Thanks Peter for the feedback!
Well I hope that you'd not have to move the primary mirror too much up but from my own use of the low-profile MoonLite focuser that I have for my 12" newt - it would be more likelihood that you'd need to move it up quite a bit but I'm sure you're prepared for it anyway
The TS 2.5" OAG is quite hefty indeed and is at least 31mm thick optically (from front-to-rear flange) and as you know with most refractors there's lots of back-focus so I had no problems to gain focus with the main CCD camera and the guider CCD for both my 80mm & 120mm OTAs BUT I had to fiddle around alot (in fact I had to cut the 1.25" nosepiece shorter) before I could get focus with the Orion SSAG that I was using - I however could not use the OAG with my VC200L with the FR as the back-focus distance was just too short @ aro 88mm! And I've still yet to try the 10"RC!!
However the results are very good and I've since improved my lot by using a StarlightXpress Lodestar instead and immediately I've got literally about 100 times more stars visible in PHD when compared to the SSAG - this is because "that very expensive" Lodestar is much more sensitive than the SSAG!
One point that you'll note is that sometimes the stars are longish-shaped like bananas (Brendan will confirm this - in fact the word "bananas" is his!
) and yet PHD will guide perfectly on them!! I noticed that with the Lodestar I've lost the "bananas" and now've got round stars to guide on though
!
It's a shame that you didn't realise that there were other models of the OAG available - in fact I was thinking of ordering tonite that one I showed you but when I saw your post I'm holding off till I see your results - otherwise it'll have to be very appropriate as per the title of your thread - ie Equipment Nirvana!! - yep, it never ends does it? Spenda the monee!
Looking forward to good news from your exercise in this
Good luck!
Cheers
Bill