nightfisher

optics are pretty much same on blue and black tubes, focusers might be better on newer black diamond

You need to spend some time studying the Luna surface at variety of mags, that should show what it is capable of

I have my fingers crossed that this scope is at least on par with a towa from the same era

sorry for your loss, but nice to see some banter on here

Great, now you can get this lovely classic working to its potential, was thinking shame you cant get a crawmach focuser for it

It is sounding like best idea to send it to FLo and get it sorted correctly

It will be interesting to hear how this scope genuinely performs, i did hear kinda mixed reviews on this, some say superb some say not as good as its little brother

sounds like you need to get some local to you to have a look at it, if your near halifax welcome to bob it round at some point, or post some pics of the focuser

For the first time in about 18 months i have just pointed a scope at the night sky, quick look at Jupiter, i think this is the first time i have viewed a planet in about 2 years, did not last long as the cloud swallowed it up, skymax 127 on AZ4 with 18mm BGO and 12mm starguider....and Anteres 40mm plossl to find it an sort finder scope

also just keep in mind if you order from OO they will take your money, they will more than likely be very late on delivery and after sales will be poor

Basically they only respond to nights of good seeing conditions, when conditions are very good so are the views when seeing conditions are average the views wont be very good, if you could find one a Russian made maksutov would be a far better buy, and if i was looking at this size scope i would buy the Skywatcher skymax 150

Ant can you dismantle the focuser in situ and service it leaving just the focuser body on the tube

wow, im probably one of the few on here that appreciate just what you have got there, great find, i was only looking for one on ebay just the other day, several years ago i missed out on one at a good price, really hope you get the focuser working sweet, update us on how good it is

I would be thinking a car battery, maybe rig up some kind of carry strap to make it easy to move about, but i favour rc plane lipo`s as i already have all the charging gear, though these days all i power is EQ5 with twin dc motors so use an 1800mah 2s lipo with 6volt ubec, so small i velcro it to one of the legs of tripod

102 skymax on a suitable tripod

I used to own the 180 skymax and a great scope, i cant comment on the 100 degree eyepieces but i will say the maksutov is very easy on cheaper eyepieces

Yep, started watching the sky at night back in the early 70`s along with the moon apollo missions and the rest is history, started a life long interest in the heavens above, i sometimes take a break from astro but always come back to it, like now im back after taking a break, just checked the maksutov and it has faired well for its layup, just need the weather to play fair

Any update on the obsy build

When Mr Spock decided to part with this OMC 140 i snapped it up, this was many years ago, i kept it for about a year but as others have said, it seemed this model was very prone to under performing on average nights, then when seeing was very good the scope would amaze me. I have owned a huge amount of scopes, seeking that "Holy grail", amazingly i found it after re purchasing a skymax 127, i had purchased this scope at a time when i had a nice Tal 100rs and a skymax 150 so the poor little 127 did not really get used and i sold it on, then a few years and many scopes later i had the chance to buy this back, its now my only scope and i really like it, if any thing happened to it i would have to have another 127

i was planning on getting the 127 skymax out tonight on AZ4 but as always the weather gods say no

The 100r, had the same purple coated objective lens as the Mk 1 rs, but had the small 1.25 focuser with rather limited travel, the 100r also had a slim metal dewshield, held with tiny set screws

I still feel that the finest Tal 100 was the Mk 1 100RS, this model had the purple objective lens, had a 2" rack an pinion focuser, and an early version of the plastic dew shield, i think this came with the EQ5 and wooden leg tripod, then the mk 2 RS came out as OTA option, with the kinda green objective lens and a larger plastic dew shield, and of course the 2" crayford focuser

Nice scopes Dave, and all the very best for your early retirement, still a few years for me ....unless the lotto kicks in

So the outer planets are gas giants, when comet Shoemaker-levy struct Jupiter back in 1994, each part of the comet created a huge impact, resulting in an explosion on impact, but if the planet is a gas giant i would of thought the parts of comet would pass right through, why is this?