[Aavso-photometry] binning considerations

[Michael Koppelman]

Lots of people use and love the SCTs. I'm a Tak man, myself. The  
optical and mechanical quality is superb. The main drawback for the  
SCTs, IMHO, is they are slow (f/10). I'm running a Tak CN-212 in  
Newtonian mode at f/4. It's a great scope for photometry. It can also  
switch to Cassegrain mode at f/12. I looked at the Mewlons, too, but  
was scared that it was too slow, giving me a really small FOV. Having  
a large FOV has a lot of advantages for finding suitable comp stars  
and guide stars.

Your point about no glass is a good one, too. My CN-212 has a glass  
corrector after the secondary.

M.
http://www.lolife.com/astronomy/


On Jun 11, 2007, at 1:14 PM, David Trowbridge wrote:

> Thank you Gary and Arne for your very helpful comments.
>
> Mike, yes actually I had been looking at the Meade LX200R series. I  
> could
> get a bigger aperture for the same money with the Meade. But I  
> thought maybe
> I could do better CCD photometry (presently BVR, but extending to U  
> and I
> filters) and possibly infrared photometry (Optek's SSP-4) or  
> spectroscopy
> over a wider range of wavelengths, on a system like the 10" Tak  
> Mewlon which
> has no glass secondary (Only two mirrors in the Dall-Kirkham  
> Cassegrain). Do
> you know anyone with experience using the LX200R for photometry?