Best budget APO refractor

[brantuk]

Thanks Joe

[Brave New World]

How about planetary views in those 70-80 mm f/6 apo/ed refractors? Will saturn be any bigger than my thumbnail at arms length - or smaller (given ideal weather)? 

[ollypenrice]

Be aware that for imaging the mount is far more important than the scope. You can only get decent DS images on an accurate and stable tracking mount. You'll soon want to autoguide as well.

For all the pretty finishes out there, on your budget I'd buy an ED80 second hand and use it, not look at it. The colour correction into the blues is the real killer with all these little doublets which, in photographic terms, are not fully apochromatic. For some reason, and against the odds, the ED80 is ridiculously good. This may be because SW were realistic about the F ratio. Fast, doublet and cheap just don't go together and that's that, alas.

I'm not partisan in saying this. Work provides top end quadruplet apos for imaging and I do have a WO ZS66. But on a budget, for DS imaging, Id buy an ED80.

Olly

[oldpink]

I'm not partisan in saying this. Work provides top end quadruplet apos for imaging and I do have a WO ZS66. But on a budget, for DS imaging, Id buy an ED80.

Olly

Olly speaks sense

I took his advice and bought the SW ED 80

it arrived this morning I had the blessing of clear skies tonight and so far its blowing my socks off

and thats just from live view, I havn't had a chance to process the data

but the subs are very sharp and lots of detail showing up even at 60s subs as my guide system is refusing to play ball tonight

I suspect that moving everything around has messed up the focus settings

[John]

It must be "revive and old thread night" tonight !