Intes MK66 brief first light

[Whippy]

Well it's a first light for me. I picked this up a little while back and tonight has been the first time I've had the chance to get it out and give it it's first light in my back garden.

For those who don't know, Intes were a manufacturer of Maksutov design scopes (both Cassegrain and Newtonian) that folded some time ago but during their time, gave birth to a sister company called Intes Micro who still are producing Maksutov scopes from their factory in Moscow (I think). Intes also had their scopes rebadged as the Orion (US, not UK) Argonaut 150, so if you see one of those around, it's the same as the Intes MK67. This particular model is the sucessor to the MK67, optically the same (150mm aperture) but with a different focuser. The main difference in design between these Maks and their Chinese counterparts is that the secondary is collimatable on the Russian models (a Rumak Maksutov) and on the Chinese versions the secondary is an aluminised 'spot' on the corrector plate (a Gregorian Maksutov) and hence isn't collimatable (this is what I've been able to glean from t'web, feel free to correct me!). This was handy to know as I bought this particular model knowing that the previous owner installed some Bob's knobs on the secondary and hadn't got round to sorting out collimation...

I'm a big fan of Russian scopes. I've owned a couple of TAL's and while they don't look anything special, they combine bomb-proof manufacuring with quality optics at reasonable prices. I'm happy to report that Intes' are exactly the same (I imagine Intes Micro are probably the same), no lookers but built like tanks.

So how did the the first light go? Well after setting up I sorted out the collimation in about 15 mins. TBH it wasn't miles out to start with and IMO didn't seem to be any more difficult than doing a Newtonian . First target was Albeiro, easy double star and posed no problems, Colours all present and correct. One thing that struck me was the contrast, not quite as good as my WO triplet but not a million miles away. I'm liking this already . Next up was the Pleades. Oops, I forgot this is has a lot longer focal length than my other scopes (f12) and so I had to move the scope around a bit to see them as they clearly won't fit into the same field of view. Still, pinpointy stars on an (almost) black background. This is great! Unfortunately, my sister interrupts by calling me to share her disgust at spurs losing 0-2 at half-time. Clearly I'm not watching the game but while she's rabbiting on I can see cloud rolling in from the west, [removed word]. By the time I manage to get her off the phone, it's almost overhead and so I slew the scope over to the Orion Nebula. Now we're talking! plenty of nebulosity even though it's still low down (this was about 9ish) and even with a 25mm plossl I get 4 stars in the Trapezium. Had the cloud not came in so quick I would have spent more time but unfortunately it was all over the sky, so I decided to stick a bag over it, watch the rest of the game and check the sky afterwards.

Spurs won 3-2 in the end but the cloud didn't go so I decided to pack up and get a cuppa on the go.

My first brief impressions of this are impressive. I have noted some people complain of image shift in cassegrain scopes, this has hardly any at all to the point you almost say it's got none. I have problems getting a tight focus with my Newtonian but none at all with my WO with it's dual speed crayford. This is a lot nearer to the WO than the Newt I'm pleased to say. It's not dual speed but it's fine enough to get the focus tight so it should make a good imaging scope when the time comes. I can't really compare to other Maks or SCT's because I've never owned one before but from the views I've had though other people's it's certainly positive and while it's not quite on a par with the posh 'fractor I've got in terms of contrast, it's got a lot of advantages over my newt. I'm happy and the next available clear night I'll certainly be using this again and trying it out on some clusters and Mars. So all in all, another winner from Russia, lovely.

Clear skies all and thanks for reading.

Tony..

[GazOC]

I knew you'd like the MK66 Tony, the Intes Maks are great scopes.

[barkis]

That's a great summing up of the scope Tony, and reports like this are extremely valuable when describing a particular type.

You are bang on with Russian optics. Their hardware and builds are always on the beefy side, not a lot wrong with that, but some prefer a more aesthetic appearance. Their optics don't have to have an apology, they know how to do it.

All in all, you seem more than satisfied with you first encounter, even if it was curtailed. I watched Spurs by the way. Great comeback. And Bolton pinched a last kick equaliser. Kept switching between the two matches

[SteelRat]

another winner from Russia, lovely.

Yup, they do that don't they mate?

Glad y'liked the sov.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Sounds very nice Tony. Hope the clouds let you have another go soon.

Kaptain Klevtsov

[Whippy]

Thanks for the compliemts . I should have done a pic but I didn't, so here's one from the previous owner...

Tony..

[SteelRat]

Oooh, that's a beauty mate 8)

[MartinB]

Very interesting report thanks Tony. Never heard anything bad about them.

[AndyH]

Very nice indeed.

Sounds like a winner. My M500 has no mirror image shift either. I guess the Russians make good internal mechanics as well as good mirrors/lenses.

Don't know if I've asked before, but is the dewshield inbuilt or does it screw in/off ?

Enjoy,

Andy.

[Whippy]

Just had a quick look Andy and it looks it's inbuilt.

Tony..