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Equipment Discussions >> Refractors

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mitaccio
sage

Reged: 03/17/09

Loc: Oahu, Hawaii

Best APO under $? new

#5351172 - 08/04/12 01:36 AM

What do you say is the best APO under $1000? $750?

Post Extras:

Cotts
Just Wondering

Reged: 10/10/05

Loc: Toronto, Ontario

Re: Best APO under $? new

[Re: mitaccio]
#5351360 - 08/04/12 08:57 AM

An 8" Newtonian Reflector/Dob. Or an 80mm (3.1") doublet "ED APO" on the used market - many companies make these. You may even find a used triplet APO in the 80mm size for about $1000. Do you have a mount to put a refractor on? If not your budget limit will have to be enlarged.

The 8" Dob will outperform any 80mm telescope you care to name by leaps and bounds.

Dave

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Binojunky
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 12/25/10

Re: Best APO under $? new

[Re: Cotts]
#5351383 - 08/04/12 09:16 AM

You don,t have to go used, for the price you quoted the Orion 80mm triplet is available brand new,nearly all the doublets are priced well under your price range, if its a budget of $1,000 then an ED100f9 can be bought, my Vixen ED100 cost me BNIB $500 Canadian taxes included,my Meade 80mm triplet cost me $750 taxes included, its just a matter of looking around and having a degree of patience, DA.

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BKBrown
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 08/23/09

Loc: Northern Virginia, USA

Re: Best APO under $? new

[Re: Binojunky]
#5351408 - 08/04/12 09:40 AM Attachment (30 downloads)

Quote:

You don,t have to go used, for the price you quoted the Orion 80mm triplet is available brand new,nearly all the doublets are priced well under your price range, if its a budget of $1,000 then an ED100f9 can be bought, my Vixen ED100 cost me BNIB $500 Canadian taxes included,my Meade 80mm triplet cost me $750 taxes included, its just a matter of looking around and having a degree of patience, DA.

In fact for $750 you can get a brand new Skywatcher 100ED Pro f/9 with an aluminum case, rings and dovetail, two speed focuser, and a bunch of nice accessories...one of the best deals in amateur astronomy today IMHO

Clear Skies,
Brian

Edited by BKBrown (08/04/12 01:43 PM)

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j3ffr0
Pooh-Bah

Reged: 07/06/08

Loc: Virginia

Re: Best APO under $? new

[Re: BKBrown]
#5351494 - 08/04/12 10:47 AM

For around $1000 you might be able to land a used Synta 120ED -- Either Orion or Skywatcher.

A 100 ED is also a great scope and is well within side your range new.

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mitaccio
sage

Reged: 03/17/09

Loc: Oahu, Hawaii

Re: Best APO under $? new

[Re: j3ffr0]
#5351675 - 08/04/12 12:54 PM

What about the ES80, SVR80ED and the WOZS80? I want to piggyback an APO onto my SCT, so an 80mm is my preferred size.

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Sean Puett
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 09/06/10

Loc: always cloudy, washington

Re: Best APO under $? new

[Re: j3ffr0]
#5351691 - 08/04/12 01:01 PM

For $1000 or less you can get any number of good apos. I got my 4" petzval with flourite for $1000. If you really want to open up some premium options on the used market, raise your limit to $1500. Now you would see sky90s by takahashi or fs102s or many TeleVue scopes. TeleVue eyepieces are the best IMO but, what I was late to discover is their refractors are also up there. What size are you looking for? If it is an 80mm that is easy to stay under $1000. 4" older premium scopes can sell at or a bit above that level. A 5" Chinese triplet can go for around $1500 or so.
For your limit, the 2 best deals i have seen was a TeleVue 85 for 1000 and
An Orion 100 ed for 500. There is a TeleVue 101 with mount and everything for 2000 right now so you might be able to get the guy to split the ota off for you. That tv101 is going to be a great scope for ultrawidw fields and an email can't hurt.

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Scott Beith
SRF

Reged: 11/26/03

Loc: Frederick, MD

Re: Best APO under $? [Re: Sean Puett]
#5351907 - 08/04/12 03:49 PM

The SV80ED isn't a full apo.
It is an excellent ED doublet that falls shy of full apo performance.
I own one and I love it.

http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=1804

The Raptor version you are considering has the same optics but will be much lighter - perfect for piggybacking.

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Scott Beith
SRF

Reged: 11/26/03

Loc: Frederick, MD

Re: Best APO under $? new

[Re: Scott Beith]
#5351916 - 08/04/12 03:55 PM

I just realized - are you mounting a scope on top of a 6" SCT?
Is it deforked and on a GEM?

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mitaccio
sage

Reged: 03/17/09

Loc: Oahu, Hawaii

Re: Best APO under $? new

[Re: Scott Beith]
#5352214 - 08/04/12 07:55 PM

I will be mounting the 80mm on top of my 6" SCT until I deploy next year when I will take the 80mm with me. I plan to get a small GEM for the deployment.

