why I don't bother! 😆

An apochromatic refractor would probably be the recommendation, however there are other options. There's loads of threads in the imaging section providing advice including the 130PDS thread. A Sky-Watcher 130mm reflector aimed at astrophotographers, punching above its weight and saving you a considerable wedge.

Equipment really depends what class of targets you're interested in, how much money you have to spend and time you have to spare.

 

[John]

As you will have gathered, the answer to your question is "it depends ......" 

All the scope designs have their strengths and weaknesses so to help you make a decision, we are going to need to ask quite a few questions.

Many folks end up with a number of scopes of different designs and sizes to give themselves different observing and imaging opportunities.

 

 

[Cosmic Geoff]

The refractor vs reflector argument has been flogged to death in various threads of the SGL forum over the years. 🙂  It comes down to a matter of personal preference as well as economics.  Refractors are thought of as the classic 'scope, and don't have a central obstruction, but in larger sizes are stupidly expensive, and heavy. Reflectors and catadroptics in medium and larger sizes have many practical and cost advantages.

I like to compare a Victorian 8" refractor (yards long, mount weighing tons, housed in an observatory the size of a chalet) with my modern 8" SCT, which can be picked up and carried complete with its mount.

[DaveS]

If you have any thoughts at all regarding imaging, then get This book and read it at least twice before spending any more money, it could save you from haring down an expensive blind alley.

Steve is a mod on here aka "steppenwolf".

[gilesco]

Someone posted this video just today:

 

[Tenor Viol]

As others have noted, there are different branches of astronomy and to a considerable extent they require different equipment. Questions include:

• visual only, imaging only, mix of visual and imaging;
• type of object - solar, lunar, and planetary is one grouping
• another grouping is wide field objects including gaseous nebulae, open star clusters, some globular clusters, M31 and a few others
• another grouping is narrow field objects such as most galaxies, planetary nebulae etc 

Whilst to some extent 'any scope can do anything' in reality some are more suited to certain types of objects and some things are impossible with certain types of telescope (some Newtonian reflectors cannot be used for imaging without physical modification).

[Grierson]

As has been said there are lots of questions. One of the most fundamental is ‘have you given any thought about what you are prepared to spend’? The reflector route is likely to be less costly than the refractor. I started with the ubiquitous SW 80ED and which I still enjoy using.