Got back late last night from the North East Astronomy Forum in Suffern, NY. As always, I had a great time interacting with the astronomy enthusiasts and checking out new and upcoming products. You’ll have to look elsewhere for photos, but here are a few of what I considered highlights:
Hercules imaging Newtonians in 20″, 16″, and 12″ at F/8. Cellular primaries, CF truss tubes. The 20″ weighs only 100 pounds! From Quebec.
http://www.telescopeshercules.com/
Rainbow astronomy had an inexpensive 12″ (I think; didn’t take notes) CDK and a sweet 80 pound capacity EQ mount (1500X slew speed!) to go with it. When I checked, only the GEM was on their site:
Skywatcher had the EQ8Pro (I guess these have been around in the other hemisphere, but it’s the first one I’ve seen) and the AZ-EQ6 GT (same situation).
ca.skywatcher.com
Ioptron had the CEM60, which looked especially attractive to me.
Two of my favorite exhibitors weren’t there – Astronomics and Officina Stellare (so no RiDK or RH models over which to drool).