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Old 21-10-2020, 11:06 AM
jamespierce (James)
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jamespierce is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 321
Planewaves have all dropped significantly in price recently. I bought my 14 a while back via Peter - Advanced Telescope Supplies. The locals (Bintel or Peter) will generally need to give you a current price based on exchange rate etc... But you will be surprised how much shipping and import duty adds to the bill if you do it yourself - The shipping crate is ~80kg and 1.2m long! We have recovered a fair bit against the USD, and election chaos may yet work in your favor on that front.

Regardless... If I had my time again I'd think very carefully about the 12.5 - Significantly cheaper, no need for a shrowd and with the difference in central obstruction the light gathering capacity between it and the 14 is less than first appears. I went with the 14 for the slightly larger field and because I was going to put on a rotating focuser anyway for my remote setup.

However - I don't use the rotator all the time, some nights (photometry etc - not a all) and it adds heaps of complexity for sure, through planning and flats and all that. A CDK 12.5 with the included focuser would be a very very capable machine. You need better than average conditions consistently to see much practical benefit of the larger CDKs - the focal length and pixel size rapidly work against you.

To me ... a 12.5 with the reducer, EFA and Dew Controller plus and a solid modern CMOS camera would be a great setup. Their L mounts look amazing too.
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