I spent about a year pondering whether to get this scope and whether it would be too much of a pain to collimate and too much of a wind sail to use much. I'm glad I decided to chance it though as I'm very happy with it's performance. Since this is a rebranded GSO 10" newtonian reflector it's easy enough to see the sort of images it's capable of on astrobin too.

The major warning is that this is a big, awkward, heavy scope. You do not want to be breaking it down and putting it up again too much. A telegizmo cover helps with leaving it out between imaging sessions. I also got some Oklop lift and carry straps with it. Moving it around without that would be tricky and potentially dangerous.

The EQ6-R I've got has no problem moving it around, if it's roughly balanced (getting it exactly balanced is hard and I haven't bothered). The two 5kg weights supplied with the EQ6 at the end of the extension bar do not come close to balancing it though; I needed to use the bigger of the two weights which comes with the Eq3 too (3.5kg?).

The focuser is good and solid... but it's not ideal for the TS-GPU CC which I already had. The extra 20mm it adds to the focus position, which is great for the 130PDS and stops the focus tube poking out too much, means you can't reach focus with the CC fully inserted into the tube, it needs to be withdrawn about 10-15mm. This seems to work OK but ccd inspector can see some tilt there. Long term I think I'll screw the CC to the focuser via a rotator (removing the 2 inch clamp from the focus tube leaves a M74 male thread you can screw things too).

Collimation isn't too bad at all. It seems happy with a check of the primary before using and didn't seem to noticeably change while imaging. Every time I adjusted the main mirror though I made sure to screw in the screws to compress those springs. Wind wise you can't use it during high winds but it doesn't seem too sensitive. My garden is reasonably sheltered though.

Focusing did change through the night though (I guess as the tube changed temperature) and I think an auto focuser is a must or it would get quite annoying. The ZWO AEF fits easily enough (although it needs longer screws than supplied with the AEF but nothing a local screwfix wouldn't stock).

The fan at the base of the tube is a life saver. Without it the main mirror dews over really quickly in dewy conditions and it can clear a heavily dewed main mirror in an hour or so.

My only half criticism would be the supplied vixen dovetail seemed a bit flimsy for such a big scope. I replaced it with a losmandy bar and added a pegasus accessories plate on top which seems quite solid and rigid.