Come join the friendliest, most engaging and inclusive astronomy forum geared for beginners and advanced telescope users, astrophotography devotees, plus check out our "Astro" goods vendors.
Come join the friendliest, most engaging and inclusive astronomy forum geared for beginners and advanced telescope users, astrophotography devotees, plus check out our "Astro" goods vendors.
(Cross-posted to the AP section... but this subforum gives me a different sample of users. )
Hello to all,
If you know me, you know I like my fracs.
I typically use my Stellarvue 70mm apo for astro work - its my only AP scope and I have been gathering images for about 8 months. I have about 6 months of guiding under my belt, and the rig works fine.
My rig -
Mount: NEQ6
Camera: Canon 60D and a new 2600MC pro.
At this point, galaxy season is coming. I want to get a scope with more reach for DSOs. A friend of mine has a c8 edge HD (6 months old) and the dedicated reducer for sale for a good price. My friend bought a larger scope.
I have no experience using SCTs, I have been a refractor person up to now.
Before this deal came along, I was thinking to buy a 120 mm SW Esprit, but this new offer is literally 40% of the price. Of course the Esprit is way more money, but I want to check in here to see whether anyone with experience with the edge HD for galaxy AP work has compared them to a refractor: any and all thoughts on this are appreciated.
Thanks,
Ian
Ian
Fracs: Stellarvue 70T f6; SW 120mm Esprit f7; "Mark Mk. II" - 60 mm Tasco f6; C80 frac f 11.4
SCT: C8 Edge f10 or f7 with reducer
Dob: 14.5" homebuilt strut dob (f4.5 ZOC mirror), Nexus II, Moonlite focuser
Mounts - Ioptron Skyguider pro, Astro Physics GTO900
Cameras and lenses - ZWO 2600 mc, 290 mm mini, Canon 60D modded with Rokinon 10mm 2.8; Rokinon 135mm f2
Skysafari 6 Pro, Astro Pixel Processor, Pixinsight - using Mac tablet and ASIair pro to run the AP rig.
"Mothers! It is there!" - Rafael Gonzales-Acuna, 2018.
I’ve no recent (i.e. digital) experience doing AP. Almost all my AP experience is decades old and analog. (Glass plates I kid you not.) I do have visual experience using a 120mm Ed doublet and a 9.25 Edge. I’d give the edge to the Edge.
Scopes: Refs: Orion ST80, SV 80EDA f7, TS 102ED f11 Newts: AWB 130mm, f5, Z12 f5; Cats: VMC110L, Intes MK66,VMC200L f9.75 EPs: KK Fujiyama Orthoscopics, 2x Vixen NPLs (40-6mm) and BCOs, Baader Mark IV zooms, TV Panoptics, Delos, Plossl 32-8mm. Mixed brand Masuyama/Astroplans Binoculars: Nikon Aculon 10x50, Celestron 15x70, Baader Maxbright. Mounts: Star Seeker IV, Vixen Porta II, Celestron CG5
notFritzArgelander wrote: ↑Fri Jan 29, 2021 7:33 pm
I’ve no recent (i.e. digital) experience doing AP. Almost all my AP experience is decades old and analog. (Glass plates I kid you not.) I do have visual experience using a 120mm Ed doublet and a 9.25 Edge. I’d give the edge to the Edge.
Thanks not_Fritz!
Ian
Fracs: Stellarvue 70T f6; SW 120mm Esprit f7; "Mark Mk. II" - 60 mm Tasco f6; C80 frac f 11.4
SCT: C8 Edge f10 or f7 with reducer
Dob: 14.5" homebuilt strut dob (f4.5 ZOC mirror), Nexus II, Moonlite focuser
Mounts - Ioptron Skyguider pro, Astro Physics GTO900
Cameras and lenses - ZWO 2600 mc, 290 mm mini, Canon 60D modded with Rokinon 10mm 2.8; Rokinon 135mm f2
Skysafari 6 Pro, Astro Pixel Processor, Pixinsight - using Mac tablet and ASIair pro to run the AP rig.
"Mothers! It is there!" - Rafael Gonzales-Acuna, 2018.
As time goes on, I find myself less enamored of SCTs / Maks and more strongly a frac boy. YMMV.
============================================================================= I drink tea, I read books, I look at stars when I'm not cursing clouds. It's what I do. =============================================================================
AT50, AT72EDII, ST80, ST102; Scopetech Zero, AZ-GTi, AZ Pronto; Innorel RT90C, Oberwerk 5000; Orion Giantview 15x70s, Vortex 8x42s, Navy surplus 7x50s, Nikon 10x50s
My experience with astrophotography comes from the analog era, the middle ages. But some things don't change. The Esprit has a focal length of 840mm, compared to the Edge 1260mm (with 0.63 focal reducer). What I know about astrophotography, the latter demands a lot more from the accuracy of the mount. On the other hand in the Edge the smaller galaxies will become 1,5 X their size (lineair) compared to the Esprit.
Bad seeing in the optical tube will be higher in the Edge. Star points are better defined in the Esprit.
But ok, I'm a refractor boy after all.
Refractors in frequency of use : *SW Evostar 120ED F/7.5 (all round ), * Vixen 102ED F/9 (vintage), both on Vixen GPDX. GrabnGo on Alt/AZ : *SW Startravel 102 F/5 refractor( widefield, Sun, push-to), *OMC140 Maksutov F/14.3 ( planets). Most used Eyepieces: *Panoptic 24, *Morpheus 14, *Leica ASPH zoom, *Zeiss barlow, *Pentax XO5. Commonly used bino's : *Jena 10X50 , * Canon 10X30 IS,*Swarovski Habicht 7X42, * Celestron 15X70, *Kasai 2.3X40 Rijswijk Public Observatory: * Astro-Physics Starfire 130 f/8, * 6 inch Newton, * C9.25, * Meade 14 inch LX600 ACF, *Lunt. Amateur astronomer since 1970.
pakarinen wrote: ↑Sat Jan 30, 2021 2:25 pm
As time goes on, I find myself less enamored of SCTs / Maks and more strongly a frac boy. YMMV.
