Bresser Maksutov telescope MC 127/1900 Messier 5"

[Louis D]

A 72mm ED refractor is a great little grab and go scope for not an exorbitant amount of money or weight.  A 6.5 degree TFOV is possible with them when using 2" eyepieces.  I sometimes put it on the other side of my dual alt-az mount with the 127 Mak:

Another option for wider fields of view is a 6" f/5 Newtonian (up to a 3.7 degree TFOV).  My GSO version is super sharp, holds collimation perfectly, and is obviously completely apochromatic, so well suited to planetary viewing.  The downside is they are considerably bulkier than either the 72mm ED or 127 Mak.

[hal9550]

3 hours ago, John said:

After messing around with 2 inch eyepieces and diagonals when I had SCT's I came to the same conclusion !

You can get a 5" F/5 newt optical tube for as little as £50-£70 or an 102mm F/5 refractor for around £100 on the used market. You have the possibility of 3-4 degree true fields with such scopes 🙂

Yes i think so, its a no brainer - unfortunitely the used markets are very sparce in Ireland - but im just going to keep my powder dry for now, see what comes up!

[hal9550]

Done some observing tonight - The moon, Saturn - Served instead of a daytime test

I am again totally confused-

I tried the following eyepieces

• Orion Q70 26, 32, 38mm
• Omegon Plossl 56mm

I truly didnt see any fade off of the field. The eyepieces functioned as they would in my Schmidt  - in TFOV terms i gained nearly a half of a full degree  - and this despite the field stop of the 56mm eyepiece being 24mm too big

Genuinely am delighted but entirely confused - I moved Saturn across the entire field a few times, i did not notice any fade off - even at the edge - edge of field brightness perhaps, but only minimal and nothing remarkable given that i would experience the same with my Schmidt

Genuinely feel like i am missing something big here!! lol - how was there no discernible vignette