Luxo II

An "Russian star party" - post #145 in this thread - it was a night my observing buddies backyard ... https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/880434-your-favorite-maksutov/page-8

Where are they ? Migrating to clear skies - Australia. Over the years, a couple of us have brought an MN56, M615, MN65 (rare), MK66 Deluxe, M715 Deluxe, M815, MK91 (Santel, also rare - 1 of 28 built), M1008 and one of the unicorns - APM 10" f/12 with Intes-Micro glass. After much side-by-side testing I've kept 3 - the MN65, MK66 and APM 10" f/12, and I won't part with these. The others have been re-homed - M1008 went to Singapore. My observing buddy has the MK91, that and the APM 10" are the kind of scopes that always deliver without fuss, and at the end of the night leave you with a smile.

From an engineering standpoint it looks like a significant advance on the SkyTee and AZ8 - both of which I've had. One comment though - for transport etc I noticed the flexible cables are removable from the worms but in removing them, it leaves the work shafts exposed - and they're brass - which means easily bumped and easily damaged. I would suggest (a) making replacement worms available as a spare part and ideally a later upgrade to stainless steel worms - as the brass will wear rapidly. Secondly I hope the worm shafts are a precise metric size - I can see this being a very tempting target to motorise both shafts for astro and other applications. Lastly you've just given me reason to sell my other alatza mounts and I will order one immediately they go on sale.