The clearest I've seen have to be the APO refractors. I saw a 7" Meade that was outstanding. I didn't see any planets in it. There were none out that night. Globular clusters looked outstanding. Stars resolving around the edge looked like powder, so small, it was amazing. Everthing looked sensational. But, with only 7" aperture, the 12" SCT resolved more stars in the center. Very sharp details on everything with the 7". I also saw a 5" and 4.7" Astro Physics APO refractors. Also very sharp. I'd say just about the sharpest scope I've seen was a Takahashi 105MM. All I saw was Saturn but it was just about the best image of Saturn I've seen. The only scope I saw a better image of Saturn was a 20" Obession. These are all very expensive telescopes, costing almost twice what I paid for my 12" SCT. But the 12" will show you quite a few more deep sky objects than the 7" and lower apertures. It's a trade off, clarity for brightness. But don't get wrong here, the 12" SCT delivers very sharp images. But the APO refractors are sharper. Like Serloin stake is good, Filet Mignon is better.
That's it;
BOB SAL

• how much was your 12" SCT? - njdevsfn95 - January 3, 2002 - 22:29 UTC
  • Meade - bobsal - January 4, 2002 - 16:22 UTC