Nik271

Looks lovely. I have a Mak just like this one and I've used it extensively in the past, for a year it was my only scope. Lunar, planetary and double stars are its forte of course, but with a low power EP it will show many DSOs. Enjoy the scope!

I was surprised that flocking made such a noticeable difference, since Maks are considered to be well baffled to start with. Just shows there is no scope that does not need extra improvement 🙂

Nice report! Your TS102 is certainly capable of splittting Alintak, perhaps the seeing was not good this time at lower elevations. I have done it with the SVbony 102ED (on its first light night!) which is a sibling/clone of the TS. Around x200 should do it.

The Moon with 127 SW Mak. I installed flocking on the primary baffle and despite the wind and clouds managed to get some views last evening to test. Happy to say the flocking certainly helps with full Moon. The baffle does have ridges but they are dull grey and still reflect strong light when the Moon is just outside the field. The velvet flocking paper completely removed any stray light 🙂 As a bonus I saw Humboldt (the crater). It's quite a large crater on the eastern limb with a central mountain which was showing reasonably well in the Mak despite the atrocious seeing.

I own two Maks (127 amd 180 Skymax) and just bought a 4 inch ED refractor. I would say that any good scope with 4 inches of aperture would provide excellent detail up to x200magnificatioin on a good night. The OP already has 200P for top resolution on an excllent night of seeing so what is needed is a smaller scope for grab and go on most other nights. Portability wise either a 4 inch ED refractor around F7-F8 or the 6 inch CC are excellent choices which will deliver very sharp views. Between a refractor or CC the choice is largely personal. CC will have diffraction spikes on bright objects, need to check the collimation occasionally when transporting. But it has the potential for even higher mags up to x300 I would expect. Refractor is smaller, lighter (4kgs) and hassle free maintenance with tighter stars. Good for wide views too. These days £700 buys a decent 4 inch ED refractor with FPL51 glass, good for up to x200. PS. To throw a spanner in the works a cheaper option is the 127Mak (SW or Bresser) , of course smaller aperture than the 6 inch CC but really light (3kg) and excellent up to x200 again. Cons: no widefiled, some dewing issues. Costs only about £350 or so.

A 4 inch F11 refractor will not be very easy to use: that's a 1.1 meter long tube plus a dew shield on top. I just got a 4 inch F7 refractor for widefield and being used to Maks am finiding it a bit trickly when pointing to the zenith. Also wind will mess up your high magnification view. A 6 inch CC seems a better compact 'grab and go' option. Mirors with modern coats degrade slowly, I think 10 years minimum of good life in them. PS worth checking out some of the 5/6 inch Maks out there too!

I noticed that there is a lot more variety and price competition for red dot sights for guns: they tend to be more robustly made from metal, weatherproof and with larger optical windows. On the negative side their red dots tend to be brighter than necessary for astronomical use. I just bought a basic gun red dot sight from amazon and will test it under the stars. If it's any good I will post a review of it.

With a 32mm Plossl EP you get more than a 3 degree field of view already so you only need a finder that points you in the general direction. I recommend a RDF finder, keeps the rig as light as possible.

Hi all, I recently bought this refractor and noticing there are very few reviews of it decided to start one. When unpacked I was pleasantly surprised by the manufacturing quality of the scope. The tube is aluminium and the OTA weighs just 4kgs. It comes without finder or diagonal, just tube rings with a vixen style dovetail and four screw holes on top of each ring for attaching plates for finders and guiders. It has a retractable dew shield and an excellent rotatable R&P focuser, with 2-speed adjustment knobs. Fousing this scope precisely is critical as it is not a true APO, the objective is two air-spaced elements using FPL-51 glass. So there is CA in and out of focus but the £650 question is how good is it in focus? Well last night I pushed the magnification up to x180 on the Moon and pleased to report I didn't see chromatic aberration when in focus. Inside of and out of focus there is some red and blue halo. I understand this is normal for this class of refractor. The colour actually helps me with achieveing a perfect focus, just find the focus place where the fringing goes away and that's it. Similarly it is colour free on stars up to 1-st magnitude. I did see some colour in Sirius though, so it is not all quite perfect. Obviously at 714mm this scope is for wide field and I tried it on Pleiades, Double Cluster and Andromeda with a 2 inch 32 Panaview EP giving me a 3 degree field. The views are good, but somewhat washed out because of the bright Moon. Then checked the Auriga clusters and some of Cassiopeia. It's definitely a step up from m y 20x80 binoculars -a lot more stars are visible and in the Panaview it is sharp up to 70%. I guess this is normal as the focus 'plane' is not flat at F7. Can't wait for a new moon clear night for proper testing. To test the optics I tried splitting a few double stars at x180 with good results: Rigel was easy (as it should be with any decent refractor). In Sigma Orionis I could spot all the four components. Best of all I managed to split Alnitak, which often gives trouble to my Mak 127, so quite pleased. The colours of stars looked right, similar to the Mak view I'm used to but with tighter diffraction rings. I finished with Epsilon Mon, Beta Mon and S Mon, all split with ease at x180. Conclusion for the moment: this seems a very good 4 inch budget ED refractor. Not in the APO refined league I'm sure but looks good enough for me. Actually when I think about it - it can do 90% of what my Maks do on an average night plus can also do widefield. I will add more reports here, as I spend more nights under the stars with it. Clear skies, Nik

I like the soft warm glow of the first one!

