PlaneWave Instruments was founded in 2006 by Richard Hedrick and Joseph Haberman, two former telescope engineers at Celestron, the second largest telescope manufacturer worldwide. Richard Hedrick brings over 21 years of telescope design experience. As former Chief Technology Officer and previous owner of Celestron he was responsible for developing Celestron’s award winning Schmidt-Cassegrain computerized telescopes. Joseph Haberman has over 20 years of experience in telescope design and worked at Celestron as an optical engineer and master optician. Getting a product like the CDK into the hands of serious imagers and amateur astronomers has been a shared vision of Hedrick and Haberman for many years. PlaneWave Instruments is committed to providing observatory-class products for serious astronomers at an unprecedented value.

The CDK design tackles the off-axis coma problem by integrating a pair of correcting lenses into a two mirror design. The beauty is that this design also corrects for astigmatism and field curvature. Because the lenses are relatively close to the focal plane (unlike the Schmidt corrector plate found in various Schmidt Cassigrain designs), and because these lenses work together as a doublet, there is no chromatic aberration. The CDK offers a wide aberration-free, flat field of view that allows the user to take full advantage of the very large imaging chip cameras in the market place today.

Specifications:
Design: Corrected Dall-Kirkham
Aperture: 20-inch (510 mm)
Focal length: 3,454 mm
Focal ratio: f/6.8
Weight: 140 lbs (63.64 Kg)
Maximum Visual Magnitude (7.5+5log(aperture in cm rule)): 16.04
Price OTA: $32,500 U.S. plus shipping