I've always loved the crisp image quality provided by decent refractors, but being a galaxy hunter I really need the aperture of my SCT, despite the softer image.
Gordon
Scopes: Meade LX10 8" SCT, Explore Scientific AR102 Refractor on ES Twilight 1 Mount, Oberwerks 15X70 Binos, Nikon Action Extreme 10X50 Binos.
Eyepieces: ES 68* 24mm, ES 68* 20mm, ES 82* 11mm, ES 82* 8.8mm
Observing: Messier Objects--110/110, H1 Objects-- 400/400. Hundreds of additional NGC Objects. Significant Comets: Kohoutek, West, Halley, Hyakatake, Hale-Bopp, McNair, Neowise. Transits of Mercury and Venus.
2017 Total Solar Eclipse
For visual galaxy hunting aperture is the most important factor. I love my fracs, but for galaxies 9.25" is the weapon of choice. Our local 800 strong astro club is dominated by AP people and 90% of them use large SCTs, vanilla or Edge.
So here is a different take; if the deal on the Edge is that good (you mention 40%), then it is the equivalent of Gold out there right now. You can always quickly sell the OTA/reducer online at a good price (quite possibly more than you paid). The Edge is a well constructed instrument, all the attachments/adapters are well known, and you would be imaging in no time.
Shortages in the retail space are real. These used OTAs sell very quickly online. It is a very low-risk decision.
I would give it a try, like right around now. After a few sessions, you may just want to switch back to the frac.
Meade 6", 8", and 10" SN, Meade 10" f/6.3 Lx200, ES ES-102, Meade 90mm DS-2000, Celestron CPC-800 HD, Celestron , AVX, CGEM-DX, Twilight I mounts. Omegon 2.1x 41mm Binocs.
Hyperstar for EdgeHD, ZWO and Celestron Nightscape CCD. A fully-functional Meade 12" RCX-400.
Ian,
If you were doing visual, I would say go for the C8. Photographically, the wider field of the frac, combined with a good field flattener, might be worth considering. For really faint galaxies, aperture is king but for photographing mid-brightness galaxies, the refractor might be worth considering.
Also look at the weight of each OTA. Some fracs are very heavy.
Cheers
Joe
Amateur astronomer since 1978...................Web site :http://joe-cali.com/ Scopes: ATM 18" Dob, Vixen VC200L, ATM 6"f7, Stellarvue 102ED, Saxon ED80, WO M70 ED, Orion 102 Maksutov, ST80. Mounts: Takahashi EM-200, iOptron iEQ45, Push dobsonian with Nexus DSC, three homemade EQ's. Eyepieces: TV Naglers 31, 17, 12, 7; Denkmeier D21 & D14; Pentax XW10, XW5, Unitron 40mm Kellner, Meade Or 25,12 Cameras : Pentax K1, K5, K01, K10D / VIDEO CAMS : TacosBD, Lihmsec. Cam/guider/controllers: Lacerta MGEN 3, SW Synguider, Simulation Curriculum SkyFi 3+Sky safari Memberships Astronomical Association of Queensland; RASNZ Occultations Section; Single Exposure Milky Way Facebook Group (Moderator) (12k members), The Sky Searchers (moderator)
I’ve gone back to frac’s for me the simplicity of lenses over mirrors is part of it. The other part is that I don’t see myself pushing for faint galaxies. I may try on my SE6, but I expect it is aperture limited. Not looking to purchase any new scopes for sometime.
My wife made a veiled threat, that she had “always wanted eunuch slave” , I think .
Greenman wrote: ↑Tue Feb 02, 2021 1:15 pm
I’ve gone back to frac’s for me the simplicity of lenses over mirrors is part of it. The other part is that I don’t see myself pushing for faint galaxies. I may try on my SE6, but I expect it is aperture limited. Not looking to purchase any new scopes for sometime.
My wife made a veiled threat, that she had “always wanted eunuch slave” , I think .
Yes, not really in my future plans.
It is not just faint galaxies. For visual larger aperture shows more details in brighter DSOs.
What is that about wives and telescopes? Would they prefer us to have bar crawl as a hobby?
Bigzmey wrote: ↑Tue Feb 02, 2021 6:25 pm
Would they prefer us to have bar crawl as a hobby?
I gave that up a couple of decades ago but with the proper training and ramp-up, I think I could compete in my age group.
============================================================================= I drink tea, I read books, I look at stars when I'm not cursing clouds. It's what I do. =============================================================================
AT50, AT72EDII, ST80, ST102; Scopetech Zero, AZ-GTi, AZ Pronto; Innorel RT90C, Oberwerk 5000; Orion Giantview 15x70s, Vortex 8x42s, Navy surplus 7x50s, Nikon 10x50s
Greenman wrote: ↑Tue Feb 02, 2021 1:15 pm
I’ve gone back to frac’s for me the simplicity of lenses over mirrors is part of it. The other part is that I don’t see myself pushing for faint galaxies. I may try on my SE6, but I expect it is aperture limited. Not looking to purchase any new scopes for sometime.
My wife made a veiled threat, that she had “always wanted eunuch slave” , I think .
Yes, not really in my future plans.
It is not just faint galaxies. For visual larger aperture shows more details in brighter DSOs.
What is that about wives and telescopes? Would they prefer us to have bar crawl as a hobby?