4 Inch Refractor

[Rastis]

Hi chaps,
I see a few of you jokers have a 4 inch refractor as well as the allmighty Dob. How do they compare to the larger dobs? I like the idea of being able to use it for terrestrial viewing as well. Will it be a waste of time for star gazing? Also the Meade ETX-90 looks pretty good. Does anyone know anything about them? Would you be able to see similar objects to the 4 incher?
Be good everyone,
Rastis.

[mick pinner]

l have a couple of refractors as well as the almighty LX200, aperture will rule on everything you view because it is the light gathering capacity of a scope that gives it it's power of course combined with it's focal length.
Top end 4" refractors will cost more than a big dob because of better optics and truly top end scopes will cost more than my LX200 for that matter.
At the moment the Orion ED80 and ED100mm refractors are the best value for money small scopes you can buy, a lot of guys on the forum use them as secondary and guide scopes on their SCT's the small Skywatcher type scopes are cheap but do suffer a few problems.

[dhumpie]

I have one of them cheapie 4" ST achro's and they are great for wide field scanning and casual gazing. For planets and smallish and faintish stuff I use my bigger C6.

Darren

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Hi Rastis. I have a sweet little setup for viewing with refractors. I use the 80ED and Celestron EQ102-HD in a side by side setup. I can view nice widefield with the 80 with say a 32mm eyepiece and if I spot something interesting I can simply move my head to the side and view it at higher mag in the 4" with say a 2X barlow and whatever eyepiece I need. Or mix and match as desired. I normally use a Losmandy GM-8 mount but I've had success using an EQ3 mount (in the over under position, not as user friendly though. Plus it gets the shakes a bit at times )

[mickoking]

g,day Rastis,


I am the proud owner of an 120mm (4.7") Refractor (Skywatcher) and I think its beaut. For really faint stuff I use my 250mm Dob. But my refractor is my most used scope. In deep sky it excells with nebulae because unlike a reflector (or SCT) It has no central obstruction so the contrast is significantly higher. It is also very good for double stars, planets and other deep sky objects too.

Any refracting telescope can be used as a terrestrial scope as long as it has an inverting prism attached.

I hope this helps cobber.

[asimov (John)]

I've got a 6" achro refractor. As micko says on DSOs/nebula. It's my most used scope as well. It's my version of a quick set up & pull down scope lol.

[Starkler (Geoff)]

I have an ED80 ( yes I know its not 4 inches ) , but I find it gets very little use.
As my home location suffers moderate light polution, wide field views arent very inspiring and there simply isnt enough aperture to pump the magnification up very much before I run out of light.
My dob beats it hands down except for sharp views of brighter clusters.

[asimov (John)]

How much for the ED Geoff?

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Sorry Asimov. Im not selling as Im not prepared to take much of a loss over what I paid for it. No bargains here

[dhumpie]

I think the take home message here is that small refractors cannot be beat for wide field views and as a grab and go scope. However if you are only going to have one scope, they may not be the best (unless you get an ED or a long focal length refractor). Someone once mentioned to me that for serious planetary observations, you need a scope 4" and larger.

Darren

[Rastis]

Hi champs,
I am in the process of moving out of town (about 7 kms) so light pollution may not be so much of a problem. The problem in my mind is that a refractor looks like a telescope is supposed to look like, but the cost of a dob makes them very attractive.

[mickoking]

I think the selection of telescope is a personal desision there is no 'right' telescope to own, it is what is right for you.

[ving (David)]

or as they say "best best telescope is a telescope that gets used..."