Skymax 180 guiding & barlow options?

[Rich1980]

Hi, 

I had my first night out with the 180 last night. Had a good look at the moon along with jupiter and saturn using a 23mm eyepiece. The 10mm eyepiece was fairly dark and struggled to get focus bang on. I do have a skywatcher fine focuser on it. 

As far as barlow or powermate options go, is 2x the most realistic choice to go? Are the benefits of a powermate over a barlow worthwhile? 

I will also be doing some imaging through it with my modded Canon 550d and adding a ZWO ADR at some stage. 

I have a ASI224 I use for guiding (and polar alignment and goto via the ASIAIR too) through a guide scope, I aligned this with the 180 at the beginning of the night but on some targets it didn't seem aligned. Would this potentially be because it is mounted by the guidescope foot bracket? Are there any better options to counter this issue? 

Finally, is attaching the ASI224 to the 180 worth a try too? 

Thanks in advance, 

Rich. 

[Cosmic Geoff]

I assume you refer to the Skywatcher 180mm Maksutov.  This has a very long focal ratio, so a 10mm eyepiece will give a magnification of a massive x270 and if it's a starter kit eyepiece the results may not be great.  If it is one of those, then replace it ASAP with something better.

With a f15 focal ratio a Barlow will be non-essential for visual and unless you have great seeing at your site a Barlow or Powermate will be non-essential for imaging also.  With my f10 SCT I have in general found a Barlow to be no help for planetary imaging.

You don't say what you want to image.  The scope is far more suited to planetary or double star viewing and planetary imaging than for any other role.  Rather than using the Canon 550D, I suggest you try a dedicated planetary camera. Your ASI224MC would be ideal for this purpose.

[Pete Presland]

As Geoff said the Mak180 has a huge focal length, 2700mm if I remember correctly. It's a very fine planetary imaging scope, don't think you find many people guiding and capturing DSO's though.

The Asi224mc is an excellent planetary imaging camera choice, probably quite well suited to the scope. Adding a Barlow is probably going to be a little to much, but I would try anyway if you have one.

[Rich1980]

Thanks guys, 

Yeah mainly planetary and lunar stuff really. I'll try it out with the 224 on it next time. 

Will see about plate solving at that field of view. 

I'll report back after the next trip out, thanks again.