Does a refractor spotting scope produce a better image than a catadioptric scope?
May 5, 2010 by
Filed under spotting scopes
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3 Responses to “Does a refractor spotting scope produce a better image than a catadioptric scope?”Speak Your Mind
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Depends but I would say for the same amount of money a Catadioptric would produce a better image. The reason being a refractor inherently has chromatic aberration unless expensive glass is used. Probably the best surveillance scopes are catadioptrics. Maksutov-Cassegrain telescopes made by Questar
are cats. The Meade ETX telescopes are also Maksutovs.
I prefer refractors as spotting scopes because they have lower magnifications and wider fields of view than catadioptric scopes. High magnification spotting scopes usually have very blurry images because of atmospheric turbulence.
IMHO,
I’d rather use a refractor for a spotting scope and a catadioptric scope (like a Schmidt-Cassagrain for the main scope. Additionally, a catadobptric spotter scope would be much more expensive to build (and thus more expensive to buy) that an simple refracting spotter scope.