Hi Dave,
i've only had mine a short time but i've been very impressed with it, its certainly a nicely made ota.
instead of telling you whats great about it i think ill tell you what i think could be improved.
well, the focuser is the only thing i can really fault..
not that i have any real problem getting focused, the problem is more with the screw on fittings and the danger of dropping your camera or cross threading in the dark. the problem could easily be solved with a low profile 10:1 focuser but if your serious about imaging you'd probably get one anyway.
as for the coma corrector ive seen a lot of imagers using the baader mpcc and they look like they do just fine to me, the paracorr might be better for visual (i know they sell an imaging one) but the mpcc is in front for me because its cheaper and doesn't affect the focal length.
although i cant see coma overwhelming my images, i think my poorly framed omega cent image would show just how much coma there was.
when it comes to it though i wont buy one unless i see that i need it, no point having one in there if you don't really need it, not saying they are a bad idea but i wont spend the money unless i really have to.
also the ota is fantastic for visual observing too, especially with my 24mm Panoptic, huge field and the thick 3 vane spider gives excellent diffraction spikes, i wasn't a huge fan of open clusters before but i think i've changed my mind.
i've posted a few pictures but since i havent been using an eq mount for long (matter of fact my image of omega cent was actually the first time id ever set one up) i wouldnt use them to compare quality too much.
just to save you digging around ill attach the images ive taken so far, but by no means are they pushing the equipment to the limit, think of them more as short exposure happy snaps
im still not great at drift alignment so theres a small amount of trailing
the lagoon was i think 3x30s iso800 (clouds cut me short)
omega cent was 11x13s iso800 (my first image with a dslr/eq mount)
acrux was 1x30s iso800
this ota seems to be very capable for imaging and gives a nice wide fov,
those 3 images are the only 3 times i have actually set up and used the imaging setup so im sure its capable of much more once i get a bit more seasoned. once i master the equipment i have now ill be looking into piggybacking an ed80 for guiding and an alternate imaging scope, best of both worlds i guess.
hope that helps,
Tj
