Skymax 180 Views

[scitmon]

Hello all,

With Mars, Jupiter and Saturn all in the sky at the moment, I've been getting my newish SW Skymax 180 out a lot more.  I am having a couple of 'issues' with it though...

I bought a Hyperflex 9-27mm zoom ep to use with it, but I'm finding I can only get sharp images with the lowest magnification (27mm 100x) which I'm a little disappointed with.  I should at least be able to get 200x shouldn't I?  I know this scope takes time to cool which could be the issue? I do keep it in a box in my shed so it's not coming in from a warm house.

Also I'm finding the likes of Mars and Jupiter to be so bright they look washed out of any detail.  I have tried my Baader moon filter which helps a bit, but is this a case of needing a more specialised filter?

 

[Peter Drew]

So many things to impact on a good view at present.  Both Jupiter and Saturn are too low in the sky to stand much magnification and 100x is going to give too bright an image to show much detail.  Mars is receding fast and requires more magnification than the seeing often allows.  There is a small possibility that the telescope is not precisely collimated, a star test should reveal whether this is the case.    🙂

[scitmon]

Thank you.  I suspected that maybe the low horizon could be a factor on Jupiter and Saturn, but should I not be able to get more than 100x on Mars though?  I did see some Chromatic Aberration too which I'm not sure if that is common with this scope or not?

 

[johninderby]

Atmospheric refraction can give red and blue fringes on the edges of a bright planet when low down in the sky so it’s not your telescope. 

Edited December 14, 2020 by johninderby

[Stu1smartcookie]

Your scope is a beauty ... but does indeed need to be cooled ... however you should be able to push the magnification . But , as Peter said ... there are other factors to consider .. the "seeing" is a particularly annoying part of viewing the two gas giants as they really are so low in the sky . Mars is always a difficult planet ... even with it being so high in the sky . Many people have complained about not seeing too much detail on the planet . 

[dweller25]

Yes, as others have said cool down and collimation must be well done.

Despite your scope being in a shed it will still need to be cooled down when you bring it outside - best way is to remove the rear end cap and point the scope down. Alternately you could try a couple of layers of Reflectix.

 

[chiltonstar]

I've had a 180 Mak for about 5 years and I've never had to collimate it - the star tests are always near perfect and as they say, "if it aint broke, don't fix it". My smaller 127 Mak (10 years in use) has also never needed collimation.

Cooling can be an issue - I've insulated mine to reduce the problem, but even  w/out insulation, leaving it out to cool is usually enough except on nights when the air temperature is dropping very fast. As others have said, viewing Saturn and Jupiter near to the horizon is difficult because of seeing, but there will be evenings (warm, hazy for example) when you will get spectacular views.

The OP raises the question of special filters; IMO a 10% neutral density filter works well with Mars and Jupiter and brings out more detail. I've tried other filters, but I'm not sure they really made any significant improvement.

Chris

[Pete Presland]

I also owned a Mak180 "Planet killer" for many years. Never had to collimate it either, always seemed spot on with a star test.  It had a fair amount of mirror slop, which was little annoying. That said it gave me some fantastic views of Mars back then, just looked it was already 6 years ago 2014 😲

I sold it and bought a C9.25, which i thought might be a bit more of an all rounder, which it probably is. I would not mind betting though the Mak180 would have had the edge on the C9.25 when came to imaging the planets though. I just couldn't resist the extra aperture.

Here is the beauty "defrosting " after a particularly cold winter morning session.  I have certainly learnt a lot since those days, a heated dew shield essential for this weather, look at that poor corrector plate! 

 

[chiltonstar]

50 minutes ago, Pete Presland said:

I also owned a Mak180 "Planet killer" for many years. Never had to collimate it either, always seemed spot on with a star test.  It had a fair amount of mirror slop, which was little annoying. That said it gave me some fantastic views of Mars back then, just looked it was already 6 years ago 2014 😲

I sold it and bought a C9.25, which i thought might be a bit more of an all rounder, which it probably is. I would not mind betting though the Mak180 would have had the edge on the C9.25 when came to imaging the planets though. I just couldn't resist the extra aperture.

Here is the beauty "defrosting " after a particularly cold winter morning session.  I have certainly learnt a lot since those days, a heated dew shield essential for this weather, look at that poor corrector plate! 

 

That is a sad sight! The insulation on mine reduces dewing and frosting on the scope and front corrector, and avoids the need for a heated dew shield, although I suppose with a very long session, dewing will occur. The mirror slop I cured using the well known treatment - rotate the focuser to its maximum each way occasionally to spread the lubricant on the screw out along its length away from the area of most use. I've recently added an external focuser as well (not in image) which is worth while, certainly for high magnification.

Chris

 

[dweller25]

1 hour ago, Pete Presland said:

I also owned a Mak180 "Planet killer" for many years. Never had to collimate it either, always seemed spot on with a star test.  It had a fair amount of mirror slop, which was little annoying. That said it gave me some fantastic views of Mars back then, just looked it was already 6 years ago 2014 😲

I sold it and bought a C9.25, which i thought might be a bit more of an all rounder, which it probably is. I would not mind betting though the Mak180 would have had the edge on the C9.25 when came to imaging the planets though. I just couldn't resist the extra aperture.

Here is the beauty "defrosting " after a particularly cold winter morning session.  I have certainly learnt a lot since those days, a heated dew shield essential for this weather, look at that poor corrector plate! 

 

Yikes - am thinking of reporting you to the RSPC-T 😂

[scitmon]

9 hours ago, chiltonstar said:

The OP raises the question of special filters; IMO a 10% neutral density filter works well with Mars and Jupiter and brings out more detail. I've tried other filters, but I'm not sure they really made any significant improvement.

I own and was using https://www.firstlightoptics.com/moon-neutral-density-filters/baader-neutral-density-moon-filters.html, specifically the weakest one, "0.6".  Do you know how 0.6 translates to %?

 

EDIT: looked on Baaders website, and 0.6 translates to 25% transmission, perhaps a little too strong...

Edited December 16, 2020 by scitmon