Quote:
Originally Posted by nightstalker
Refractorman  ... Are you on the wait list for any other a/p scopes ?
Love it  |
I have been on the wait list for an AP160 for about 3 years now. I haven't heard of anyone receiving one in the recent past. I think Roland concentrates on a particular model for a while.
AP really don't have a wait list anymore for their mounts and could be considered to really be a mount manufacturer more than a refractor manufacturer. But Roland has posted that he does about 200 scopes a year which is nothing to sneeze at. But he does runs of particular models. He did a run of about 100 I think he said of AP140s when they were first released about a year ago.
He recently released the 130mm F6 Gran Turismo compact APO.
There are a few AP160mm around but not very many. The 155EDF is the one that comes up occassionally (one just sold on Astromart for US$9000 and I think it had a 2.7 inch focuser which would have to be replaced with a 4 inch to be ideal for imaging).
TEC is more accessible and is really the same type of scope to much the same standard. Yuri and Roland seem to be friends and Roland respects Yuri's work so that is high praise.
So if you don't want to wait get yourself a TEC. Anacortes was recently promoting they could ship 160mm or 180mm in Jan. I hope they are not selling my one! (I better call Yuri again).
A TEC160ED or even better a TEC160 fluorite would be a dream scope and no doubt matches the AP blow for blow or the differences would be minor indeed. TEC has ardent fans much like AP does.
Having said that I have not seen TEC140 images around that are as good as AP155 images. Not sure why. Perhaps the AP155 has a bit more focal length or perhaps Roland has added his own expertise to make his scopes just that more perfect for imaging as he is an imager himself.
Greg.