Are there any good wide field refractor telescopes under 500€?

[Stellaris]

I’m looking to buy a wide field refractor telescope under 500€. I have a skywatcher NEQ3-2 pro goto equatorial mount, and a Fujifilm x-t2. I need a telescope for deep sky astrophotography.

Thanks in advance.

[Steve Ward]

https://www.widescreen-centre.co.uk/sky-watcher-evostar-72ed-ds-pro-ota.html

 

Or alternatively a good S/H prime camera lens to fit your camera .

Edited July 30, 2023 by Steve Ward

[Mr Spock]

The 72ED is £329 and the required field flattener £225. I can see that as your only option close to budget.

I've had a look on MPB for used lenses. Unfortunately your choice of Fujifilm means there are none within or close to your budget. The closest is a 250mm f4 at over £2000  There's a lot to be said for choosing either Nikon or Canon 

[Adam J]

8 hours ago, Stellaris said:

I’m looking to buy a wide field refractor telescope under 500€. I have a skywatcher NEQ3-2 pro goto equatorial mount, and a Fujifilm x-t2. I need a telescope for deep sky astrophotography.

Thanks in advance.

ok wide field for me means around 200mm focal length. What's your idea of wide? 

A FMA180pro fits your budget. 

Edited July 30, 2023 by Adam J

[Elp]

One of the best pieces of equipment for astro if it can be adapted to Fuiji is the manual Samyang 135mm F2 usually the Canon EF one. If youre patient you can get one used for around 250. 135mm FL so it's wide, but F2, usually stopped down to F2.8 when in use, it'll trounce anything else for raw speed and you won't believe the amount of stars it'll pick up in short exposures.

You maybe lucky to pick up a used WO Redcat at the limit of your price but they're usually slightly higher priced specs 250mm FL and f4.9 and I think theyre for imaging only. Another option which I have is a used WO Z61 360mm and F5.9, with another reducer I normally use it at 234mm and F3.8 but at this FL it does have edge star distortion, but it's the most useful scope I've owned and fantastic visually and photographically on everything I've used it for (lunar, planetary, solar WL/HA with appropriate solar filtering, deep sky).

Edited July 30, 2023 by Elp

[Stellaris]

For comparison I currently own a skywatcher 150/750P, which has a rather narrow FOV when capturing nebulae. So I’m looking for something that could drastically increase my FOV to better shoot large nebulae.
I’m using the Fujifilm camera because I happened to have one XD. Of course looking at any Astrophotography channel, you learn that canon or Nikon works way better for it.
I take it William Optics is really good when it comes to Astrophotography.
This seems like a dumb question but, I live in Europe, where do y’all look for used telescopes online?

[Elp]

There's a euro buyers/sellers classified section on here if you've contributed enough comments to this forum.

FLO the forum sponsors regularly offer discounted equipment, as do other retailers. eBay is useful but you'd have to do due diligence with the seller to make sure they're a reliable user of astro equipment.

WO is no better than any other, their prices tend to be higher than others in the same price range. If you want the best refractors think TEC, Astro Physics, at the top end, Takahashi slightly more affordable but top of the affordable range, all beyond your anticipated budget.

Skywatcher are decent middle range, their Esprit triplets are high end refractors. Askar FRA are the best they offer. You'll find most brands have their scopes made from the same handful of suppliers and get them custom finished, maybe also have more QA put into their checks so their prices end up being slightly higher.

Triplets tend to be better colour corrected for photographic use, but they also cost more, weigh more, take longer to cool down. My Z61 is a fairly small aperture so gets away with being a doublet, the larger the aperture the more colour fringes (chromatic abberation) you'll see, especially in the blue colour band (depends on lens construction as they're typically designed to correct for red and green more than blue, this is also the case with camera lenses, a triplet tries to focus all three to a point). A camera picks up on this more than the human eye as blue is less noticeable. You tend not to get this issue as much with reflector telescopes if at all.

I'd seriously consider the SY135mm, just look at the owners thread and how many people are getting excellent results with it. Your milage will vary, many people use them with astro cameras as unmodded dslr/mirrorless bodies are not that sensitive in hydrogen alpha which is the most abundant gas type out there for emission nebulae. Doing colour for like milky way or galaxy imaging or bright nebulae like m45, m42 a standard camera usually works well, though for the vast majority of galaxies you need long focal length to get any detail.

Edited July 30, 2023 by Elp

[GTom]

I can only reflect others recommending the Evostar 72ED+reducer setup. Not talking from experience trough, astrobin brings up spectacular results with little compromise. Seek out second hand offers and you can keep the full kit costs below 500.

Personally I would not go smaller than that, 10mm means a LOT below 4" especially if you ever use the scope for visual! But that's just me :). 

The mount might need a belt mod/tuning and if you don't have it already a solid tripod though to facilitate long guiding sessions.

Edited July 30, 2023 by GTom

[Stellaris]

is there a specific topic or thread here for sellers/buyers? (Europe)

 

[bosun21]

33 minutes ago, Stellaris said:

is there a specific topic or thread here for sellers/buyers? (Europe)

 

Yes. It will become visible once you reach the designated criteria.

[Stellaris]

I’m asking because I’m new here and don’t know how this works. But what exactly are said criteria and like how does it work?

thanks a lot to everyone for your answers 

[Elp]

You need to comment and contribute to any threads, it doesn't take long if you're interested in said topics.

[Franklin]

Take a look on ABS UK, there's a nice TS Photoline 72mm F/6 with 0.8x reducer for £325 at the moment, bargain!

[Cornelius Varley]

19 hours ago, Stellaris said:

is there a specific topic or thread here for sellers/buyers? (Europe)

 

Please read this.