I have had my ED100 for 18 months and used it from my back garden whenever the weather has been suitable. Optically one should expect good colour correction at this focal ratio and that is what is found. The field curvature is as should be expected. The telescope cools down from room temperature in winter in about 25 minutes. So, optically, it is a very acceptable telescope and good value for money.

The focuser may be adjusted to hold well using the instructions found on the web. It does let go under severe vibration but that was the fault of a poor mount not the telescope. But I have marked it down because the focuser screws have been glued in place so that one cannot remove the focuser in order to add an extra finder shoe. I left the telescope with my local, and very reputable, supplier for a week whilst they attempted to dissolve the glue using a solvent, this did not prove to be possible. I shall have to drill the screws out and will almost certainly have to buy a new focuser at a very high price.

I should make clear that FLO's service has always been excellent, my regard for them does not change. My opinion of Skywatcher's engineering skills has been significantly lowered, this being the second failure that I have had on a Skywatcher product.

I've had this scope a couple of months now and I think it's lovely A 4" refractor is a nice instrument and it's short enough to work well on my AZ4 mount without torque issues (and is very solid on my HEQ5). Views of the moon and planets are satisfying, as are star clusters and brighter DSO (from my urban garden) and it's excellent for white light solar viewing with the right filters - though of course it can't compete with a much larger telescope, e.g. my 10" F6 Newt gives much better views, but I get this scope out 10 times for every 1 times I bother with the big one. I didn't get this scope primarily to do DSO astrophotography but the included FR means it's not out of the question in the future and the DS focuser is handy for that too. It works well for full disc lunar and solar DSLR imaging though.

Thanks martin for you words of wisdom, the rest of your staff and fed ex for a fantastic service .having ordered only 24hrs ago fed ex turn up with a big box, big smiles...as for the scope i have to wait for a gap in the clouds to test proper ,its a fantasticly specced tube for the price. Thanks again flo