My New Scope

[David Smith]

A bit of a spur-of-the-moment purchase Some of you may have seen a Skymax 127 come up on the FLO sale. I hadn't had any real intentions of buying such a scope but had considered it as a possible addition to my collection that would serve me well as a nice planetary scope. Then it came up in the sale and I thought "why not, my night time astro activities area almost non-existent at the moment and this will give them a boost". The Skymax has the advantage over my Revelation dob now that the planets are so low, especially as my local horizons are very cluttered. The Skymax on top of my CG-4 means I can poke a view over the top of the tree-line and still get a glimpse of Jupiter et-al.

I've been very lucky as we had a run of 5 straight clear nights not long after it arrived which gave me plenty of opportunity to test it out. So far I have not been disappointed, getting some cracking sharp views of Jupiter with little if any chromatic aberration (unlike the Evostar 120 which is my other option). The views are not a million miles away from those which I get from the dob to be honest, I can see the north and south equatorial belts along with the GRS and moons but also some of the other belts and zones along with festoons in the equatorial zone and mottled structure within some of the belts too.

In my last session I had the opportunity to point it at the moon which was approaching 1st qtr, wow! With my ES 82 degree 11mm the view was stunningly sharp with no discernible CA at all, a definite advantage over the Evostar. Then I grabbed a look at M13 but was left feeling this was definitely a target best saved for the dob. Although I could see a sprinkling of stars there was a lot that was unresolved and the dob will resolve much more of it.

So now I have more scopes than I ever expected to but each has it's strengths and weaknesses

• Dob for faint stuff and resolving power (M13 and the like)
• Evostar 120 is my solar scope and it does an excellent job on the Sun in WL and Ca-K both visually and for imaging
• Skymax for planets and the Moon and eventually imaging of these too.
• PST for H alpha both visual and occasional imaging
• Meade Starlight 80 still in the cupboard some where, not a bad WL scope but probably will be sold off very soon as it is no longer used or needed

And finally my Tasco 60mm frac which was my first scope and although it is unlikely to see much star light these days I will be holding onto it for sentimental reasons.

Overall the un-planned purchase has worked out very well and as I said recently in another thread, I am observing more than I have done in a long time which is validation enough of the purchase for me (not sure about the wife though )

Clear skies

David

 

[xtreemchaos]

lovely scope mate, perfect for planets and the moon. well done. charl.

[johninderby]

In the great minds think alike category this arrived here last week and gave some lovely views of Jupiter.  ?

[MarsG76]

Nice.... and a great first light report.... hope you keep getting more unforgettable views through it.

 

[nightfisher]

The 127 really does punch above its weight, i have owned loads of scopes and a lucky chance to buy back a 127 that i had bought new then silly me sold it, got it back for what i sold it for, and now its about the only scope i use