I use this from my garden, however I have to setup every time so was looking for a good scope for imaging that I could easily carry into my garden and setup, but that was also reasonable at light gathering. I had thought about getting the 8 inch but that would have needed a more substantial (heavier) mount. This one by the time I add camera etc is just within the capabilities of the heq5 pro that I use, and the heq5 pro is heavy enough as it is.
I chose and f5 as it's fast enough to do deep sky imaging, and I also wanted to do some planetary, however I will need a Barlow for that. (stellarium is good for getting some idea what a given scope would be good for)
It uses a crayford focuser which gave me some initial slipping problems due to the weight of the camera etc. but a small adjustment with an allen key soon fixed that. Collimation on this telescope is also pretty easy. So far I have only had to do it twice, and that's because the 1st time I did it this was all bran new to me and I didn't really know what I was doing.
Overall I'd highly recommend this scope if you want something that has good light gathering capabilities but is also portable.

Well, strangely, the (rapid) arrival of this telescope (via the FLO wormhole) coincided with a run of cloudless - or near cloudless - nights. Yes, I know, shocking! The '6-inch' has been an absolute delight. This telescope is built like a small tank, and has a good solid feel despite being not too heavy. The 'fast' F ratio, holds collimation extremely well - requiring the smallest of tweaks even after several car journeys. The optical quality is excellent and the focuser has a meaty feel and a smooth action that inspires confidence. The telescope really has been a pleasure to use. It now sits alongside my StellaMira 80mm F/10 refractor as the highly portable package for those dark sky site expeditions when you want to cover all the bases. I also bought the recommended coma corrector for a bit of DSLR experimentation. But, to be honest, I have been so much enjoying the view through the eyepiece that I haven't got around to it! A highly recommended telescope.

Delivery to South Africa in just 4 days; FLO service is outstanding Scope arrived perfectly collimated providing crisp clear images. This is an awesome scope at an awesome price with great build quality. Looking forward to many a happy stargazing evenings enjoying the smooth dual focuser.