“Your Favorite” or “The Best” Telescope for Visual

I have been dreaming of building an observatory. I’m interested to hear opinions on what great telescopes are out there for visual use (no photography as I prefer sketching). Binoviewing is required--either a binocular telescope or a binoviewer. Here are some of my initial thoughts:

Celestron 14” SCT
Tele Vue 5” Refractor
Questar 7” Mak

For visual use, I would like to minimize chromatic aberration, maximize contrast, and maximize sharpness. I would say 50% of my observations are planetary, 40% deepsky, and 10% lunar/solar.

I found an interesting review comparing a C14 to a Questar 7. Per the reviewer, while the C14 obviously beats the Q7 in pure light-gathering power, the Q7 exhibited superior contrast.

Interested to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

A well corrected Newtonian design at least 10" aperture, with premium mirror like Zambuto, Lockwood , Lightholder, or Royce Conical. Used with a premium binoviewer.
A dob with Servocat is much more portable than a beefy EQ mount. But....
An EQ mount you can try different scopes until you find one you like.

If you dont want a newt: Tak Mewlon, Celestron Edge 11, any AP, TEC, or Tak refractor.

It's been my experience that a good binoviewer will improve the view dramatically with an average scope, and is a better investment than changing OTA's; aperture usually wins, provided it's cooled and collimated.
Good Luck!

Paul Knight said:

I have been dreaming of building an observatory. I’m interested to hear opinions on what great telescopes are out there for visual use (no photography as I prefer sketching). Binoviewing is required--either a binocular telescope or a binoviewer. Here are some of my initial thoughts:

Celestron 14� SCT
Tele Vue 5� Refractor
Questar 7� Mak

For visual use, I would like to minimize chromatic aberration, maximize contrast, and maximize sharpness. I would say 50% of my observations are planetary, 40% deepsky, and 10% lunar/solar.

I found an interesting review comparing a C14 to a Questar 7. Per the reviewer, while the C14 obviously beats the Q7 in pure light-gathering power, the Q7 exhibited superior contrast.

Interested to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

If I had to choose amount your three, it would easily be the C14. For visual use it will blow your other contenders away. Easily.

Paul Knight said:

I have been dreaming of building an observatory. I’m interested to hear opinions on what great telescopes are out there for visual use (no photography as I prefer sketching). Binoviewing is required--either a binocular telescope or a binoviewer. Here are some of my initial thoughts:

Celestron 14� SCT
Tele Vue 5� Refractor
Questar 7� Mak

For visual use, I would like to minimize chromatic aberration, maximize contrast, and maximize sharpness. I would say 50% of my observations are planetary, 40% deepsky, and 10% lunar/solar.

I found an interesting review comparing a C14 to a Questar 7. Per the reviewer, while the C14 obviously beats the Q7 in pure light-gathering power, the Q7 exhibited superior contrast.

Interested to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

If I am picking from your list (and from just about any reasonable list) it would be the C14....matter of fact if you replaced the C14 with a C11 my answer would still be the same.

Hi Paul,

For lunar and planetary my favorite scope has always been a refractor. But I am planning an observatory around a 16" Royce Dall-Kirkham and if I did not already own it, I would buy the C14 Dr Clay has listed on Astromart in a heartbeat. Great aperture, great optics for essentially any astro interest. The number of very happy C14 owners out there speaks volumes.

Larry

Thanks all for your replies!

I've used the Q7 (borrowed from work) and most other types of scopes for everything from solar to moon and planet and deep sky. But by far my favorite all-purpose scope was a 17.5-inch Dobsonian in a nice 12-foot dome in the back yard. The trick was to use it full-aperture for Deep Sky (awesome!) and to pop a 6.5-inch off-axis stop over the front for high-res planetary. I would just rotate the stop with one hand to find the best wavefront and the planets were then every bit as good as the best apos. 6.5-in of fully apo unobstructed aperture. And then I could pop off the stop to see e.g. Saturn's moons pop into view because of the immense light grasp. The stop was made of black Styrofoam and weighed almost nothing. Best of all - the scope was inexpensive and user friendly. Setting circles allowed me to locate objects without even using the finder scope. I use a 29-inch now and intend to upgrade to a 36... but honestly, the 17.5 Dob was the most satisfying bang for the buck. Tom Dey