Chance to upgrade

[morgannz]

Hi. I currently have a skywatcher 100p Heritage and have a chance to get a ORION STAR MAX 127 MM MAKSUTOV CASSIAGRAN TELESCOPE  fairly cheap, would this be considered a decen upgrade and would i be able to see alot more with it?

[Demonperformer]

I haven't actually used either scope, so take my comments accordingly.

Looking at the specs of the two scopes, I would think there is a definite improvement here, but it is horses for courses.  At f/12.1, it will be great for solar system objects, but you won't get the same wide-fields you get with the f/4 heritage. In consequence of this, you will need to be more accurate in pointing the scope. In addition, the equatorial mount will enable you to move into imaging, if this is your desire.

The light grasp is 55% greater, which is always a good thing.

[morgannz]

Thanks for the advice.to be honest,it is a toss up between the orion or a skywatcher 150 Dob as i have the chance to get the orion at the same price as the skywatcher.

[Qualia]

If you want a bigger aperture upgrade, the general advice is not to settle for less than a light gathering increment of around 2.5 times. Accordingly, the 127mm pulls in about 1.6 more light than your 100, whereas the 150 will pull in about 2.25.

In terms of the view both scopes should provide good views. Maks are famed for producing cleaner, frac-like views since there are no diffraction spikes. However, they are also known as 'dew magnets' (so you may need some kind of protection against this) and may take a little longer to cool down. The 127 would probably make for a very convenient scope; if not exactly grab-n-go, there abouts.

Newtonians are cheaper per inch than Maks and in general, aperture matters in astronomy. Accordingly, the 150mm would make more sense. In theory, with the slightly larger scope, you should be able to detect fainter objects, have more resolution to pick out delicate detail, and so on.

Finally, for DSOs I'd go for a slightly larger Dob. Perhaps it's just me, but I do prefer hunting out globulars, galaxies etc in something a tad bigger than say, 4" or 5". If this were the case, it might make more sense for you to save just a little extra and go for something like the 200mm Dob. 

All scope types will have their advantages and disadvantages, so I guess there aren't any hard and fast rules. Consider portability, where you'd store it and set up, how much you want to pay, what you will want to observe during the year, and so on. Perhaps the Mak wins there or perhaps the Newt wins.