Quote:
Originally Posted by Startrek
Using only Newtonian reflectors for both visual astronomy and Astrophotography over the past 3 years, I’m interested to know how many beginner visual astronomers and beginner astrophotographers chose to buy a small to medium refractor telescope as their first telescope in lieu of considering a Newtonian reflectors merely on the basis of being concerned or worried about how to “collimate”
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Outcast
I bought a refractor after weighing up other considerations such as portability & weight.. whilst I would have liked an 8" dob, I didn't feel I would use it because of it's size & weight...
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In my case, I bought a Newt on a tabletop Dobsonian mount, for very similar reasons to why Outcast chose his first refractor. Size, portability, and weight.
In doing the research to build my short list of scopes to actually examine in store, I'd read about needing to do collimation on Newts and the prospect of needing to do that, didn't worry me at all.
One look at the physical footprint needed for the tripod from the SkyWatcher AZ3 mount 80x400, and 70x900 refractor sets, made it clear that the tripod for neither telescope would fit on my patio/balcony. Added to that, the physical length of the 70x900 would, quite simply be too long to use.
So the refractors were scrubbed from my list immediately.