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Does anyone here NOT have a small refractor?


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I ask because I've got a FRA400 and a Vixen R200SS. Very different scopes, very different focal lengths, very different targets. Yet I never really like what the refractor produces; I'm always drawn to the Newt to the point that I think I'd be happy just with that, capturing those smaller fuzzy objects that seem to get overlooked. 

I just wondered if anyone else only ever used longer focal-length setups?

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I dont have a small scope, nor do i have a desire to get one. I do darksite (often without the dark lol) imaging only so time under the stars is very limited and building up a long integration with a small aperture scope is not what im looking for. My 8'' newt is big enough that brighter targets are 1 night projects if the skies are decent enough, which is not what would be the case with a smaller scope. If i wanted to image an extended target that doesn't fit my field of view, i could just mosaic and bin more so i dont really see any downsides to having a bigger scope.

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That's exactly how I feel - so I'm not completely mad to think that way!

My only reservation is on windy nights, the small refractor will be less burdensome on the mount, but I can probably create some sort of semi-permeable wind-break if I wanted anyway. 

I imagine summer is a frustrating time for you...you must be further north than me! 

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Stared with a 150P (sold), moved to a 200PDS, substituted complemented with a 130PDS. 

And sometimes I feel just the opposite: fighting against collimation and tilt, I wonder why not to go for a shorter frac (SPRIT 80-kind).

Should I have darker skies or more clear nights (more than 1 out of 20 would be nice), I would be using my gear instead of thinking about spending more money. 

I believe cloudy nights have a good share of guilt when it comes to spending money. Agree?

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3 hours ago, osbourne one-nil said:

That's exactly how I feel - so I'm not completely mad to think that way!

My only reservation is on windy nights, the small refractor will be less burdensome on the mount, but I can probably create some sort of semi-permeable wind-break if I wanted anyway. 

I imagine summer is a frustrating time for you...you must be further north than me! 

Ah, well the wind thing is true. Too much wind and its better to give up than bitterly try and salvage part of the night which i assume to be a lesser problem with small fracs.

The 21-22 astronomy season has basically ended by now as there are no moonless nights before the last astro darkness ends next week and after that, 4 months+ of break.

46 minutes ago, barbulo said:

I believe cloudy nights have a good share of guilt when it comes to spending money. Agree?

Looking at the past season i have somewhere around 20 sessions with the scope. Im not going to even try to calculate how much €€ that is per night...

Edited by ONIKKINEN
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I think that all my scopes may fall into the "small" category, with my largest aperture being only 6", and all are refractors. Over the last few years I've tried to find a benefit to having larger aperture reflectors, but never really enjoyed observing with them the way I'd hoped I would. They would nearly always stand idle while a small refractor would be my prefered weapon of choice.  I prefer the better definition of refractors over the resolution gain and light grasp of the reflectors. 

Edited by mikeDnight
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I think by small I mean 80mm or below.

For me (and this is probably because of my own inadequacies) I much prefer that images I get from my Newt. The stars are smaller, the images crisper, the colours better, to the extent that I have, so far, gleaned little pleasure in imaging with the refractor. 
 

the only downside to the Newt, for me, is the wind factor. It’s lightweight, I’ve never found collimation and issue and I think it’s focal length suits my interests  

Maybe I’ll go back to some DSLR imaging on windy nights and see if that does anything for me!

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