Hi! I’m going to take the plunge into higher reach and is debating whether to get the SCA260 or the RC10 (f6.4 reduced) from Teleskop-Service.
The SCA would have about the same F as I’m used to from my Redcat, whereas the RC would be half as fast.
But there are lots of reports of people having issues with the SCA. What’s your experience with it?
For me, I don’t have an observatory so will be setting it up outside every night - anyone have experience with that on the SCA?
Thanks!
Really depends on what you want to do with it. The SCA will have a better time shooting with smaller pixel cameras like your 2600 while the RC10 will be a bit more finnicky with them due to enhanced seeing effect. On the flip-side, the RC10 will have better detail in smaller objects since the sampling is closer to resolving limit (seeing limited however). For wider targets the SCA may do better, but the RC10 for what I like to do at least (galaxies and PN’s), seems like the better choice.
The native focal ratio shouldn’t really matter much if you have good guiding and expose long enough.
Thanks - yeah it’s specifically PNe’s I want to be able to target since they are completely out of reach now.
Camera-wise I’m going for a new Full-Frame train regardless of which scope I end up using (possibly the 2400 or the new 4200 depending on scope).
But I worry about collimation (or rather stability of it and ease of use) since I don’t have a fixed observatory.
Do you find the RC10 to be sensitive to relocations”? Or even switching image trains? I’ll probably want to use my Player One IMX585 For some targets due its high framerate. Would switching trains throw the collimation off on the RC10? Or can you recollimate in daytime with the right tools (thus not loosing setup time when setting it up in the evening after work?
In your shoes I’d get the RC10 without reducer, and run the camera Bin2. That would give you around 0.78”PP. With 2m of focal length you will get close into small targets and with the binning would be surprisingly “fast”.