Apo vs prime lens vs Maksutov (dkamen)

Apo vs prime lens vs Maksutov

With the full moon and a very cloudy/rainy weather it is not really possible to do serious imaging, so I played with my Mak. Took it out, visually observed the moon and M42. Then I figured "let's plug the camera and see what happens" and started taking 8 second subs @ISO1250, unguided, with very rough PA (perhaps 1 degree off). To my amazement they weren't so bad. But I made me wonder: how *exactly* "not so bad" compared to my normal gear?

So here it goes. Same camera, same location, pretty much the same (high) light pollution, three different optics:

-TS Optics 60/360 apo with flattener. (60 second subs, guided)

-Samyang 135mm wide open (f/2) (30 second subs, unguided but tracked with good PA)

-90/1250 Mak (8 second subs -some 15 second-, unguided, bad PA)

The images have been scaled to the Samyang's resolution (since it has the widest field). I included unprocessed (STF) images, artifical luminosity channels and stretched, "final" images with an identical basic workflow (color balibration, masked stretch, HDRMultiscale, curves).

The Samyang is doing very well in terms of "seeing the colours" in the nebulosity, but the stars are too fuzzy and bloated (which is normal for a wide open lens). The Mak has good detail but the darkest image (both expected from a 90mm - F/13 instrument). The Apo has the best combination of detail and colour depth so it is the clear winner.

Still, I think that at one quarter the cost, the little Mak gives the two astrographs quite a run for their money.

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Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
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Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

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