New Celestron 8" RASA

[Whirlwind]

So I haven't seen this mentioned and if it has apologies. However Celestron have a new version of the RASA telescope coming out.  This time in an 8" version.  It appears it is more limited in that it has a smaller flat field of view (probably not a surprise given the smaller size).  However one thing that has me more interested is that they've redesigned the focus mechanism.  There has been a discussion on this on cloudy nights and if it works as well as is stated then it could be that the need for after market focusers would be a thing of the past as there is not meant to be any residual image shift.  Although I tend to find the RASA limiting as I prefer narrowband observations it will be interesting to see whether they transpose the improved focussing system onto the Edge series.

https://www.celestron.com/products/8-rowe-ackermann-schmidt-astrograph-rasa-8

[ollypenrice]

We should, perhaps, wait until Celestron make a final decision on what the corrected field size might be. In the case of the first one there was a major revision downwards. And their hardware caused vignetting. And...

Olly

[newbie alert]

Wouldn't the central obstruction be a little too much on a 8..obviously depends on the camera being used..but seems a big jump from a 11 to a 8inch..far as I'm aware it's not been done on the 9.25..