Quote:
Originally Posted by Rigel003
I've been reading up on these of late.The last people to receive AP 160 EDFs were on the waiting list from 1999. (I've been there since 2001). However, there have been no production runs at all of the 160s since 2005 - only the 130 and 140. TECs have very high praise but are said to be optimised as visual instruments. There are quite a few photos on the web taken by the TEC 140 which is apparently not quite colour free. There are very few around from the larger TECs but I've also been disappointed with the images I've seen. In particular there seems to be quite a bloom around bright stars.
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Hi,
Interesting data about the wait list.
The TEC range is completely free. I have never read anyone who has one say otherwise. They are almost identical to the AP 155/140/130 line - FPL53 oiled triplets. I am sure you would find former AP owners who would swear their TEC was as good if not better than their AP. And vice versa. At this high level of quality it can become personal preference. Also Tak owners would also say theirs is just as good and I am sure TMB/APM owners would also assert their scopes are the best. It seems to me the differences at the high level are far less. A bit like Ferrari versus Porshe or BMW versus Mercedes.
I am not sure blooms around bright stars comes from the scope. That would be the camera, filters. Any scope will show a bloom around bright stars. That is the camera overexposing. Some scopes minimise it more than others and I'd say that is more a function of baffling and possibly light scatter. Some cameras show a bloom more than others (ST10 has microlensing artifacts).
I have seen some impressive TEC160 fluorite images. The 140 users seem to be mostly visual as you mention but there are plenty of examples. Johannes Schedler has some nice images with a 140.
Here is an example of Eta Carina with a TEC 200mm fluorite triplet (no longer made). To me this is the best image of Eta Carina by anyone.
Greg.
