Refractor for Double Stars

[ploughc]

Hi everyone I am thinking of buying a Refractor for double star viewing I was thinking about either the Meade 127 series 5000 apo or the Skywatcher equinox 120 apo. the skywatcher has Fpl 53 glass the meade has Fcdi glass which i am told is not as good, but the meade is a triplet whereas the skywatcher is a doublet. the price is not much different. If anyone has these scopes what do you think of them or any other scopes in the same range, thanks everyone.

[AndyH]

Double star observing is the realm of long focal length refractors, in my opinion.

Andy.

[brianb]

Double star observing is the realm of long focal length refractors, in my opinion.

Mine too. If you're working at f/15 - f/20 the glass type really isn't of much consequence.

If you can't put up with a tube that long, try a Maksutov-Cassegrain. Really good ones (Intes Micro) are not far short of "ideal" and will very, very nearly equal the performance of a short/medium focus apochromatic refractor the same aperture but costing 10x as much.

If really strapped for money - a long focus Newtonian ....

[Towa]

Both those scopes will give wonderful double star observations.

The Meade being a triplet will take longer to cool down, my triplet APO scopes take longer than my doublet scopes.

But when cooled down I doubt very much that you will see much in a difference between the two.

I use cheaper Skywatcher Evostar Achromats (120 and 150mm) and two triplet APO's for my double star observing.

The Evostars do a fantastic job, and my 102mm APO gives me the most wonderful double stars views I've ever seen.

[AndyH]

For the price of the scopes you mentioned, you could get a Zeiss Telementor. Allegedly one of the finest double star scopes ever made.

Cheers,

Andy.

[russ]

For the price of the scopes you mentioned, you could get a Zeiss Telementor. Allegedly one of the finest double star scopes ever made.

Cheers,

Andy.

A friend of mine bought one of those brand new in 1987 from Broadhurst in London. I couldn't believe the money he was spending on a tiny refractor when there was all these lovely big shiny scopes in the showroom for not much more. More importantly, it was only a 63mm, almost the same size as my Tasco......is this bloke mad!!!!! It wasn't until he turned that scope onto Albireo that i realised why he was so enthusiastic about it. It was an awesome scope.

Russ