What's Up? Webcast: What Makes a Premium Refractor

What's Up? Webcast: What Makes a Premium Refractor
(Episode 205)
There is a wide range of options in the refractor word. From affordable apos to world-class, larger aperture scopes. We take a look at what the high level brands offer and what makes them special.
What's Up? webcast take place right here on the Sky-Watcher USA UA-cam channel every Friday from 10am to 11am Pacific.
For more information on Sky-Watcher products please visit www.skywatcherusa.com

[@ziggyfrnds]

Thanks for doing this Kevin and team at Skywatcher. I have many years of astronomy experience myself but I still learn a lot from your videos.

[@DouglasCooper-ks4mt]

Here in Scotland, Kevin, I have the infamous Esprit 100mm Quintuplet - full frame, very sharp and flat! Also a couple of the WO 80 mm F6 Triplet Lomo Fluorite refractors you mentioned - now using with the Starizona 0.65 reducer - brilliant, though lot of cloud in Europe recently.

[@alandyer910]

Great discussion and advice! And very fair to all the companies mentioned. Thanks! 🙏

[@jimwaters304]

I am going to disagree with you on “Glass type doesn’t matter”. For many of us glass type does matter. And we are willing to pay the extra cost. I have been burned in the last 2 years purchasing triplets that didn’t stand up to high power viewing or astrophotography and ended up returning one for a refund and selling the other. Both of these companies didn’t specify glass type. The images were soft, prone to CA or they had tilt problems. IMO - companies that use higher-end glass and state this in their literature generally have better quality control. There are exceptions to this. I do own Esprit 100ED and it’s a good scope for imaging. I haven’t tried it viewing so I don’t know how much I can push the optics.

[@guzzialfa]

One thing I would need to say that differs from Kevin's POV is not to get the premium scope you can afford UNTIL you find out what it is you like to see. Go to Star Parties, use OPT ( other peoples telescopes) and see what truly tickles your fancy. Maybe visual is it, maybe imaging. It may be both and you will likely find you need different scopes to meet those needs.
I highly disagree with getting your mount and camera now. The tech changes so fast. When the field was covered with CCD cameras and now they are invariably CMOS. The other things are the mounts. When we once shared his side by side config, I did that with a Celestron CG-5 & a pair of 80 mm refractors. Now the CG-5 is the AVX. Arguably, the Strain Wave, Harmonic Gear mounts are taking over that lower end mounts.
I'd wait. Get some good astronomy rated binoculars, learn the sky and find out what you like to see.
Mounts change. I asked Vic Maris of StellarVue about a top Celestron mount or an Astro-Physics Mach 1 for a 130 mm imaging/visual scope and he said Astro-Physics all day. Now the Mach 1 is already out of production. I'll leave you with the words of Astro-Physics, Roland Christen: "The single most important item for the imager is the mount. Next comes the mount. Then comes the mount.... Get the picture?"

[@ziggyfrnds]

Although I do disagree with the "get a premium refractor, you pay for it once etc. etc." I'm a newtonian lover myself but I got a skywatcher ED80 on the used market for 300$. It's hands down the best telescope I've used (again, i'm used to newtonians....not a refractor guy). I did need to tinker with the focuser to get it to work smoothly but at least now if I somehow have the budget to get a premium refractor I'll know what to expect and will actually appreciate it. Also the refractor being easy to setup (as compared to newts, you just plop it on your mount and it just works) it's got me learning about sky conditions and seeing and transparency. Previously I was just worried about the collimation and then the mirror acclimatizing to temps and then internal reflections in the tube etc. etc. its a long list of worries :D

[@mresfahani4195]

Excellent presentation, cheers.