Last saturday I used my Astro-Physics 180mm f/9 EDT for the first time. The seeing at Fremont Peak state park (California coast range mountains) was poor early in the evening. You could see the air flowing past Jupiter even with the image infocus. As the evening went on the seeing got somewhat better but it never got as good as it usually is at the Peak. At high power the defraction rings of infocus stars were dancing in the air currents.

Even with the not so good seeing the images were surprisingly sharp and contrasty. Deep sky objects were very nice. I looked at most of the bright easy Messier objects. M27 really looked 3D, like it was there between you and the stars. The Veil Nebula was very nice with a 35mm Panoptic and UHC filter.

Saturn looked nice but the air was still moving image around. There were some very small moons near one side of the rings.

In the early morning I pointed the 180 at the moon. At 216x (Tak 7.5mm LE) the detail was outstanding. It was like looking at the moon for the first time. I can't wait to try it at 300x or 400x when the seeing is better.

Everything about the scope is heavy duty, even the case. My 800 mount handled the 180mm f/9 very nicely. Astro-Physics made a beautiful OTA.