Astro tech Ritchey chretien

[james]

Hi

Does anyone have any experience of these?

http://www.scsastro.co.uk/it020001.htm

looks interesting

James

[mickw]

Hi James,
I do not have any experience with AT scopes, but from the description it is not a true RC scope.
Meade got their bum severely bitten for misuse of the RC name, although Chris S managed to pick one up before certain Meade scopes were renamed ACF and I beleive he is happy with it.

Just be aware what you are looking at - Astro Tech, along with Meade may have a performance that is similar to RC, but it ain't RC.

[RobertM]

Hi James,

6" F9 is a bit small and slow but I think they have the right idea (the 8" is more like it !) but at that price wouldn't you be better off with an 8" f4 newt with coma corrector.  You'd need a pretty large imaging chip to take advantage of that large flat field.  It does look like a true RC though...

Cheers
Robert

[Mike]

I don't think it would be worth the cash. It's not a true RC, plus F9, as Robert says, is very slow.

What mount do you have James?

[RobertM]

They are being marketed in the US as Ritchey-Chrétien astrographs and I don't think any business there would risk a Law Suite being filed against them so I think they are true RC's.  What makes you think they aren't ?

See here

The 8" with 99% reflective coatings looks neat though it could do with an electric focusser as standard - I bet the UK price will be a killer though !

(Edited to fix URL -- Rick)

[Mike]

My apologies it looks like it is. I didn't read the text fully. However, it is extremely cheap for an RC. I am rather suspect.

[james]

I am looking at getting a Heq5 pro mount, although I do not have it yet, The 8" does look alot better but at £2049 its alot more than the 6". I was looking at the smaller scope of cost and something that is going to be easy to handle.

I am probably going to buy a wo megrez 88, but I was interested what people though about the RC, it looks like suspition and better alternatives available for astrophotoraphy.

James

[Mike]

If you are going to get the HEQ-5 then you would need a shorter focal length scope as trying to guide on a long focal length (and likely heavy) scope would be difficult with this mount. Although good mounts they are not designed to handle a lot of weight. You would be far better off going for the EQ6 or better still, depending on your budget, going for a really good mount.

[RobertM]

The 8" does look alot better but at £2049 its alot more than the 6".

As the aperture increases so does the price.  By the time you get to 10" it won't be far short of one of these http://www.rcopticalsystems.com/10inchtruss.html and I know which I'd rather have given half the chance (being single would help a lot !)...

[mickw]

being single would help a lot

Robert, if you got one, I'm sure it wouldn't take long