Decided between a budget reflector and a mid-range refractor for deep sky shots.

Went with the refractor after a buddy showed me his 6 inch dob photos compared to his 80mm ED, and honestly the refractor's crisp stars made me glad I spent the extra $400 on it, has anyone else made a similar swap and regretted it or were you happy?

3 comments

3 Comments

mark_mitchell17d ago

Honestly, is it really that serious though? I mean yeah, refractors give you those crisp stars, but for deep sky you're mostly shooting faint fuzzies anyway. For the price of an 80mm ED you could've grabbed a 10 inch dob and actually resolved some detail in galaxies and nebulae, not just star fields. Tbh, unless you're pixel peeping at 100% crop every night, I bet you wouldn't notice a difference between a $400 refractor and a decently collimated reflector on 90% of targets.

amy_coleman2117d ago

@mark_mitchell's got a point, but I've been there myself and it's all about what you actually want to shoot. That 10 inch dob will kill on galaxies and globular clusters for sure, but if you're doing any kind of imaging or like to stay up late with a grab and go scope, the refractor wins every time. Ever tried dragging a 10 inch tube out for a quick session?

davis.ruby14d ago

My buddy Tom bought a 10 inch dob for galaxy hunting and it's a beast for sure, but last month we had a clear sky and he spent 20 minutes just getting it cooled down and collimated. By the time he was ready, I already had my little 80mm refractor on the Andromeda galaxy and was showing him the trapezium cluster in Orion. He was pretty steamed. Ever had a setup that just takes too long to get going?