TThanks for the suggestions, Dave.
I'd LOVE to have a 9" Santel. Wavytone has one, and OMG!!!
Drooooollllllll...
I've been bitten by the inability of being able to star test SCTs from retailers. The quality of these is not only unpredictable but the really good units are rare. They do exist, but unfortunately the exception than the norm. Now knowing the difference between exceptional optical quality (Wavy's Santel) and everything else, and what I want from the scope I'm using for my sketching, I'm not going down the new route - the price tag pf those Maks sold by Stellar Optical is just too prohibitive
So far I've had a few people offer their scopes to me. I have found two VERY bloody good scopes to far. A modest C8 (the OTA came from an old 8i outfit) & a Skywatcher 180mm Mak. I was able to see the Encke Division through both scopes!
I returned the Mak ONLY because the slightly larger aperture of the C8 allowed me to see fainter stars, but optical quality wise I couldn't separate them. If anyone is interested in a rip-snortter and modestly priced Mak, let me know and I'll pass on the details.
I have kept the C8 for the rest of my testing period as I have a couple more C8's to test and I've found an Intes 715 Mak. Hoping a couple more scopes will be offered. I'm hoping to improve upon this first C8 with hopes to match that Santel.
I've returned a couple of other scopes too.
Alex.