I am now experimenting with a short focal length 60mm refractor for wide field imaging having given up on camera lenses. This is the Telescope Service Photoline 60mm compact apochromatic refractor in combination with the matching Photoline 0.79x reducer. The objective is a 60mm apochromatic ED doublet lens with a FPL-53 element by Ohara Japan. With a native focal length of 330mm the scope has a focal ratio of F/5.5. Using the Photoline 2 inch 0.79x 4-element reducer / corrector the focal length is reduced to 260mm and the scope is transformed into a F/4.2 astrograph.
A first light image from the scope of the relatively faint emission nebula IC1396 is shown below. This is a total integration of 2 hours (6 x 20 min sub-exposures) which indicates the potential of this scope for capturing extended nebula regions at great depth with speed.
Further details of the TS Photoline 60mm refractor can be found on the
Telescope Service website. The specification of this scope is identical to the Stellavue SV60EDS and it provides an affordable alternative to the Takahashi FS-60CB.
