Hi Matt
I haven't taken any planetary images since first sticking my MX716 CCD on the scope back in 2003 for Mars. I was a complete novice at imaging at that stage and only took three images in total, here are two of them:
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike20...56901005/small
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike20...6900971/medium
Visually the scope is as good as I could imagine a SCT being...?
I have been very pleased with the optical quality.
I haven't star tested it but as an indication, visually I have seen detail inside the red spot, picked up Red Spot Junior and split 0.6" separated double stars!
One night of observing from Mt Campbell Observatory, in excellent seeing conditions, the president of the Canberra Astronomical Society, Andrew White and I had both my 6" Astrophysics Starfie APO and the 12" LX200GPS working on the same objects. It was one of those amazing nights (that were rather frequent at Mt Campbell actually) and after careful scrutiny going back and forth between the scopes, we both agreed that although it was very close, the view of Jupiter through the 12" was superior!
I can give you Andrews contact details if you like and he can confirm this - he was totally blown away actually!
So....is performance better than a AU$12000 6" APO good enough for you?
Mike
