A friend of mine has both the 12" LX200 and the 7" APO refractor. Before I got my 12" I went over his house, he set up both scopes and we compaired. Given the choice, it would be a difficult decision which one to go home with. There were no planets out that night to compare with. On globular clusters, the 7" looked spectacular. The stars around the edges focused just so small, it was amazing. There were no stars at all resolving in the center. In the 12", around the edges there was plenty of resolution of tiny stars, a powdery effect, but not like the refractor. It resolved finer details around the edges. But in the center, the 12" showed many stars resolving, way more than the 7". Here's what I believe is happening. Lets say, for example, on the edge there are hundreds of stars around 12th magnitude. The refractor can seperate them, the SCT can't. In the center there are stars way above 12th magnitude, the 12" SCT can resolve dimmer stars than the 7", so there are more stars resolving in the center. The backround looks much darker in the refractor. We looked at a small edge on galaxy about 10th magnitude. It was sharper in the refractor, brighter in the SCT. It was clear, there would be more items visible in the 12" over the 7", but for what you could see in the refractor, you'd get a sharper image. Which scope is better? It's a personal choice. The 7" refractor is almost twice the price of the 12" SCT once you add the computer drive and stuff (read the fine print, it dosen't come with it). Again, it would be a tough choice which one to bring home. But for the same price as the 12" LX200 you can only get the 5" APO refractor. With that in mind, the decision was easy.
That's it;
BOB SAL

• Wow - robertko2 - January 16, 2002 - 23:46 UTC
  • Obstruction - robertko2 - January 17, 2002 - 18:57 UTC