I don’t think the s50pro was changed enough warrant the extra cost. Now the Dwarf Draco is going to be absolute game changer. Shows to have field rotation correction, cooled sensor , auto guiding with up 5 min exposures, 90 mm aperture, lens defogging.
Looks like you can start ordering the Draco at an introductory price of $1299.00.
Catadioptric Reflector w/ APO Elements
90 mm f/3.8 | 340 mm
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There’s some official info out on the Draco finally.
I hate the scolling thing they do to get more info. If it will do everything they say it will, it’s impressive. But I have a few concerns.
I’m showing my technical ignorance here. The hole in the body looks 90mm. But there’s an inner lens that looks about 50mm. What gives? Is this a true 90mm aperture? Are they using software tweaks to get to 90mm?
Also, they don’t seem to be offering a backpack and/or carrying case for it. A severe oversight IMO.
The specs between the standard edition and the SHO edition seem to be identical except for the internal filters. If I get one, I’d get the SHO edition.
Also, the battery is only a 10,000ma, rated for up to 5 hours. That probably means about 3 hours in the winter. Why, for about $10 more, they don’t put a 20,000ma battery in, doubling the viewing time, is beyond me. I ran into the same issue with my Stellina. I guess that’s enough if you’re only going to view for a couple of hours, but if you plan to view for most of the night, or all night, you’ll need an external power supply, and have to worry about cord wrap. And that really negates their “scheduled shooting” feature.
It appears to come equatorial mode ready. That’s a plus.
Another plus is they built into the case an easy carrying handle. Yay! Vanonis hasn’t discovered that yet. If they would have built carrying handles into their Stellina, I’d probably still own it. And while my Vespera Pro is small enough it’s fairly easy to carry without a built in handle, I’d feel much more confident carrying it with one.
I don’t know about buying from a third party like Mile High (my preferred astronomy store!) or High Point, but I’ve read that if you order directly from Dwarf, they will charge your card immediately on order, not when they ship. If you cancel before they ship, they’ll charge you a cancelation fee of I think around 4%.
The rotating sensor and 80mm-ish effective apeture are pretty appealing to me. And internal guiding.
The cooled sensor doesn’t sound like it actually cools much. For the price it is very intriguing. I have not ordered one…