I was able to obtain a Jaegers 6" f5 refractor, along with an extra matching objective, for relatively little money recently. With a 31mm Nagler it should get nearly 3.5° TFOV! And the extra objective means there is a chance to build a bino-scope out of the pair, which would be quite amazing.
I had the refactor out last night on a totally inadequate mount, but it was enough to get the scope pointed at the sky to see what it could do. The focuser is very old and at 4" racked in height did not have enough in-focus for my 31mm or even 22mm Nagler, but I could use my 13mm Ethos. Fit just about all of Orion's sword in the view, and pretty sharp stars too (though the seeing was horrible and transparency not much better). It gave me hope that under a dark sky it will be quite good.
I've ordered a new focuser (a 2" for Newtonian, but it will work fine). I drew a ray trace on the back of some wrapping paper (which conveniently had a grid of 1" squares printed) and I am sure the tailpiece hole cut out and 2" drawtube will not clip the light path. I also ordered a light shield for the end of the tube to replace my homemade one. All that's left is an end cap to protect the objective and a mount. I've been browsing the internet to get some ideas for DIY Alt/Az mounts, since I don't want to spend much more money. I have a couple ideas. Ultimately I want to make the mount lift adjustable so I can have the eyepiece at the altitude axis, like the springsonian, and I could just sit or better yet stand to use the scope. The bino-scope is a longer term and more expensive possibility, but one I want to follow through on -- imagine the views through it...
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