Albert van Duin

Yes, it's the wide angle lens effect 😁

Hi Kinch, it's an early model Scopedome 3 meter dome. CS, Albert

This weekend I finally relocated my telescope back to my remote observatory after en extensive upgrade and the Covid pandemic. While I live in the Netherlands, my remote observatory is under darker skies just over the border in Germany, about 100km from my home. The telescope is a home built 400mm F/4.5 Newtonian, made for astrophotography. During the first years in Germany the telescope was on my 10Micron GM2000 mount, but after upgrading its weight had surpassed the 50kg mark and during testing at home it turned out the 10Micron was not quite up to this task. So after considering my options, I decided to purchase a Mesu 200 MKII, based on good experiences of some fellow amateurs. The mount may look a bit basic compared to the beautifully machined 10Micron, but it has twice the loading capacity for less than half the price. And I think the Mesu mount looks beautiful together with my scope. I saw some negative comments on the 3-point polar alignment, but I can assure you it is working superbly. With all other mounts you have to tighten locking screws after fine polar alignment, and that usually throws off the alignment again. And that makes sense, for all these adjustment points introduce extra flexure points. Not so with the Mesu mount, it is absolutely rock solid after the M12 bolts have been tightened. Never had a mount that felt more sturdy. The wedge was custom made by Lucas for my latitude (53 degrees), and you can adjust the alignment about 3 degrees. This may be less ideal for mobile AP if you travel more than 500km. But you can also order a 0-90 degree adjustable wedge if you really need it for long distance traveling. Lucas explained the polar alignment to me in the attached document. I use the mount without a pointing model, just polar aligned using the Polemaster. ACP Expert Scheduler is used for automated imaging. After starting up there will be an initial plate solve in the east, after that observing can start. When a meridian flip occurs, the object turns up very near the center of the field, and after another plate solve pointing is spot on again. Summary: I’m very happy with this mount, and also with the excellent service provided by Lucas. For astro images you can have a look at my Astrobin page: https://www.astrobin.com/users/Albert_van_Duin/ Albert Mesu Mount MKII polar adjustment.pdf