grab and go tabletop for planets

[tripleped]

Interested to know  what folks think of the Orion StarMax 90mm table top Mak for grab and go planet and lunar observing?  With the large planets in fairly good  position for now it would be nice to have  a quick set  up option on nights  I just don't feel like dragging  out  my 10 " Dob (although I do like it very much )   Looking for something very light weight so this fits the bill in that regard. What  about  cool down time for this scope?   Any thoughts, personal experience with this?  Thanks.

[dweller25]

Thoughts but not personal experience re the 90mm Mak…….

I would buy a 130mm table top Dobsonian as it will cool quicker and has more resolution.

[tripleped]

good  to know       such  as the Heritage  130 for example?

[Andrew_B]

Do you have a budget in mind?

The most grab and go setup in terms of being ready to use ASAP with little cool down time would be a small refractor. A Mak should be good for the Moon and planets and is a really compact solution, but they're not the quickest to acclimatise.

[dweller25]

14 hours ago, tripleped said:

good  to know       such  as the Heritage  130 for example?

Yes 👍

[Louis D]

I tried a 90mm Mak, but found the views just too dim and low resolution to be fulfilling.  Jumping up slightly to a 127mm Mak improved matters considerably without going overboard on weight and size.

I would agree with others in this thread that a 130 or 150 Heritage would probably work well for your needs.  Neither will be perfect, but what telescope is?

[Highburymark]

I had a 105mm ETX which was a great lunar scope, and wonderful for quick views - and actually cooldown was pretty rapid too. But you’re not going to see satisfying detail beyond the two main rings on Jupiter for example. The current generation of larger table top Dobsonians look like a much more tempting proposition.

[Stu]

Agree with the above comments. I think a 90mm Mak will be quite unrewarding, especially after a 10” dob. The Heritage 130p or 150p would be much better.

[Andrew_B]

On 23/10/2021 at 18:15, Highburymark said:

I had a 105mm ETX which was a great lunar scope, and wonderful for quick views - and actually cooldown was pretty rapid too. But you’re not going to see satisfying detail beyond the two main rings on Jupiter for example. The current generation of larger table top Dobsonians look like a much more tempting proposition.

That sounds like a lot less detail than you'd see through a decent 3" refractor. Is the 105mm ETX really that bad?

[Merlin]

I have a Skymax 90mm ‘scope and get superbly sharp views of the Moon with the WO binoviewer. Jupiter and Saturn look good too for the aperture.

[Highburymark]

15 hours ago, Andrew_B said:

That sounds like a lot less detail than you'd see through a decent 3" refractor. Is the 105mm ETX really that bad?

Was commenting on limitations of 90mm against bigger tabletop options. I love small Maks - but there is a limit to how much detail you can see with 90mms. Under good conditions, the 105 was able to reveal the GRS on Jupiter and Cassini on Saturn, and it was capable of incredibly sharp lunar views - just as good as an expensive apo. But under average seeing, it was difficult to resolve much beyond the main features of the planets. Considering the OP also has a 10” dob, a 90mm Mak might ultimately prove unsatisfying.

[Moodtastic]

130p heritage is a pretty good scope for ultra quick viewing of moon and planets. Cools down fast, its light weight, affordable, and has just enough apperture for satisfying visual astronomy of bright objects.