Well I have decided to get a new scope with a more narrow field of view than my Tak 180ED. After a lot of calculation I felt that 900mm FL would be about the longest focal length that made sense in an urban environment. I had considered the Tak FSQ 106 but that is not that much different from the Tak 180ED so a friend suggested Stellarvue with their new 130mm refractor. A major plus is that the manufacturer is 2.5h by freeway from my house. We checked out the plant and decided to buy when we saw what was up in terms of the quality.

This is the excellent inteferometer readings from the lens.

I also bought the focal reducer if I wanted to cut down to about 700mm FL and the field flattener.

I also got the Moonlite NightCrawler focuser/rotator. Moonlite and Stellarvue have formed a partnership.

The challenges/resolutions have been:

1. Getting spacers right/Vic and Ron talk to each other over the phone (a novel idea) and they both talk to me. All the equipment comes with a myriad of spacers. Anyway, once you have the right spacers, the field is flat and the stars round.

2. Getting the rotator to work right/thanks to several people I eventually was able to take and image in my guide camera, plate solve it, and get an exact solution for TSX to identify guide stars. Also key was to realize that the ASCOM driver direction had to be revered (checkbox). The focuser worked perfectly right out of the box and the V-curves very reliable.

3. I had a problem in the Observatory with the overall length of the apparatus (my box is only 6'x6'x6.5'). I added weight on the end of the CCD and could get it all to guide. The NightCrawler handles 35 lbs+.

If anyone has any questions about the technical aspects of all this, please feel free to send me a PM. This was very challenging for me to set up, but thanks to all the folks at Stellarvue, Moonlite, ACP, Astrophysics, Diffraction Unlimited and Software Bisque, it is working.