Saxon 20325 Maksutov Cassegrain

[Aussie Dave]

Not many of these around my neck of the woods, or anywhere in fact. The Saxon Mak203. One word to describe it, Heavy! Such a big weight for a small drum due to the 2 large chunks of glass inside.



It comes with a 2" visual back and 2" star diagonal as standard with a decent, smooth 1 speed focuser with 2 large focuser wheels each side, brass compression ring lock, collimatable primary mirror and a straight through 10x50 finderscope. What also was a bonus was the Saxon 8" OTA rings and dovetail bar which I can also use on my Meade LX200 8" Classic SCT OTA which I've been chasing up for some time. I've just weighed it and it comes in at around 13.7kg with all attachments and a 1.25" EP. It seems much more than that lifting it.

First inspections and impressions are very good, solidly built, well maintained with a few specs of dust inside, but nothing to worry about. Will have a look-see through it tonight, that's if those clouds have cleared.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Impressive looking scope. Hope looking through it gives as much satisfaction as looking at it

[laudropb]

I have never seen one of these and look forward to your first light report.

[Dave In Vermont]

Lordy! I feel a hernia coming on just from looking at that! Wow! But I like it Looks like the Mak that would push me off the fence and force me to buy it!

Nice -

Dave

[Aussie Dave]

The back end.

Yeah it's only and rack and pinion focuser but it does feel good, no sticky sounds, moves quite freely with no noticeable slack or slop. It's the first Cassegrain I've had with this type of focuser, I nice touch I think. The collimation screws are under the rubber oval plugs.

I'll try to throw it up on the EQ6 in a couple of hours. The sky is looking clear so far.

[Aussie Dave]

Lordy! I feel a hernia coming on just from looking at that! Wow! But I like it Looks like the Mak that would push me off the fence and force me to buy it!

Nice -

Dave

Dave, your 12's would be  pushing for the start of a hernia. 14's+ hernia with a touch of rhoids

I think the 12's at my age would be the limit for me without blowing the main valve.

[F15Rules]

Nice scope Dave! Do you have a dewshield for it? Methinks you will need one with all that glass!

Dave

[Aussie Dave]

I do have a dewsheild Dave from one of my Celestrons, a quick change over and hopefully the Saxon's front tube ring won't be in the way to hold it on securely.

Edited October 6, 2015 by Aussie Dave

[osbourne one-nil]

Do you have dew in west Australia?!

[Aussie Dave]

Dewshield about 2 inches too short :/

Set up took about 40 minutes, Scope cooling down atm. I was hoping to get some moon shots tonight but the moon's not up until early am. Not sure I'll be out for that long.

Do you have dew in west Australia?!

Yes we do at times Osbourne and quite bad. Now it's warm days, cold nights. Anything that outside and not covered get's wet.

[osbourne one-nil]

That's cheered me up a bit then (admittedly at your expense!) as I always assumed places like Western Australia were so dry that dew wouldn't form. 

Nice scope btw - I've only had an ETX for a Mak, but its high power views were really rather good. 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Looks great on the mount. You can always make a dew shield out of a camping mattress.

[Aussie Dave]

Michael you gave me that little push tonight with your first comment to get it all out. It's the first time I've used the EQ6 Pro since buying that too. So... if it all goes belly up, you're to blame

I still haven't worked out how to polar align or remember any star names. I'll just hunt a little. I still haven't seen a galaxy yet, That's high on my list of things to see.

Orions not up yet either, I really wanted to check that large neb out, it's been too long. There will be many better nights to test my gear.

Visual tonight is with a William Optics SPL 12.5mm 1.25".

[Aussie Dave]

That's cheered me up a bit then (admittedly at your expense!) as I always assumed places like Western Australia were so dry that dew wouldn't form. 

Nice scope btw - I've only had an ETX for a Mak, but its high power views were really rather good. 

I've had the ETX70 frac and ETX90 Mak Osbourne, both nice little scopes but I'm high magnification obsessed atm with scopes. Still trying to get a 5mm EP or slightly less that performs well. Atmospheric conditions do play a big part there.

[RT65CB-SWL]

Very nice.

[Aussie Dave]

Called it a night, fingers started to get numb and dew forming on grass.

The EQ6 Pro performed faultlessly. I only did a rough polar alignment, no star aligment. It did have some slight drift which is to be expected, but very acceptable. That surprised me.

I started the brief viewing session in light polluted backyard with the William Optics SPL 12.5mm 1.25" and finished with a Meade QX Wide Angle 26mm 2" EP. What I did notice was that there was some star coma, all pointing the same way so the Saxon will need a slight adjustment. Will test again on a warmer night as I don't think the mirror cooled down enough and the temperature was still falling.

Found 2 larger star clusters and a very small faint fuzzy. Sorry I can't give more info on what I saw. I still have my L plates on.

Overall I'm very pleased with the Saxon.

Time for a hot cuppa!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Glad you got your first light with the scope! Completely grey here, alas

[Aussie Dave]

Going by your summary Michael, it looks like you've had many clear skies. Now it's my turn

[Aussie Dave]

I  did my first telescope collimation tonight on the Saxon with a collimation eyepiece.

Who would of thought that this cheap looking piece of plastic could be so helpful. A very handy piece to have in your case. Much easier to use than a laser collimator from what I could work out.

At first glace I could tell the primary mirror was out, quite noticeable. Being my first time collimating, I fumbled my way through it, adjusting each of the 3 screws until the dark shadow of the secondary mirror was centered as best I could. I would say it's now 90% better than what it was looking through the collimating eyepiece.

Hopeing to get out soon to test and see if the star coma's have gone.

Edited October 9, 2015 by Aussie Dave

[RT65CB-SWL]

I  did my first telescope collimation tonight on the Saxon with a collimation eyepiece.

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Who would of thought that this cheap looking piece of plastic could be so helpful. A very handy piece to have in your case. Much easier to use than a laser collimator from what I could work out.

At first glace I could tell the primary mirror was out, quite noticeable. Being my first time collimating, I fumbled my way through it, adjusting each of the 3 screws until the dark shadow of the secondary mirror was centered as best I could. I would say it's now 90% better than what it was looking through the collimating eyepiece.

Hopeing to get out soon to test and see if the star coma's have gone.

Was it easy? I have heard the Mak's* tend to be a pain in the @+$€!

* especially the Meade ETX series, as one has to remove the rear assembly, to get to the collimation screws.

[Aussie Dave]

Was it easy? I have heard the Mak's* tend to be a pain in the @+$€!

* especially the Meade ETX series, as one has to remove the rear assembly, to get to the collimation screws.

It seemed too easy Philip but being my first time, it still took about 15 minutes and looking through that pin hole stuffed my eye up for some time. No back plate on mine, only rubber oval plugs that hide the primary mirror adjustment screws and hex screws. If I knew what I was doing, it's a 3 minute job or less on the Saxon.

I have to collimate my Celestar C8 SCT too and that has the back plate that needs removal first, but that job's for another day.

I forgot I had this collimating EP. I just can't figure out my laser collimator.

[nfotis]

Any new impressions on this model?

Researching for a big brother to my Skymax 127 and the HEQ5 mount I own, and this looks interesting compared to the Skymax 180.

 

N.F.

 

[JeremyS]

I thought the Saxons predated the telescope 🤔 

[andrew s]

7 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

I thought the Saxons predated the telescope 🤔 

Not on Venus! Regards Andrew 

[nfotis]

Well, I broke down and bought a Skymax 180, since Bosma doesn't want our money...

N.F.