Dreaming of Apochromats

[Graham Darke]

This weekend I came across this image of one of my numerous old telescopes. I always dreamed of owning a quality apo after observing some double stars through a 6 inch Takahashi doublet at one of the early Equinox Sky Camps held near Thetford. Sadly the budget wouldn’t stretch that far but I did have a 6 inch doublet of my own, a Helios 150mm Startravel! It was certainly no apo but as long as it was used for low power rich field observing it was great. In fact some of the best views I ever had of certain nebulae were through that scope. With a wide angle eyepiece and a UHC filter I had amazing views of the Rosette and North America Nebulae. Even managed to spot the Horsehead a couple of times with an H Beta filter too. I was very fond of it but I wasn’t keen on its plain black tube,however. So as a nod to its more expensive brethren I sprayed the tube white, added some decals from a local art shop and the “Kakatashi” was born! 

[mikeDnight]

I agree with you Graham, the 150 StarTravel really is a superb RTF. A number of friends had 150  (HELIOS) StarTravel's when they first came into the UK back in 1999, and I spent many happy hours using them. Some of my most memorable views od DSO's and general jaw dropping rich star fields were emblazened on my mind by this humble 6" F5 achromat. It is a truly specialist instrument, a real true comet seeker, and very few scopes even approach its performance in its playground of rich, wide,  star fields.

[Mr Spock]

They are very good at what they are good at - low power, wide fields.