Shootout 12” zen mak cass v 10”intes micro mak newt

[stuy]

last night saw the shootout I’ve been waiting for the 12”zen mak cass v10” mak newt intes micro ! Both scopes were set up early to cool down ( the mak cass has a insulation ) collimation was spot on on both scopes. 

Targets were Jupiter and Saturn at 240x to 360x , the air was still and early signs of good seeing were in the cards , and for ounce the predicted arc second seeing came ( better actually)

first Jupiter showing a wealth of detail in the newt , tack sharp at 240x lovely split in SEB  and detail in festoons visible  a good start .

then the Zen at the same 240x very similar image couldn’t decide a winner just a bit brighter obviously the extra few inches, 

the  intes has a CO 21%  while the Zen has 31%  these I thought would play a massive significance in the contrast but I was wrong , the contrast in both scopes at this 240x were the same I also thought the sky was darker in the zen! Strange as the intes has superb baffling 🤔.

so upping the magnification to 360x the Zen started to pull away not losing any  fine detail on  the polar region ( a difficult part on Jupiter ) but the intes just couldn’t match it ,so the winner here was the zen 

Saturn again was a similar result but the newt DID get to 360x on this , but the zen gave a bit more 420x  

so final thoughts are both scopes are superb performers , their superb optics really do come into their own on nights like last night , both are very heavy !! And expensive 🙄 I try sometime to justify what I spend on scopes and it’s like nights ,like last night I can justify it , I can still see Jupiter now even when I close my eyes

  

[John]

Interesting report

The seeing here last night was pretty poor - I could not usefully use more than 120x on either Saturn or Mars and Jupiter was more like 80x.

Amazing how much difference 40 miles or so can make.

They both sound like superb instruments

[stuy]

Same as my mate nick John only 18 miles away terrible he said !!! Sometimes it’s the other way round  down to local topography 🤔

[Whistlin Bob]

Excellent report and sounds like a lot of fun. I think comparing instruments probably forces you to look more carefully then you otherwise would. Good to hear that you're getting so much pleasure from your kit.

Like John, I had absolutely lousy seeing here last night. We had a family over who were keen to see Jupiter and Saturn and all I could show them was a pair of wobbly blobs. Very disappointing!

[markse68]

V nice scopes! I like your skeletal dob mount- is it diy Stuy?

[Paz]

Nice scopes, and I like the dobsonian on an equatorial platform set up.

[John]

5 minutes ago, Paz said:

Nice scopes, and I like the dobsonian on an equatorial platform set up.

They work well

[stuy]

2 hours ago, markse68 said:

V nice scopes! I like your skeletal dob mount- is it diy Stuy?

Hi yes it’s a lovely job my mate nick put together silky smooth 👍great for the 33kg mak newt 😱