First, check the review of this telescope on Ed Ting's www.scopereviews.com.  Yes, this is the actual Epsilon that Ed reviewed.   Then come back!

This telescope is extremely fast (focal length 800mm, f/4) so sucks up light big time.  Because of that, imaging time is minimized compared to smaller, slower scopes.  That means either fainter stuff revealed or less time exposing, minimizing streaking.  It is made for deep sky.  And it is a joy to look through.

If you have an interest in this unit, either email me or call me.  The price of the OTA plus rings and various adapters is $2950 plus shipping mount, camera, Tak 50 refractor not included).  Pay Pal or personal check is ok.

Three caveats.

1.  You need a good mount for this unit if you plan to use it for astro-photography.  Don't buy it unless you have or plan to obtain one.  It weighs in about 30 pounds and is big.

2.   I imported it from Japan (used) and there are some scratches on the OTA but they do not affect the optics.  This is typical of many OTAs brought in from Japan.  For some reason, the Japanese tend not to protect their OTA surfaces when they screw down the clamps.  In fact, I am told that they purposely put abrasive material between the clamps and the OTA to stop slippage.  I have never needed to do that.  I suppose it could be touched up, but they are small and trivial when you see the unit sitting on the mount waiting to be used.

3.  The in-focus is minimal.  I have obtained the adapter for CCD imaging (included) which allows the CCD chip to move in quite close to the field flattener.  This works fine on the SBIG ST7/8 without the filter wheel.  I cannot speak for other CCD cameras.  If you add a color filter wheel keep in mind that the distance between the CCD chip will extend out.  The original design was for film so I expect that a film camera will not be an issue.

David Speltz
Amherst, NH
617-571-8000
mailto:david@speltz.com