I'm quite pleased I managed to see the planetary nebula NGC 2438 in M46. These are never very high from my location and the sky in the south is light polluted, so last night the conditions must have been very good. I used my new OIII filter, without it I doubt I would have spotted the nebula, it's quite dim. I used 20mm EP on a 180Skymax, so the exit pupil was a bit low at 1.3mm but still it worked for me. People say that narrowband filters are only usable with large exit pupil and I can certainly see the sense in this, however my experience is that they sometimes work at high mags and small exit pupipl. It all depends on the object I guess.

It almost gets boring keep writing I looked at the Perseus double cluster. But it never gets boring seeing it. Nice and high tonight and superb in contrast against the inky winter sky. A top ten telescopic sight. Same here, can never have too many views of the DC! In fact I'm buying a refractor with the main purpose to fit it all in the EP (my principal scopes are all Maks).

I've been tempted by the 8 inch edge HD in the past but considering its price bracket I think the StellaLyra RC is the better choice. 6kg vs 8kg is not a big difference, you still need a 10kg class mount to use them comfortably. There is now 8 inch carbon fibre RC which is a kilo lighter but a bit pricier. As far as I see the only slight disadvantage of the RC is that its collimation is tricker than a SCT. But there are many online manuals on collimating it nowadays so should not be a big deal if you store it in one location.

Great results, Chris! I still have to have a clear split of the secondary. Obstructed scopes like the Mak suffer from poor seeing more: the first diffraction ring keeps shifting and pulsing, so to split anything on the diffraction limit of the scope requires a very good seeing condition indeed.

Nice! The Moon libration was very favourable and allowed us to look directly into the south pole basin. The Leibnitz mountains as observed by Schroter were probably in the foreground of your image: starting with M8 and a few others to the left of them. The problem is that over the years people have been trying to indentify exactly what Schroter saw when he named them. I found this drawing by Whitaker from 1954 which has the M peaks but also further left lists Leibnitz alpha beta, gamma, delta and epsilon with a question mark. If we believe his chart I think I can identify Leibnitz alpha beta, gamma and delta on your photo: I wonder why IAU discontinued the names, these are after all the highest mountains on the Moon.

I observed it too last night with my 180 Mak. Indeed the seeing was so good it seemed almost too easy! @Jiggy 67, if the seeing stays like this with a 4 inch you should be able to see at least an elongation or a 'peanut' shape.

I just watched this video: On the basis of it (the slides around 12:00min in the video) it appears that the peaks in the foreground which are casting shadows, from Drygalski all the way to Faustini, are indeed the Leibnitz mountains 🙂: And the pair of peaks beyond them on the lunar limb are further inside the the SouthPole-Aitken basin.

This is what Nasa's simulator gives at 22:00 yesterday (17 Jan): The mountains next to Drygalski (on the right of it in this image, and on the left of it in John's image) are not identified. Are these the Leibnitz mountains I wonder? I'll be thrilled if they are - it's L96 from the Lunar 100. (and crater Drygalsky is L94 🙂)

Sadly the fog has descended now and hid everything except the Moon. So finished my session with the moon. Drygalski and Hausen are indeed very prominent on the southern limb.

Superb seeing in Oxford tonight, slighly misty and of course a full Moon but the air is very very steady. Had my best view of the Pup so far this winter at x300, Sirius shining steady and the Pup showing clearly for long periods of time. Also Tegmine, Eta Gem, 7 Tauri, practically every double I tried I saw easily! Waiting a bit more for Dubhe to rise higher over the mist and will give this one a try. That is unless the fog freezes on the corrector of my Mak...

52 Orionis is currently at 0.99'' separation and the two components are exactly equal at magnitude 6. It should make an excellent challenge for the 127 Mak or indeed any 5 inch scope. This is a simulation what the double should look like. I entered 120mm aperture and 30% obstruction in aberrator: I've only tried it with my 180 Skymax and in good seeing it is easily split with it.

That's a superb session and report, thank you! You must have been frozen by the end of it. The 127 Mak is such a great grab and go scope for doubles and much more. I should try Tegmine with mine, as you said it is a good test of its diffraction limit (and observer skill!)

Thanks! I don't mind vignetting at the low powers, it's the high powers where fine focusing is needed.

Well done, John! Excellent seeing and a good refractor are a winning combination, plus an experienced observer of course! What focuser do you have Chris? I have a 1.2inch helical focuser from SVbony but find it not very precise and slipping a bit with a diagonal and a heavy EP.

Just watching the sunlight starting to touch the floor of Schickard, if you can take a look, from now on until about 10pm the whole crater will gradually get illuminated.