... since September and I don't rate it highly. Like you I bought it with lunar and planetary in mind but it did not meet my expectations, frankly. I also have an Orion 102ED f/7 refractor and this shows noticeably more detail on the moon and Jupiter than the 180mm Mak does. I'm using Vixen LVW eyepieces BTW.
1. Mine is not sharp, optically.
On a bright star in 9/10 seeing and with an 8mm eyepiece, just out of focus and inside focus a star test shows symmetrical concentric rings that look textbook perfect, yet as it goes through focus it will not reveal an Airy disk with rings, all I get is a fuzzy blob distinctly larger than the Airy disk should be. I have yet to put a Ronchi grating or knife-edge on it but I can guess what its going to show - a messy wavefront with a "dog-biscuit" surface. It is also unable to split double stars that are easily split by the 102mm refractor.
2. It has no ventilation and takes an hour or more to cool down. Otherwise you will have an image problem due to a current of air inside the tube; this current is easily seen in an out-of-focus star test.
3. Dovetail. Mine has a vixen dovetail which at the rear end is bolted to the mirror cell casting (OK) but at the front end it has one small bolt into the wall of the tube, which is hopelessly inadequate against the twisting forces when the scope is sideways on the mount - it flexes - visibly - and its made a mess (visible distortions) in my tube in just three evenings.
I have recently received a set of tube rings for it from Parallax, these and a decent sized plate IMHO are essential - the dovetail is hopelessly inadequate for the weight of this scope.
4. Dew. Admittedly a thick corrector has lots of thermal mass so it stays warm enough not to dew for an hour or two, but when it does its equally hard to warm it up sufficiently.
5. Focal ratio. I thought a longer focal ratio would be fine so when I saw f/15 it seemed a good idea, however not so. I'm now fairly sure that f/10-f/12 would have been a much better idea.
If I persist with this scope I'm inclined to drill holes in it and add a filter and a fan. However I am at a loss as to what to do with it as I don't have the heart to resell something that doesn't really work as it should to someone else, and the refractor outperforms it.
if you are happy to take a punt on a large Chinese Mak I'd consider either the Saxon 203mm f/12.5 one or this one
http://www.bosma.com.cn/en/product_info.asp?id=438 200mm f/12.
Alternatively I'd suggest an ED refractor around 120-130mm aperture, maybe even 150mm if you can afford it - it will get a lot more use and will perform better.
