Planewave Instruments sells some rather expensive (at least, by most amateur standards) telescopes. Interestingly, they've just cut their prices quite a bit on several of their telescopes. See
https://planewave.com/2020/07/13/planew ... -products/ (Scroll down to the list of new prices.)
Their smallest
OTA is a 12.5" CDK. They've cut the price nearly 20%, so now it is "only" $8.5K. Might it be fair to compare it to a similarly-sized CDK, the Takahashi Mewlon 300, at $15K? Indeed, a Takahashi Mewlon 250CRS is ~ $8K. Would you rather have that or a Planewave 12.5" CDK?
The planewave website says, concerning the 12.5" CDK, that it "provides excellent imaging with large format
CCD cameras while remaining superb for visual use." I wonder if the "superb for visual use" statement may be a bit forward thinking, since I find little evidence that anyone typically uses and/or brags about the performance of these scopes for
visual astronomy. But if they do (or if they should), then should I be adding a Planewave 12.5" CDK to my list of to-dream-for folded-optics scopes for visual use, in a home observatory, at:
viewtopic.php?f=71&t=9584&hilit=request
?
BTW, does anybody on-board here at
TSS own (or have significant experience with) a Planewave CDK, and if so, what do you think of it? Finally, do you like it for
visual use?
Thanks!
p.s. Found this:
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/6059 ... ?p=8635707
* Meade 323 refractor on a manual equatorial mount.
* Celestron C6 SCT on a Twilight 1 Alt-Az mount
Prof. Barnhardt to Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still: "There are several thousand questions I'd like to ask you.”