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The CGEM II 800 pairs Celestron's 8-inch Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt Astrograph optical tube with the CGEM II German equatorial GoTo mount. The RASA's f/2.2 design (Celestron lists it as f/2) gives a very wide, very fast field for deep-sky imaging, and the mount's 40 lb payload capacity and GoTo tracking handle the tube with room to spare. It is a dedicated imaging rig, not a visual telescope: there is no eyepiece port, so you image with a camera at the front of the corrector. Compared with a conventional 8-inch SCT on the same mount, it images far faster and wider but cannot be used for eyepiece viewing without a separate optical tube.
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Lowest price we've seen: $3,599.00 on Nov 10 at Best Buy. Tracked across 2 stores since Nov 10.
Owners of the RASA line praise the speed and wide field for deep-sky imaging, and CGEM II users find the mount tracks well for its class. The common complaints are the learning curve of front-mounted cameras, collimation sensitivity and the bulk of the whole rig.
