This has probably been done to death before, certainly over on Cloudy Nights, but I thought I'd ask here for a local "flavour".
The basic premise is that I miss the SV110ED I sold a few months ago. It was a well-made f/7 ED doublet with FPL-51 glass. False colour was controlled very well and was easy to ignore for visual observing. I was very happy with its planetary performance in particular. It was almost exclusively used at home on a balcony.
I have an excellent C6 SCT that I now use most of the time at home. On deep sky it shows more than the SV110, which was one of the main reasons for selling the SV110. However, for star clusters and double stars the C6 lacks the contrast of a refractor (no surprise there) and is more affected by poor seeing, which is common in summer.
So I'm thinking of another refractor in the 4" range and am looking for suggestions to make sure I consider all the options. An obvious choice would be a Skywatcher 100ED but I'm not convinced about the mechanics of the standard models. The SV110ED had CNC rings, retractable dew shield and a sturdy 2.5" R&P focuser.
At the other end of the scale I've seen a few classic Taks like the FS-102 go for around $2500 here but that's a bit more than I want to spend. Budget is more like $2000 maximum. Looking at used scopes to maximise buying power.
Any thoughts based on criteria below?
- Visual only
- Decent quality 2" focuser (not the cr@ppy Crayford that's standard in a lot of scopes)
- Aperture around 100mm
- Sliding dew shield preferable
Thoughts or comments welcome.
Cheers.