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Sorry about this slight hijack, but Martin, I would take issue with your statement that refractors are the most versatile and popular scopes.
I don't see how a refractor of any given size is any more versatile than the
same size Newt, and in large sizes[6" and up] can be very cumbersome, and need a huge tall tripod to avoid lying on the ground to view through it.
Popularity wise, for AP you are probably right, but for visual I'm guessing
Newts are more popular, refractors being limited in aperture.
I can understand not going near RASAs and RCs, but SCTs and Maks?
Some targets require great focal length for which a Newt is next to useless,
unless it is a very large one. Maks are arguably the finest scopes for planetary, lunar, and planetary nebula work, almost never need collimation,
and are compact, so minimal windage issues.
raymo
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