[nightsky]

Originally Posted by JohnH

Sounds like value, I used mine for astrophotography for a year, piggyback and prime with a Canon 20d no less hanging off it! So it can be done, you must balance it carefully though - I made my own counterweight out of lead sheet - and I had to carefully optimise the clutches to stop slippage. I was limited to 15s at prime therfore the very brightest of DSOs only. At 30s fail rate was to high to be useable. Polar alignmnet is also very tricky due to the "wedge" design. Check out this site:

http://www.weasner.com/etx/menu.html

I also used it with an LPI for Saturn and the moon, if I were to got that way again I would use a DSI for prime for DSOs - I think you would have more fun and success that way. I have linked a few of my ETX shots:

Moon (LPI)
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/a...6&d=1121605652
PiggyBack
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/a...8&d=1130476225
and
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/a...2&d=1120655957
Prime
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/a...1&d=1119232946

Good luck with your choice, like Houghy said it is only a bargain if it meets your needs, I am not sure I would buy this just for wide field photography, you would be better with a motorised eq mount and a good lens or two on your SLR...

G'Day,
Very impressive shots M8 especially the 3rd and 4th ones