Message posted by Chuck Clark on January 30, 2005 at 11:36:38 PST:
Regardless of price - OK. I would use an AstroPhysics 6.1 inch refractor. Refractors provide the best/sharpest images, but are quite expensive. The AstroPhysics sells for about $6400. My twenty photo series of Area 51 on this website was taken from Freedom Ridge using a TeleVue Genesis 4 inch refractor. Takahashi refractors are also excellent quality, but are slightly higher in price that their U.S. counterparts mentioned above. I wouldn't use too large of a Schmidt Cassegrain for terrestrial viewing - nothing over 8 inches I'd say. If you get too large an aperture, the images tend to be less stable due to atmospheric movement and heating within the optical tube itself. The only reason for a large aperture is to gather more light, which you don't really need for terrestrial viewing or photography.
In Reply to: Re: How do Orion Telescopes measure up posted by Hawkeye on January 30, 2005 at 10:06:09 PST:
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