Skywatcher Skymax old vs new

[The Gray Man]

Hi all,

I'm thinking of getting a Skywatcher Skymax 150 MAK (which will be my first scope). Can anyone tell me if there is a difference between the old (gold) versions and the newer (black) versions - or is it purely a cosmetic change?

Many thanks,

Ian

[JamesF]

Mostly it's cosmetic.  There were some changes to the sizes of the threads on the back relatively recently though (after the change of colour).  Optically I believe they're identical.

James

[Macavity]

I have the Gold version MAK150. It has some "focal shift" (mirror slop)

It was £100 quid cheaper and I added (intended) a "Crayford" focusser...

Allegedly these earlier versions were more prey to the above? I dunno!

Some people assert that ALL Maks / SCTs have these sort of issues...

[Avocette]

I have a MAK150 ('Black Diamond') with a Revelation SCT Crayford focuser on the back end (through an SW MAK to SCT adapter - new SW MAKs in the last couple of years usually have an SCT thread already). The image shift during focusing by the original focus knob is acceptable for normal observation, but if you were to use a small CCD image capture device (Philips SPC900 for example) the target object could move off the CCD chip completely, and focusing can be a bit rough and ready (people do attach a clothes peg for fine focusing). I bought the MAK when I had already tried a lot of other scopes. It's great for the Moon, Planets and splitting double stars, but otherwise I'm glad my first scope was a 200p Skyliner Dob.