nightfisher

Jules, your posts are largely about how poor the weather and light pollution is rather than anything else, so I'm not surprised at John's comments................No my posts are not largely about LP and the weather, but i agree just recently things have been bad, the factory with its growing floodlight army, and new houses being built on what was greenbelt, this is having a detrimental effect on what i can view. You have a long time interest in Lunar imaging and observing, and have two scopes which are ideal for this. It is an area of astro which is largely unaffected by light pollution so you should be free to enjoy it. I'm not sure why suddenly DSO observing has become a requirement, and a reason to criticise the 120ED?............Quite right, my main interest has and will remain Luna and planets, its not wrong to want to view other objects in the night sky when there is no moon, purely for the record my post was not aimed at criticizing the ED120, more a case of pointing out that if you live in a city or built up environment that has bad LP then all but forget about hunting deep sky, like i said in this case a 12" or larger Newt would be a much better tool Tak talk............ha ha that could be a broadband or mobile phone provider Your expressed desire was to get to a one scope solution because you were tired of having multiple scopes around the house which took up valuable storage space without being used. You now have about the only scope which fits the bill but it doesn't seem to fill you with joy....................Mission accomplished, good people of the forum your self included put forward good suggestions and the 120ED came out on top, i took the advice and acted on it, should a scope "fill you with joy" or just serve a useful purpose? the 120ED serves a useful purpose . I won't apologise for saying the above, whilst I know it may appear a little on the 'tough' side, I would just love to see you have a scope that makes you happy and allows you to crack on and observe/image in an enjoyable fashion...................No need to apologize, i have 2 scopes that allow me to crack on and do what i enjoy My original post has come across as a slighting of the 120, maybe i should have posted it differently, lied about its qualities, posted fictitious reports of mopping up deep sky objects by the dozen, but i chose to post its good points and some points that are restricted by local environment, if a new comer to the hobby is looking to spend a large sum on a telescope and takes a fancy to one of these, should he/she not be aware that from a poor location this scope will be restricted to brighter objects. Stu, just for the record i have replied to this post of yours in detail as you took time to type up a fairly detailed reply, i felt some points needed a more detailed answer, and i hope this post is not taken in a wrong context

John, where in my post do i make any comment or quip relating to the hobby, this is the second time you have suggested that my interest/enthusiasm is waning (yes good memory), i can assure you that i am still just as keen on the hobby

Gentlemen, i did state that i would not be selling this, that i am in for the long haul I do feel its my location that is holding back my viewing pleasure with this instrument

This is a bit awkward, but trying to do an honest appraisal of this OTA, First up its a very well made scope, very good optics and a stock but perfectly good focuser, decent 9x50 finder scope and has a rather nice 2" 90 degree star diagonal as supplied complete with large Ali case. This scope has a pleasant colour scheme of white and black, though plain white with black tube rings would have been nicer to me, refractors just look right in white I bought this expecting views free from false colour, this is well corrected in CA and spherical aberration, the only time i see false colour is when viewing Luna low on the horizon, to be expected i guess. Luna views are extremely good when viewing detail with a moon at a decent altitude, though getting sharp focus seems to be something you have to "tease" in rather than getting the "snap to focus" that a long F/L decent achro gives. I have not had much of a chance to view the planets due to them being poorly placed, however at Mukar Jupiter gave super and yes i really do mean superb views, in moments of good seeing, with the GRS being plain to see and an eclipse of one of the Jovian moons Moving to more distant objects this is where it becomes a bit of a let down, but not a deal breaker for me, I had purchased this with the recommendations that it would be an ideal all round scope, but with 120mm aperture it does not really show deep sky, indeed from home it is a waste of time due to light pollution that seems to be ever increasing, galaxies are just not visible, though from a dark site with good seeing i guess this would improve, but then if searching for distant galaxies is your thing then a 12" or larger newt is going to be a better option, some of the messier s are very well resolved in this 120, M45 with 2" 42mm EP is stunning, fitting the whole cluster in the field of view and other open clusters being very easy to resolve, i cant comment on Globs as not had the chance to view any with this scope, though i see no reason why it wont perform well. I have viewed, some double stars, again the scope gives a good account of itself, even allowing me to image Polaris with 1000D at prime focus and the trapezium in M42 is very clearly defined, with a hint of a 5th member of this tiny cluster being seen. My overall impression has been some what mixed, this may be down to "forum hype" for want of a better expression, with many members singing the praise of these OTA`s, maybe i was just expecting a little to much, and have to accept that end of day its a 120 and can only show what any decent 120 can show, this was my most expensive astro purchase coupled with buying a new to me mount to get the best from it, a used but truly excellent Giro II (thanks again John, your a star) A few of you good people that stop to read this may be expecting me to end up selling this true to my usual form, and while i admit to suffering some negative feelings over the purchase, I have no plans to sell this OTA, for a start what would i replace it with, a decent Maksutov would be nice, but no one makes a Mak with the correct aperture and focal length to suit my needs, so it looks like myself and the 120 are in it for the long haul, hopefully as time goes by i will start to feel more of an "affinity" with this scope Thanks for reading

