The Apochromat Owners Are Going To Turn Purple (Not Green) With Envy



I received a threaded diagonal today, screwed in the Chromacor, set up the telescope, and aimed at Jupiter. Seeing wasn't great, largely because the moisture in the air was beginning to turn to fog, but the violet and green fringes on opposite limbs of the planet that I saw a few nights ago (signs of inadequate collimation of the Chromacor)--completely gone. Jupiter is as color-free at 286x as it would be in an apochromat. I can see (I think) more detail at 190x than I could a few nights ago with the Chromacor--and definitely more than with the uncorrected scope.



I plan to take it to the Boise Astronomical Society star party Saturday night, where we have much darker skies--and then I should see what this scope can do! I have spent about $1000 so far--about a fifth of what an apochromat of equivalent aperture would cost. I do not doubt that my scope is still inferior in mechanical quality, and perhaps even in optical quality--but from what I have seen under comparable skies, the difference in image quality is not dramatic.