timefortea

Update:

The only down side is that it seems to eat batteries or maybe I spent too long just aimlessly slewing around. Still if I'm only using it for limited periods it shouldn't be too much of an issue.

After I finally got fed up with messing around collimating,balancing, polar aligning etc. my Explorer 150p only to have clouds roll in (yet again) I decided on a little grab 'n go. The Skymax 102 won purely on size & cost, I didn't want to get anything bigger or I would be tempted to leave the other 'scope tucked up in its box.

So a dinky little 4" Mak duly arrived from FLO less than 38 hrs after ordering, astonishing service again, thanks Steve.

Had to endure the usual new 'scope manky weather for a week before I could get outside with it. This left plenty of time to decipher the instruction book and learn the idiosynchrasies of the handset. All fairly straightforward, I even managed to update the software without too much difficulty.

So 1st light time eventually arrived, had the 'scope set up and 2 star alligned in no time at all. I was surprised at the clarity and sharpness of the view even though the tube was nowhere near cooled down. The Airy rings on both sides of focus formed perfect circles.

So far so good.

Mars at maximum magnification was great, I think I got a glimpse of an ice cap. Saturn as always was glorious.

When the scope was fully cooled I decided to split some double stars, Algieba and Castor were no problem in the 10mm eyepiece, in fact both were easier to resolve than with the Explorer which tends to have diffraction spikes in inconvenient positions. No such problem with a Mak'.

On to faint fuzzies, which, to tell the truth I held out little hope for especially with a 45% Moon bathing the sky. Surprise, surprise sent the scope to find M65 in Leo and there it was a faint smudge and just on the edge of f.o.v was its companion M66. Next I tapped in M87 and when the whirring and beeping stopped up popped the giant elliptical galaxy as requested.

Tonight was all about familiarisation and assessing the capabilities of this set up, and I was slightly taken aback by just how good this little 'scope actually is for visual work. OK it's never going to show massive detail in galaxies an nebulae but I suspect this instrument is going to give me a lot of viewing pleasure for a long time to come. It certainly seems to complement my Explorer 150p really nicely.