Chris, now that Vixen does look nice, looking forward to hearing how it performs

Just 3mm black foam 99p from range, and a bit of cutting plus black electrical tape

Ian, if you need a dew shield for your 127 i should have enough stuff left over for it

I have updated my little Skymax 102, added a nice Star discovery AZ goto mount. This will be used to further my Luna imaging both with 1000D DSLR at prime focus and with the aging SPC900. It will also be used to view the outer planets and do a bit of AP, just globs and double stars, as you can see in the second image the battery less servo drive to the focuser, not pretty but very effective. At present the finder is in the 8 oclock position, not ideal but i have a solution, just need some time to pick up the new finder mount.

Looks like i might be taking part in this thread, i now have a Star discovery AZ mount for my 102 Maksutov, clearly i wont be doing deep sky imaging as in galaxies and nebula but might be able to contribute with some globs and double star images

we should make that happen

Would it be impossible to sort something to bring these 2 scopes together one night?

Sorry Dave, i dont get the Tak craze that is running riot on here..................but that FS128 looks gorgeous on the Tak mount, you lucky fellla, i wait wit baited breath for your first light...........congrats on this

Good luck with the Vixen, i had the 80m custom on the Alt Az mount and it was a pretty good scope, but i did find it lacked a bit of aperture

re reading this, for my own use i find the 120ED, very good though it is, has failed to impress me

Its not that difficult to do the collimation, just a royal pain in the rump, once its done its unlikely to shift, but only real way is star testing, if you can get it mounted on a decent tracking mount, needs to be properly cooled down, the secret is to turn an allen screw a tiny bit then see what difference it makes, be prepared to turn same one back equal amount if no better, this is going to be a coupe of hours, not a 5 minute job

TBH i think my scope buying days are over, had i gone for the 102 Bresser would i end up selling the 120ED? so i am sticking with what i have

Im glad i did not give in and get the 102, i was very tempted for a day, i have been there before with very long fracs and i really do see why they are far less common nowadays, a big up to Bresser for doing these new models but a niche market

Send it back........get a 102 skymax F13, cracking scope for not a lot of money

Nice, i had the same set up for a long time

I would bet the new 90mm will out perform the classic F16 by a goodly amount, the EQ3 looks good for the Bresser

I have been mulling (drooling) over the idea of the 102 all day but common sense has kicked in and i will have to drop this idea for the forseable..........i have got in a nice position of having a great ED120 and cracking little 102 Mak, i would not benefit from the F13 frac

Not sure if my funds can warrant it at present, i still seem to be spending all my cash on flying things, lots going on with delta wing planes at mo

I`m half tempted with the 102 F13.2..................in fact very tempted, when i had the Antares 105 F15, i felt the F13 would have been much better

Thats a belter image, well done to you