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Jon Isaacs
Postmaster

Reged: 06/16/04

Loc: San Diego and Boulevard, CA

Re: Best APO under $? new

[Re: mitaccio]
#5352264 - 08/04/12 08:49 PM

Quote:

I will be mounting the 80mm on top of my 6" SCT until I deploy next year when I will take the 80mm with me. I plan to get a small GEM for the deployment.

My concern is that when you put that 80mm on top of the 6SE, you are creating a long lever arm, the weight of the scope and mounting far from center. The C6 weighs about 10lbs, when all is said and done, the 80mm and mount might weigh 8 lbs or even more and being off-center, it would dramatically increases the forces on the mount.

I am not sure how well the SE mount would handle both of them.

Jon

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coutleef
Post Laureate

Reged: 02/21/08

Loc: Saint-Donat, Québec, Canada

Re: Best APO under $? new

[Re: Jon Isaacs]
#5352267 - 08/04/12 08:52 PM

Quote:

Quote:

I will be mounting the 80mm on top of my 6" SCT until I deploy next year when I will take the 80mm with me. I plan to get a small GEM for the deployment.

My concern is that when you put that 80mm on top of the 6SE, you are creating a long lever arm, the weight of the scope and mounting far from center. The C6 weighs about 10lbs, when all is said and done, the 80mm and mount might weigh 8 lbs or even more and being off-center, it would dramatically increases the forces on the mount.

I am not sure how well the SE mount would handle both of them.

Jon

i am quite sure it will not handle it well

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Scott Beith
SRF

Reged: 11/26/03

Loc: Frederick, MD

Re: Best APO under $? new

[Re: coutleef]
#5352575 - 08/05/12 02:26 AM

That was my concern as well.
When you deploy you miht want a good alt/az instead of a GEM.
Much lighter for a travel setup.

I mentioned a GEM earlier because it is possible to buy a large enough mount to handle the 6" and the refractor together.

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mitaccio
sage

Reged: 03/17/09

Loc: Oahu, Hawaii

Re: Best APO under $? new

[Re: Scott Beith]
#5352584 - 08/05/12 02:48 AM

Yeah, aperture is biggest issue for the deployment, but I also need a small mount. My other option is a set of 20x80 binos and a small tripod. I can fit all of that in a small pelican case.

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Scott Beith
SRF

Reged: 11/26/03

Loc: Frederick, MD

Re: Best APO under $? new

[Re: mitaccio]
#5352592 - 08/05/12 03:06 AM

An 80mm refractor and a good alt/az make a perfect travel setup.

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PhilCo126
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 01/14/05

Loc: coastline of Belgium

Re: Best APO under $? new

[Re: Cotts]
#5352666 - 08/05/12 06:08 AM

Quote:

An 8" Newtonian Reflector/Dob. Or an 80mm (3.1") doublet "ED APO" on the used market - many companies make these. You may even find a used triplet APO in the 80mm size for about $1000. Do you have a mount to put a refractor on? If not your budget limit will have to be enlarged.
The 8" Dob will outperform any 80mm telescope you care to name by leaps and bounds.
Dave

We're talking APO here, not about tubes of hot air which cannot be used for AstroPhotography

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RAKing
Postmaster

Reged: 12/28/07

Loc: West of the D.C. Nebula

Re: Best APO under $? new

[Re: mitaccio]
#5352829 - 08/05/12 10:10 AM Attachment (31 downloads)

I can guarantee that the 80mm apo will not work with the SE6, but either one of these OTAs works quite well on the SE mount.

You do not have to buy another mount unless you want to use them at the same time. This is a picture of my old AT80 apo. It was a great little double star scope.

Best of luck with your deployment,

Ron

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Starhawk
Post Laureate

Reged: 09/16/08

Loc: Tucson, Arizona

Re: Best APO under $? [Re: RAKing]
#5353308 - 08/05/12 02:57 PM

While no doublet can be a true APO, there are some which are amazingly good. The best bargain has to be the glass in the Orion ED80, which has also been sold as the Celestron 80ED, Skywatcher 80ED, and some others. But for visual, it works really well and is a very nice complement to a 6" SCT. The shorter ED scopes don't have quite as good a color correction, and I have used one on a single armed fork with good results.

With that said, I'm not sure I'd go one-scope with it over a 6" SCT- you'll soon find no 80mm scope can keep up with the 6" SCT on planets or lunar observing.

You'll get to max magnification, and you'll see the sky would allow more if you could go just a bit further.

-Rich

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Jon Isaacs
Postmaster

Reged: 06/16/04

Loc: San Diego and Boulevard, CA

Re: Best APO under $? [Re: Starhawk]
#5353706 - 08/05/12 07:52 PM

Quote:

While no doublet can be a true APO, there are some which are amazingly good.

OK...

Once everyone agrees on what a "true apo" is, then we can work on whether a doublet can be a "true apo."

Jon

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tomharri
sage

Reged: 09/19/08

Loc: Arizona

Re: Best APO under $? [Re: Jon Isaacs]
#5353815 - 08/05/12 09:19 PM

I don't know but I've been told- all that chinese stuff is junk.

But then I found a 90mm Burgess f/6.7 triple and all its clones to be really good. Went to 300x on Mars with a Nagler 2-4 zoom and could see good details. Almost, dare I say it, Takahashi-like.

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