Am I being sold a pup?

[Pandrew105]

After many years out of the hobby I have returned.  I was looking for a good all round telescope for a relative novice, possibly a reflector type but open to options (for planetary, moon and deeper space observation). I went to my local dealer's shop (I explained interest in go to scopes) who strongly pushed a Celestron Nexstar 102 SLT Maksutov Cassegrain scope.   Not sure if the dealer was interested in my requirements or the fact the Dealer seemed to have a 'job-lot' of the same model to sell.    Felt uncomfortable so walked away. Have seen no reviews of this scope, no idea of quality of optics or if its any good.  Does anyone have any experience with this telescope or able to offer any advice?  Thanks.

[johninderby]

The Celestron 102 mak is the same OTA as the Skywatcher Skymax102. An excellent  lunar and planetary scope with very good optics but not an allrounder. 

Prefer the Skymax102 on the AZ-GTi mount which is a much more modern mount.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes/sky-watcher-skymax-102-az-gti.html

Think this is a better allrounder as it is good for DSOs as well as lunar / planetary.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az-gti-wifi/sky-watcher-explorer-130ps-az-gti.html

The AZ-GTi mount can also be used in EQ mode with the addition on a wedge and counterweight bar later on if you want.

Edited October 4, 2020 by johninderby

[newtyng5]

As always depends on your budget. 

You cannot go wrong with something like a 6-10 inch dobsonian. 

That being said, you will probably find everything out of stock at the moment.

I have no experiance of celestron nexstar 102 SLT, but having owned a Celestron  9.5 inch SCT , and sold today my 11inch SCT celestron. I have nothing but 100% recommendation in celestron scopes.

Sorry i am not much help, but good luck! and clear skies!

[Alien 13]

I expect the dealer might favor what is available, most starter scopes are sold out everywhere apart from some scope/mount bundles...As for the 102 Mak it is very good for Lunar/Planetary views and handles imaging like no other scope. I think the Celestron Maks have better coatings and less reflective focus tubes but are identical to the Skywatcher versions in other ways.

Alan 

[johninderby]

I’ve owned Celestron and Skywatcher maks and they are absolutely identical except for the colour of the tube.

I do prefer the Bresser maks though and find they are just a bit better performers than the Celestron or Skywatcher.

[PEMS]

A 102 Mak is a little bit of a specialist scope. The focal length is long and that leads to a narrow view at the eyepiece. It is this narrow aspect that makes it slightly specialist.

Knowing a budget would be useful. The already mentioned Az GTi is a nice mount and if paired with 72Ed or something like an f/8 80mm achro would make a good all rounder.

[happy-kat]

I think member @vlaiv has this telescope, I couldn't find their post on thoughts of using it.

[Pandrew105]

Thanks for the advice.  Its a bewildering choice out there for the novice, at least when stock is available!  Don't want to be pushed into something that the dealer wants to sell because he has  a few in stock, it has to be suitable.  I am prepared to wait for the right one. There is plenty to see up there so a good all round flexible scope is my desire.  Budget is £500 max.

[johninderby]

Is having GOTO important or would you  rather find your way around with a manual mount?

[vlaiv]

3 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

I think member @vlaiv has this telescope, I couldn't find their post on thoughts of using it.

Yes, I do have Skywatcher version of this scope and indeed it is very fine lunar and planetary scope.  Many people say that it is narrow field scope, but I don't see it that way. I don't feel particularly "boxed in" with my 8" F/6 scope and that has only 100mm less focal length than Mak102 with its 1300mm.

Put 32mm plossl eyepiece in and you have fairly decent field of view. Scope is very sharp in use. I'm using mine mainly on AzGTI mount but I did not purchase bundled version as bundled version does not have collimation screws. There is no image shift when focusing that I could detect (was not specifically looking for it though), however there is slight backlash in focuser knob. I guess this will vary from item to item.

Other things that I noticed:

- Exit pupil is small so sky is much darker than other scopes of similar size

- In light pollution and around bright light sources, scope looses some contrast. This is due to baffling not being the best and this scope really needs a dew shield in use - it is known dew magnet but also, good longish dew shield will stop that baffling issues.

It delivers what you might expect from 4" aperture. In fact, I had it once in the field next to Skywatcher ST102 F/5 wide field refractor and images that it gave were similarly bright although much more magnified in Maksutov. M13 looked better in Mak due to additional magnification - it almost started to resolve some of the members and smudge was filling the eyepiece.

I managed NGC7331 with peripheral vision from Bortle 4 skies with that scope.

In the end - I took some rather nice images with that scope - the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn. Hopefully, I'll add Mars to "small scope collection" next.

[Pandrew105]

Sounds like the scope I was being shown is good for planetary and moon observation, which is fine but would be ideal to go deeper at other objects.  Quite like the idea of a computerised set up with go to package, not being to familiar with,  or be able to locate, the less well known sky objects, seems like manual adjustment would reduce the time observation. 

[johninderby]

Have a look at this vid.

 

[steppenwolf]

If you felt uncomfortable then you were right to walk away - not all dealers have your best interests at heart.

[bomberbaz]

If you want goto for observing, with decent aperture and are reasonbly techy savvy then I would buy this every day.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/az-goto/sky-watcher-star-discovery-150i.html

My reason being it's a 150 aperture, covers nearly all of the common deep sky objects, plus the mount, which is operated by a smart phone app only needs 8 AAA betteries to operate it. Simplicity itself

Steve

[happy-kat]

Any skyeatcher mount that lists Freedom Find can be used fully manually by moving with your hands (undo the clutches first) handy if power goes flat.

[maw lod qan]

After years of only looking up I got back in this sickness too. I bought an 8" reflector and built my dob mount.

Only thing I wish is I had gone 10" or even 12" from the start!

[Cosmic Geoff]

I am not convinced by the notion of a 'good all round' scope.  Designs vary so much that the result is usually more suitable for one function or another.  In the interests of transparency, I should reveal that the outfit the dealer was 'pushing' on you is the very same model I nearly bought to take home some years ago, but did not because it was out of stock at that store.

Re that dealer recommended outfit: almost nobody ever complains of buying a bad Maksutov.

Mak - good buy.

102mm - fine if you wanted a small, compact, portable instrument.  A bit on the small side for planets or some deep space objects like galaxies.

GoTo - good if you want to be looking at objects rather than for them, and don't mind having to deal with an electronic mount.  It is particularly useful if you live in an urban area.

f10 (or longer?) focal ratio - makes it good for objects requiring some magnification, e.g.  double stars and planets.   Not so great if you want to look at extended objects, eg the brighter and more famous open clusters.

If you see a contradiction above re. planets, well, right. They can look underwhelming when seen through a smaller telescope. 

Unless you are in the fortunate position of being able to try out several instruments before purchase, your first scope becomes part of an exercise of figuring out what your main interests are and what kind of scope you want to buy next.