C-11 or astro-tech 10" rc

[musab]

lads i know the C-11 is the best for planetery
but i want a great imaging telescope like the
RC i have seen some great images with the
10" astro-tech RC but i know the C-11 is the
king when it comes to the planets would the
RC be as good for planetery.

thank you:bashcomp:

[casstony]

The AT10RC has a much larger secondary obstruction which is a disadvantage for planets, but another serious consideration is that the C11 is much easier to collimate. The RC has an adjustable primary and secondary which must be centred on the optical axis and the distance between the two mirrors is critical - 4 seperate adjustments which must be perfect versus 1 for the C11.

[gregbradley]

It depends on your imaging goals. I think planetary versus deep sky require 2 different types of scopes. Some scopes may overlap and do both (Planewave CDK perhaps).

I imagine the 10 inch RC would outperform the C11 generally speaking. The Edge HD C11 would be closer but the RC really would be hard to beat. Thats for deep sky. The RC probably would be hopeless as a planetary scope due to the large central obstruction. At least that was my experience. The RC is really an imaging scope not visual or planetary, the C11 a great visual but not so great imaging.

SCTs have a bad reputation for imaging with mirror shift, dew on the corrector, chromatic aberration and offaxis stars bloated. The new Edge HD are new to the market relatively but from what I have seen so far seem very good.

Meade ACR's are a proven competitor to RCs. Not quite as good but not much in it at a fraction of the price unless you go Astrotech RCs. Astrotech RCs have a fixed primary.

Greg.