During January 2011 I replaced my Meade LX200 telescope with an 8" F/8 Ritchey Cretien Astrograph supplied by Altair Astro. I also needed a new mount. After consulting Ian at Altair Astro I decided to go for the EQ6 Pro.Mount. When It arrived I was surprised how heavy it was. I needed a sturdy mount to carry the load of the Ritchey Cretien and my Stellavue 102mm ED Refractor, plus the imaging camera. I`m sure this would do the job. It is a fine piece of engineering. The mount has GO-TO facilities and can be used with a hand controller or Computer. It also has an ST4 guiding port to be used with a guide camera attached to the Stellavue.

Before I could attach the mount to the Pier I had to have an adapter plate made. ( see photo ) The plate is secured to the Pier and access is provided to secure the EQ6 Mount. A good friend of mine for many years, Mr J.W.Green of Messingham was employed to engineer the adapter plates. The adapter plate is an extension to the Pier and provides a very solid foundation for the EQ6 Mount.

 The Ritchey Cretien has a Canon 40D DSLR camera attached to the eyepiece, and is used for deep sky Astrophotography...The Hubble Space Telescope is a Ritchey Cretien.The Stellavue has a modified mono Philips Toucam at the eyepiece and is connected to a computer, and is used for locating a guide star in the area of the target image, once the target is centered on the Laptop, the guide star is locked on and guiding begins. This allows for long exposure Deep Sky imaging...

• Aperture, price and weight. A pure two-mirror optical system means zero colour aberration and a large aperture with high resolution compared to refractors costing many times more and weighing many times more, to gain the same resolution, whilst using a reasonably priced mount.
• No mirror shift. Because it has a fixed focuser, the primary mirror flop and resultant image shift issues associated with long focal length SCT telescopes with moving mirrors are avoided. There is no need for mirror locks and the additional problems these bring when it comes to focusing. There aren't any complex internal parts to move the mirrors back and forth while attempting to keep them accurately aligned so there's less to move about.
• Repeatable focusing. Another benefit of a high quality external focuser, is that the mirrors don't have to move relative to each other to focus the telescope, and so because everything remains in place, the focal point doesn't change outside the tube, making it easier for you to achieve repeatable, accurate focusing time and time again. That's essential for imaging.
• A better focuser for a great price. Unlike a standard Crayford focuser, the LBF focuser won't flex as much and it can take a higher load such as a DSLR or filter wheel, without slippage or backlash. That's because it has a longer and more precise steel load bearing surface, which is in contact with the focuser tube along more of it's length, rather than being supported by bearings with small contact points - a common issue with other Crayfords. This steel track focuser surface will not wear  unevenly like aluminium-only surfaces on other focusers.
• Easier to mount and guide. The optical tube is very light yet very rigid and strong, minimising flex. With a weight 7.5kg (16.4lbs) this telescope is one of the lightest in this aperture range. It can be carried by a reasonably priced EQ mount like the iOptron iEQ45 45lb capacity mount, along with a guide scope and wide field refractor. Using an EQ6 or CGEM is also possible as long as a very light weight guide scope is used.
• Fastest cool-down time in it's class. Don't spend the whole night waiting for your scope to cool down. Closed tube telescopes with corrector plates such as Maksutovs and SCTs can take so long to cool down that they never reach ambient temperature during the whole night. The RC optical tube is an open design, minimising cool down time compared to SCTs with closed tubes, and three rear cooling fans embedded in the rear mirror cover bring the primary mirror down to ambient temperature as quickly as possible. (a battery pack is included or the fans can be powered by a Kendrick controller).
• Contrast and controlling stray light. The internal knife edge baffles and matte black interior ensure high contrast and minimize the intrusion of stray light, reducing background glare on long exposure images. You will never have to to line the interior of this instrument with "flocking paper" to improve contrast - common practise with other imaging reflectors. Because there is no large corrector plate pointing at the sky, it's very rare for condensation or dew to form on the optics and it almost never occurs. However for unusual and extremely dewy conditions, Kendrick dew control system heaters will fit the secondary mirror.
• Optical performance: The surfaces of the Ritchey-Chrétien primary and secondary mirrors are hyperbolic, and are carefully optimised to reduce coma, an optical aberration which results in flared stars at the edges of the photographic field in other Cassegrain designs. The Ritchey-Chrétien design was previously only available in large scale observatory optics, however, as mirror polishing techniques have advanced, they are finally available to the amateur astro photographer at a reasonable price. Further aberrations like field curvature are removed by the field corrector/flattener, available separately, and useful for large CCD sensors, or DSLR users, and is similar to those offered by other manufacturers charging up to four times the price.
• Price and performance for this aperture at an F8 focal length. For the aperture, resolution, and performance, this scope is simply the best value we have been able to source. We do not know of any other large aperture imaging OTA which can deliver results at this focal length which even comes close. Closed tube telescopes with an F10 focal ratio usually cost about 25-30% more. Not only are you paying less money for a genuine RC telescope designed for imaging from the ground up, but you are getting a faster optical system which places less demand on mount, tracking and CCD camera due to shorter exposure times.