After 5 long months of waiting, my order from Planewave Intruments finally arrived today.
After many many months of comparing scope designs and looking thru many more, i found the CDK produced the best images out of the box. The RC came close second, but it required the added expense of the field flattner and in turn reduced the imaging circle too much for me. The extra 20K diddnt do much to tempt me either !
I almost went for the Tak Baker RC, but it was too small and i needed size.
I visited a freind of a friend in the States some time ago who had one of the first CDK telescopes, and once i looked thru it and had a look at the image and collimation abilities, i was sold.
I have been bragging about this design for over 2 years, and finally put my money where my mouth is. After 2 years of saving up, i finally splurged. Thank kripes i did it when the dollar was better, as i would be paying $31 K more today. I was actually tempted to cancel the order and pocket the $31K after the refund, but i stuck to my guns.
The scope came in a crate that was very well put together, and firm.
An added benifit was the shock dye sensors place around the scope to make sure that there was no drop that went unnoticed.
Then there is the Mathis MI-750 mount. My god, it looks smaller in the pictures, but when next to it, its HUGE, and i know huge, i had a 22" fork mounted newtonian.
Its going to take longer than i thought to put this baby up and running.
Explains why the shipping weight was 440 Kg.
I'll update as i put together this behemoth.
Theo