Mike - I've had a good think about it, even the 10" F/9 APO at 35k USD is ridiculous.. Forget that.. when for the same money you can have the Planewave CDK20... 20" F/6.8, with the 0.66 reducer ~ F/4.5 giving 2289mm FL, 0.49" per pixel. Add a mount to carry it at 18K USD and you're off and imaging with some serious hardware.. I love APO's, there is no questioning the quality... but 20" F/4.5 ready to image with a 52mm dead flat imaging circle, on a mount for $48,000 USD vs a 12" F/5 Petzval APO custom made, would have to be by LZOS/Takahashi who made it, so you're looking at easy 200,000 just for the scope, then a mount to carry it... Bah... Mirror power all the way...
Honestly, I'd have a 12" F/3.8 newt over a 12" F/5 Petzval any day...
You should come visit me in dream land.. Its fun.. although the fall back to reality sucks hard...
In reality - I'm thinking 12.5" CDK on PME or Losmandy Titan, keep using the ST8300 in it, looking at 25~28K AUD for the lot.. Even then, AT LEAST 12 months out.. Probably 2 years..
Should have the GM8 this week Trevor, and the M703 MAYBE late this week, probably early next week... The M703 will likely go onto the HEQ5 where as the TMB refractor will go onto the GM8 until I get the AN set up... The idea of manually pointing an 1800mm FL scope is a bit daunting.. The HEQ5's goto is flawless, so it can point the long scope, I'll just manually point the TMB at random patches of the milky way, lock the guiding on and expose the hell out of it..
Mwahahaha!! Two setups running concurrently! More toys than brain cells!
