After the clouds parted (for the most part) at 12:30 this morning I decided I'd pull most of an all nighter learning the ropes.
Very brief first impressions. The tip/tilt alt/az adjustment is great! So easy to to use for fine control much like the knobs or AZ control on the EQ series. Its failing it also the AZ control as it only has 2.4º movement which is perfectly fine if you've marked the ground or have a pier but for some reason I always seem to be about 200 arcmin off with my polar alignment, maybe I just cannot aim a compass! I have seen someone putting another plate between the mount and tripod and using that for rough AZ movement.
Other than that, pointing accuracy is amazing! I suppose it really doesn't take much to move up from an EQ6 though
I got the ALT down to about 1 arcmin and AZ to 3.5 arcmin, was being lazy and wanting to see how it went with a less than perfect PA.
The following is the Helix at 12x300s and NGC 456 12x300 (will post when I get home from work). There was a little high level cloud around, more so with NGC 456. Seeing was terrible, measured 3.4" at 300s and the best I had near zenith from a 10s was 2.9".
As to how well things work in the real world outside of the "lab", well, bring on the clear skies!
