>>> this scope cost me $1400 to assemble. That's for a 120 mm refractor! Of that, $900 was the adapter, diagonal, and focuser!>>>
I wasn't going to comment until I saw a couple of responses on what a good job this is. Because some are going to misunderstand, and perhaps spend the same amount of money, trying to get an improvement in color that isn't possible, I'm going to comment.
In our neighborhood, there are a number of kids who have taken seriously underpowered little cars, painted them red and added several hundred pounds of body modifications such as huge spoilers etc. These modifications do nothing to enhance performance. In fact, they decrease performance. But they think the car now looks fast
You haven't decreased performance, but you have spent a good deal of money without increasing it much either. Taking the time to find the best positioning of one element to the other can help some, but this is still a very fast achro with a ton of false color. Adjusting the spacing or rotating the elements, or upgrading the focuser and diagonal is never going to change that.
The diagonal you had was not the problem. By going to Maxbright, you bought a diagonal which can be safely cleaned more often, which would help by eliminating scatter. But at the low powered views you are locked into, that is not going to make a noticable difference.
You would have been far ahead to save most of the money towards another scope. If you wanted to actually reduce color, with that fast achro, I would recommend a good MV filter. You lose some information, but you will actually reduce color and it is your best option. I will add that false color is tolerated better by some. I could never look past it in a much slower scope and anything that fast drove me batty, even with the MV. Changing spacing does not reduce color, nor does rotating the elements. And of course, the famed "quality control" will not remove the color either.
Using the glasses that objective was made with, it is impossible to get down to "ZERO" color unless you are observing the very bright moon at very low power. The minute you try something else, you will discover the false color is all still there.
I'm not saying you are trying to mislead anyone, but the color did not go away. Try a higher power view of the moon and you will see it. Or look at Vega at a higher power.
I'm also not saying this is a bad scope. It is a convenient cheap scope that can have its place. The short tube lets you put it on a cheap mount and easily carry it outside. And even without your modifications, it can give pleasing very low powered views. But putting $900 into it is wasteful. For your total of $1400, you could get a much better scope than what you ended up with.
Clear Skies
Chuck Taylor
