Sell Meade 102ed for WO 105ed?

My primary use for the telescope is for photography with a dSLR. The Meade has given some great lunar photos and I've only just started with long exposure astrophotograpy (tracking issues).

I know how good the 102ed is but I don't know how good the Zenithstar is. The shorter or faster scope, Zenithstar at f/7, should be helpful.

Should I pull the trigger and get the Zenithstar? The 114mm tube ring for LXD650 will fit the Zenithstar tube so that is a bonus. Both tubes are 114mm. Boy, I just may have to. What do others think? I do have another choice of a Vixen 102ed f/6.5. The only problem is I was going to get a Canon EF 17-40 L USM lens for $658. That would have to wait awhile.

Worth it or not?

Attached image is from a 20 second unguided exposure w/ 102ed.

Attached Image:

I owned one of the 80mm ED triplets for about a month. It was very good visually (not perfect but very good for its price point), but was not at all well corrected for the increased sensitivities that many CCD cameras have into the violet end of the spectrum. Purple halos abounded.

I don't know whether the 105 is the same optical design as the 80mm ED triplet--it may well not be. If it IS just a scaled up version of the same design, though, I'd probably lean away from it for imaging, or at least wait for some initial test reports that include imaging specifically.

My experiences are not a knock on W.O. scopes in general. In fact, I liked the 80mm enough to replace it with the Fluorite triplet version (which so far as performed flawlessly). I simply found that the 80mm ED triplet was not suitable for astroimaging. If you want to see what I ran into, just look at any of the deep sky images on the William Optics website for the 80mm ED...

- Jared