Sky Watcher SkyMax 180

[Knmurphy1]

Hi everyone,

I bought a SkyWatcher SkyMax 180 which arrived today.  My intention is to view/image Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon this Autumn / Winter (and Mars later). Any thoughts on this scope? Pros, cons etc. Is it possible to plate solve with such a long focal length?  Is deep sky imaging difficult or worth bothering with? I understand that only small DS objects are feasible given the narrow FOV.

If you have experience with this telescope any comments or advice would be very welcome. Oh, I got a Crayford 2 speed focusser for the scope also. Thanks,

Kevin.

 

[M40]

The skymax is superb on planets but not the best on deep sky as you say. Couple of thoughts for you.

I stuck an eaf on the focuser and it works great, gone is the shakey hand syndrome. I use the hand controller for focus.

You have an excellent mount so weight is not a concern, I have recently installed a guide scope and camera to the skymax with the plan to use the guide camera as the main camera for plate solving and goto on an asiair. This will leave you free to use the skymax for visual or a second camera. Weather being what the weather is, it's setup and good to go but not tried it yet, but asking the question others use this method with no worries.

All the best.

[Cosmic Geoff]

12 hours ago, Knmurphy1 said:

Is it possible to plate solve with such a long focal length?

It might prove challenging, given the small field of view.  But why would you want to platesolve, other than for imaging (small) deep space objects? 

I found that when imaging planetary nebulae etc with an 8" SCT and f6.3 focal reducer,  the 'Precise GoTo' available on Celestron mounts was usually enough to get the object into the camera FOV.

[Knmurphy1]

On 13/08/2023 at 12:49, Cosmic Geoff said:

It might prove challenging, given the small field of view.  But why would you want to platesolve, other than for imaging (small) deep space objects? 

I found that when imaging planetary nebulae etc with an 8" SCT and f6.3 focal reducer,  the 'Precise GoTo' available on Celestron mounts was usually enough to get the object into the camera FOV.

Hi Geoff, thanks for the reply. Yes you are correct, I understand plate solving is not required on Solar System objects. I was curious about the plate solving in the event that I might try imaging a globular or the likes of the ring nebula at some point.

[Knmurphy1]

On 13/08/2023 at 09:48, M40 said:

The skymax is superb on planets but not the best on deep sky as you say. Couple of thoughts for you.

I stuck an eaf on the focuser and it works great, gone is the shakey hand syndrome. I use the hand controller for focus.

You have an excellent mount so weight is not a concern, I have recently installed a guide scope and camera to the skymax with the plan to use the guide camera as the main camera for plate solving and goto on an asiair. This will leave you free to use the skymax for visual or a second camera. Weather being what the weather is, it's setup and good to go but not tried it yet, but asking the question others use this method with no worries.

All the best.

Thanks for the tips. Using the guide scope to plate solve sounds like a great idea. I think it would need to be very accurately aligned with a scope of such a long focal length to get the object in the FOV.  Looking forward to viewing the moon and planets this Autumn. I have a 127 Mak for many years and I'm keen to see the comparison