small APO refractor.

Hello,
I am looking for a small APO refractor, size 60-80mm, Apo lens, and portable for dual purpouse,terrestrial-astronomical observation, .

I am searching advise on theme, any comment are welcome!

Thanks,
Paul

Paulo martin said:

Hello,
I am looking for a small APO refractor, size 60-80mm, Apo lens, and portable for dual purpouse,terrestrial-astronomical observation, .

I am searching advise on theme, any comment are welcome!

Thanks,
Paul

Paul: I have had a few of these, a ST-80, a TV Pronto, A Orion ED-80, and currently I have a William Optics ZS 66SD and a William Optics Megrez II FD (FPL-53). I use/used them for both birding/terrestial and astronomy.

I don't know your budget but I am quite happy with the Megrez II FD as my terrestial/astro 80mm. It has color correction that is very good to my eye... During the day, it's pretty surprising how important the color correction is, fringes get in the way of sharp images and mess up the contrast. The 80mm F/7 is a reasonable size, fits in a nice case that is easily airline portable. The sliding dew shield helps. Optically it was similar to the ED-80 but in nicer, more compact and easier to use package.

The WO-66SD is a nicely made scope and very compact, I bought it to replace the Pronto as a birding/quick looks astro scope but I have found that I prefer the 80mm, for me the 66 mm is just too small... Travel wise, the thing that uses the space is the tripod/mount so there really isn't much difference between the 66mm and the 80mm in that regard. One of these days I will sell this scope, it's mostly that it's such a cutie and the $300 I could get for it makes it hardly worth it.



That's the William Optics 80mmm Megrez II FD mounted sidesaddle on a Bogen 3040/3047.

Jon

Hi Paul,

I own and use my 70 mm f/8 and 55mm f/8 fluorites a lot for the purposes you describe. If I must go really small AND light, I use the 55 mm. Under all other conditions, I take the 70mm. Both are ultra-sharp and bright for their apertures and unfortunately no longer available. Depending on the amount of money you wish to spend, I think both the TV 76 and TV 85 are good candidates. You might consider the Lomo 80/600 triplet apo from Teton telescopes with the CNC tube. Please keep the optics around f/7 to f/8. It will do the visual image quality quite a bit of good.

Kind regards,

Erik

I own a Tak FS-60C and love it because it is small, solid and makes a good finder scope on my 6" APO refractor. I typically use it on a Bogan aluminum camera tripod for terrestrial or astro use. Also, there is an adapter to use 2" eyepieces.

If you don't have a larger telescope and are looking for one "dual purpose" terrestrial and astro scope, I would get a 80mm class scope. The Televue 76 looks great, but expensive. The Megrez 80 is probably a very good choice.

Dan

A good, small APO is something you'll likely never regret buying... I have owned over a dozen scopes and my 76mm Televue Oracle 3 is the one I cannot see getting rid of. Small, easy to setup & use, beautiful wide fields that I cannot get any other way with a scope. Under reasonably dark skies, some familiar constellations will reveal all sorts of stuff you've overlooked.

K. Michael M.

Paulo martin said:

Hello,
I am looking for a small APO refractor, size 60-80mm, Apo lens, and portable for dual purpouse,terrestrial-astronomical observation, .

I am searching advise on theme, any comment are welcome!

Thanks,
Paul