From: "Dan Chaffee" 
To: 
Reply-To: "Dan Chaffee" 


Hi John,

>Good points you made. I myself have nothing against looking in a non-folded
>refractor. Indeed, I have seen only two 8"ers that outperform my 8" f/8
>Newt. One is an 8" f/10 Newt, the other is one of those new
8" f/very-long
>refractor jobs from Germany. At a cost reputed to be near $2000 per inch
>(over $3000 per inch counting the mount) the refractor only barely beats
the
>Newts.

$3000/inch?? It must have had some special glasses; D&G are asking
$3500 for an 8" ($437/in) for what are some of the best achromat
OTAs availible. At any rate, it depends on what you mean by
"outperform". I don't necessarily see more detail inch per inch
in a refractor(so far), but the aesthetics of the overall image are in some
ways superior-- to my eyes. The blacks next to bright objects/regions are
definitely deeper with a refractor, giving a certain punchiness I just
don't see in even the best baffled reflectors. Images are somewhat steadier
as well unless the seeing is really good. The Moon is hands down nicer to
look at than in my big newtonian, although certainly not sharper. Saturn is
somehow a tad more 'gem-like' as well.

 Dan

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