Delivered with the usual FLO efficiency and was fortunate in that there were no clouds included in the box! It needed a slight bit of collimation, but that took only a couple of minutes. First views were great with nice sharp details - the Pleaides were a delight to see even in my Bortle 7 skies. Very pleased with this Photon and I think it's a bit of a bargain. There are no eyepieces supplied, but instead TS have provided a good quality scope with some attention to detail, as it comes with brass compression rings and a decent Crayford focuser, which is so much easier to use than the rack and pinion on my Skywatcher. Worth a look at if you already have eyepieces.

I got this OTA just before xmas to sit in mid-range FL space.

I have a 72ED, and now also an Altair 80ED for the 4-500 space, and I have the 9.25 with 6.3 reducer for around 1300. And of course higher FL without it.

I have a 200P newt, but it's big and a pain to setup and balance.

So.. after some discussion on the forum where I wanted to say away from newts, I ended up going for a smaller newt! for value for money it just seemed a no brainer.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/ts-telescopes/ts-photon-6-f5-advanced-newtonian-telescope-with-metal-tube.html

After first light I was impressed, but it was in need of a coma corrector, so on advice from FLO I bought this

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/coma-correctors/baader-mark-iii-mpcc-coma-corrector-photographic.html

So about 400 quid all in.

I've used it quite a few nights now, so wanted to just give a quick review - not war and peace, but as FLO has only started selling them, I figured it might be useful to potential buyers.

It came in a solid box, and seemed to have good collimation out of box. I've as yet not re-collimated. It looks nice in 'zwo red' and black, going well with my other ZWO bits.

The focuser is a crayford job, which though according to FLO, is better quality that the rack and pinion Skywatcher equivalent, does need careful setting up to avoid slipage with my asi1600, and EFW on the end of it.

I use the ZWO EAF - this took a wee bit of creativity to mount as the screw holes are not suitable. So it is on with one bolt, and some tie wraps - but it does the job and focuses reliably all night long through my filters automatically.

If, like me you came from a 200P, it might surprise you just how much smaller and more manageable it is. It's no longer a burden to setup like the 200p, easy to balance, less couterweights, and I am getting 0.4" RMS guiding pretty constantly with my EQ6r-pro.

It has an open back for the mirror, so be aware of that for darks. As I have quite a lot of ground light pollution I cover that up with masking tape.

I've had no dew issues so far, though I have woken to find it covered in frost - but the mirrors have remained clear.

With the coma corrector it appears sharp edge to edge - a few pics below from the last few days.

All in all, I'd say it's a great scope at a great price. I'm a very happy punter - it's going to be getting a lot of use in the coming months.