The need for speed

Am I greedy? Absolutely! No doubt about it. If you had the opportunity to upgrade your telescope to a faster focal ratio, wouldn't you? Sure I am sad to see my Stellarvue SVS130 F5 astrograph being decommissioned, but (wait for it..) it was replaced with the Officina Stellare Veloce RH 200AT. A beautifully engineered (from Italy: https://www.officinastellare.com/professional-telescopes-prod/rhveloce/RH_Veloce_200_AT.html) short tube athermal scope with a carbon fiber casing, and a 600 mm focal length at a blazingly fast F3 focal ratio. Yes that is correct, F3! Compared to the SVS130, the RH200AT will collect 1.8X more light (or put another way - reduce the exposure time by 1.8X). The RH200AT is coupled to the slim profiled TCF LEO focuser from Optec Inc (https://www.optecinc.com/astronomy/catalog/tcf/19740.htm) with a focusing step resolution of 0.08um. This 3 inch focuser is built to impress being very robust, fast to focus, can carry a 20lb payload, and includes the intuitive homing mechanism. It perfectly compliments the RH200AT. Despite the short mechanical backfocus distance (common to all fast astrographs) of 105 mm on the RH200AT, I was still able to add the SX USB filterwheel+slimline OAG and Trius 814M from Starlight Xpress (https://www.sxccd.com/) and the Lacerta from Optec Inc (https://optecinc.com/astronomy/catalog/focuslock/19860.htm). Custom made spacers from PreciseParts (https://www.preciseparts.com/ppmain//index.html) were needed on both the telescope and camera side to reach proper focus. Stay tuned to my website (www.stellarsnapsastrophotography.com) as images from this new scope are being acquired. However in the meantime, join me in salivating over this new astrograph!

https://www.officinastellare.com/professional-telescopes-prod/rhveloce/RH_Veloce_200_AT.html