Mak for terrestrial?

[tico]

Hello, Does anyone use a Maksutov 102 or 127 for terrestrial observation? Thank you ,

Tico

[Cosmic Geoff]

What about this? Does it answer your question?

 

[PeterW]

Have done, crazy magnifications. It’ll only take 1.25” ep, so I use a 24mm wide ep normally.  Needs a solid tripod. I’ve flocked the inside of the tube, the secondary baffle and the baffle tube to help the contrast, though it’s still a little less contrast than other scopes.  For high power views it’s a cheap and potent option, though you can’t get low powers unless you accept plossl width fields.

peter

[Paz]

Yes I've done incidental terrestrial with a 127mm f15 maksutov and 45 degree erecting prism diagonal e.g. observing birds at an rspb reserve (Im not a bird watcher, I just sometimes go to nature reserves to do astronomy) or ships in the distance if I'm on holiday by the coast.

It's a lot of magnification and  narrow field of view.

[Captain Scarlet]

I’ve even used my skymax 180 for terrestrial, with the same 45 degree right-image prism that @PeterW has (William Optics, it’s not at all bad), with consequently even crazier magnifications: the skymax 180 has a focal length of nearly 3000mm. On cool still days it’s perfectly possible, though with a “low power” eyepiece and corresponding too-large exit pupil, the amount of the exit pupil actually entering your own eye’s pupil increasingly gets taken up by the the Central Obstruction, leading to a very noticeable dark patch at centre-view. The same thing will happen with a Skymax 127, I think.

But I have managed to identify a Great Egret with it from my patio at 5km distance.

Magnus