66mm Refractors

Can someone out there please tell me what all the hype is about 66mm refractors at the moment?

My first scope, which I still have after close to twenty years, is a Vixen 60mm refractor. I took it out in the past few weeks and the views were good on the moon, but to attempt anything short of the Andromeda Galaxy and M13 is frankly a waste of time. Admittedly it is an f/10, but even an f/6 or f/7 will not show much beyond the brighter deep sky objects, I'm sure the Ring Nebula would cause severe eye strain.

I understand that they can be used as a telephoto lens and as a grab and go scope, but the views will still be small.

Is it possible that they are the latest accessory for the amateur astronomer who has everything? We're bombarded by ads for this scope and figure we must have one.

Or is there something that I'm missing?

Paul

I am not sure about the hype Paul, as I certainly have not read about 60mm refractor hype anywhere! In my books (and NOT because of the Skylux) a 70mm refractor should be considered minimum fare for stargazers. I think perhaps the 60mm refractor comes into play along the lines of guidescope astrophotography? You know, using a smaller mounted scope piggybacked on your larger scope, with a camera attached tracking an object, and thus making mount adjustments, to ensure it is centered on the intended photographed object, as seen in the better camera through the larger scope?

Seanie.

It does depend on what you want it for, doesn't it?

For instance, I might want to go on a holiday that includes a solar eclipse or a transit of Venus/Mercury but also has other interest, like I did last March/April for the March 29th eclipse. A good 66/480mm refractor would serve as both a travel scope and a decent tele lens and could be packed in the same carry on backpack as my cameras and laptop while a one for all travel tripod would easily fit in my check in luggage. I couldn't do that with a 60/600mm f10 scope.

As I discovered last March modern zoom lenses for digital SLRs suffer from zoom creep when you point them near the zenith and that 66/480mm if I'd had it would have meant getting a really good sequence of shots of the eclipse instead of just a scattering of good ones and a whole lot of fiddling in between. And it would have gotten plenty of other use because the wildlife was interesting and the nights were great.

In that context it would make sense to me but if what I really wanted was a scope for my own back yard and I was happy with the 60mm f/10 then I'd stick with it.

Hi Paul,

The hype is more to do with the proliferation of semi-apochromatic optics at an affordable price. Up to recently optics of this quality would cost a small fortune. The main progenitors, orion us, skywatcher, celestron, williams optics all produce this class in mainly 66mm and 80mm. These mainly are used for astrophotography.

Remember if your not happy with a 60mm scope visually, then a 66mm is gonna be not much better. Better go get a nich big reflector!

The small 66mm refractors, as has been already stated, offer a wider field of view when in use as a guide scope and you therefore have a wider choice of bright guide stars. When you are imaging galaxies for example with an F10 you often do not have any bright stars to guide on and the guiding software can go bananas with lower magnitude stars.
Some people are also using these refractors as their primary scope with field flatteners and large format ccds to get wide field images.
I just took delivery today of a William Optics 66SD for both of the above reasons.

Kieran

I take on board all that has been stated above. My point is that when I look in magazines and see a 66mm refractor for sale, usually for around $300 for a William Optics, that is the base price, not including diagonal or finder, you're going to need a good dielectic diagonal, and suddenly the price leaps to $500 or more. I still believe that is too much to pay for a scope that is still only 16mm larger than your finderscope.

To me it still seems that it is an item to be seen with at the star party or observing session, the astronomical equivilent of the flashy car.

To anyone out there who has bought one, then good luck to you and I hope you have many years or pleasurable observation. But let's be honest, on a starry night which are you going to bring out, the 25cm SCT or the 66mm refactor?

One last point, I still have my original 60mm refractor, but it has been overtaken by numerous other scopes in the meantime inclusing dobs, larger refractors and my current 20cm SCT, and I suppose I only keep it for sentimental reasons. On clear nights, it stays behind.

Paul