Northernlight

Anyway back to the topic at hand, if you had the choice, would you buy the Lacerta or the ONTC. The ONTC seems a bit more robust with a much thicker tube and papers to have a better quality mirror cell. The Lacerta has a good focuser and sounds like they put a lot of effort into tweaking and testing the scope, but the stock gso / skywatcher mirror cells worry me. Rich.

Does the focal ratio or optical design for a given aperture change these figures, e.g 150mm doublet @F8 vs a 150mm triplet at F7 Cheers, Rich.

That mirror looks like the coating has broken down, so optically speaking the surface will be very rough.

John. Apologies if i have upset you. I dont want to upset anyone on the forum, and i genuinely do appreciate everyones input. From time to time people can have differing opnions and that's ok as it's what an open discusion forum is for. So thankyou for your input thus far, i meant no offence. Richard.

John, I appreciate he's you're friend and you're sticking up for him, but i'm entitled to express my views as i see them from my side of the fence as it were. I wasn't personally attacking peter as i'm sure he's a great guy, I'm just saying that from my point of view, if you're going to repond to someone then i'd rahter them just to say that they are busy and they'll get back to the person for a porper discussion at a later date, or just not repond at all until they are ready. At the end of the Day i was simply asking for information on his Current N-Series of scopes, He didn't answer my questions - so i simply rule out his scopes as a possible option. There is no ill feeling towards peter or his company or the scopes he makes as i dont know enough about them.

Peter sent me a bit of a vague short response, saying that he can only offer Pyrex mirrors and standard 2" focusers but did not state the type and then suggested that I needed a more premium scope than he can offer. I appreciate he is busy, but have to say I was a bit disappointed by his lackluster response. Going to mull it over tonight and just go for the ONTC or Lacerta and place and order tomorrow

Ouch.......that's a lot of extra cash To spend to put a 2k scope right. I think that's why I like the idea of TS UNC and ONTC scope as their tube walls are 5mm & 7mm respectively, so super thick rigid tubes, which should be good for imaging. The Lacerta tubes are only 1.5 - 3.0mm, so way too thin in my book. Waiting to see what 656imaging can offer, but no response as yet. Rich.

I know Lacerta flock the scopes, and blacken the edges of the primary and secondary. They also mask off a tiny bit of the primary mirror to reduce halo / diffraction effects from the main mirror clips.

Hi Mark, I see you have a CT10. I looked at those but read a few reports about the focuser not being great and that the tube was not thick enough and flexed around the focuser so ruled it out. Nearly bought one secondhand but the seller was a bit funny to deal with a refused to accept PayPal as the payment method, and started acting a bit odd when I said I wasn't willing to do a direct bank transfer. I like like the looks of the Lacerta newts, but they are asking premium price, yet the primary mirror cell is the same stock low quality SW/GSO one used on the SW Quattro and I believe it's also the same secondary too, and seeing a scope is only as good as it's weakest part. I do however like the Quartz mirror option. The ONTC model has a superb 7mm thick tube, a really good primary & secondary mirror cells and they install whatever focuser you want, however I noticed they are using Pyrex mirrors on the F4.7 model, and seem to only do quartz mirrors in their F4 configurations. Both workout pretty much the same price, so I am torn.

Don't think I would ever pay over £2500 (€2900) for a Newtonian.

Yeah just found them, and they want between 4500-6500 euros, for a 10" newt. think I'll pass on those then lol

Thanks Astrobug, but it looks like that French site only does entry level steel tube newts. I've messaged peter at 656imaging to see what he can offer, as there is no real detail on his website, I.e what focuser he uses, how thick the carbon tube is etc. Also noted that he uses Pyrex mirrors which is a bit disappointing given the £2000 price point. For that price range I would expect quartz mirror substrates, but I'll wait and see what he comes back with.

Sod it, I'm up for a challenge, 10" F5 newt with quartz mirror @ half the price and double the trouble

So Olly can I also send my wife in your direction when she finds out that I spent a small fortune.......Olly made me do it. My wife's pending rage aside, I genuinely can't decide between a 150mm apo and a 10" newt

Well not quite made my decision yet, but it's certainly helped, so many thanks for presenting your images. Unfortunately like most things in Astronomy the more you dig the more worms you unearth. Whilst I know in my heart a 150mm would be the easier option, and would be very much plug and play in comparison to a newt, I'm now faced with the question : - do I want to pay £2,000 or £4,000 for a scope.