Quote:
Originally Posted by robz
Someone once said to me : '' if I were to go back before I bought and collected all my various scopes and spent the money on the ultimate scope, it would have been a TAK 150 and I would be done.......... and in heaven ever since''
Yeah well I can't afford a ''TAK'' and would be looking at ED's and APO's that are affordable and still perform well.
We can support or slam the Refractor as much as we want, but deep down inside, we all know how extraordinary they can be............... 
What''s the use of aperature when high power won't work due to temperature equalisation problems, sub standard optics and mis-collimation when ever a passing bat farts? |
The Tak150 is a superb refractor that will offer excellent views more consistently (generally speaking) than a Dob with large aperture on low contrast objects such as planets, or splitting doubles. But for the same price you can get a premium 15" dob which will blow the Tak out of the water on dso (every time) and on planets when seeing permits, there's no ifs or buts about it. Had this not been the case, there would be no point in people purchasing 20"+ dobs. It's not all about high power! Collimation is no where near as bad as some people make it out to be (trust me I've been there).
Unfortunately your going to have to compromise on something with each scope, that's the reality of this hobby. I've bought and sold so many scopes over the years that I've realised you can't have one that does it all (yes even an SCT is full of compromises). It takes time to work out what your observing habits are like and from there, you can settle on a scope which would best suit your observing needs.
I personally think the best combination is a 100-120mm refractor with a 10-12" dob. Those two scopes will cost less than an 11" SCT!
Best of luck.