Skywatcher 127 Mak

[RichieP]

Having only ever used refractors, I thought I would take a punt and try out a second hand Skywatcher 127 Mak which I picked up from

eBay for about £100 less than retail price.

The Scope

The scope was in very good condition when it arrived and I was impressed with the general build quality which is good for the price.

Of particular note is the focussing; I was a little wary of any focussing mechanism which moves the primary optics in order to focus (as my only experience of such a thing was my horrid little ETX70) but I was pleasantly suprised at how smooth it was, with no slop and a nice large knob. The scope came with a bog standard mirror diagonal and a red dot finder. I replaced these with a prism diagonal I bought from Orion Optics several years ago and also a Baader Sky Surfer V rdf, both of which were lying around in my bits and bobs drawer. I also added an Astrozap flexible dew shield.

The scope was rather out of collimation when I received it, but after a while hunting on the web, I found a collimation guide for an Orion Apex 127 (which is basically the same scope) and it was not too difficult to get it into reasonable collimation using a cheshire eyepiece.

I intend to use this with an EQ3-2, but intitially I wanted to use this with an EZTouch mount, which is a little fussy about what dovetails it can accept as they have to slide in from the bottom rather than being dropped in from above. Fortunately I had a WO dovetail bar in my bits and bobs drawer, and here is where I hit a problem in that there is no match between the holes in the dovetail and the bolt holes in the mounting plate attached to the scope. Currently it is attached with a single bolt, albeit a very tight bolt, which is far from ideal.

First Light

The first thing I learned is that an RDF is not much use. Given this scope has a 1¼" visual back the lowest magnifcation and largest fov I can achieve with with my current eyepiece collection is with a Meade series 5000 26mm which equates to 58x and 1.04° This makes it rather difficult to find objects and I was sent scurrying back to my drawer again to find a 9x50 straight through finderscope. I found my drawer very useful and am glad I didn't give into the temptation to flog everything on eBay - you will never know when you might need something again!

After leaving to scope to cool down for an hour, I tried it on a few objects, comparing it with my Megez 90 in a completely unscientific and meaningless comparison which had more to do with how cool these two scopes look mounted side by side on the EZTouch! I used the Meade 5000 26mm for location, and 14mm (107x) and 9mm (167x) eyepieces from the same range.

M13 looked great and I was able to resolve significantly more stars in the Mak than in the refractor, the extra aperture clearly counting despite the central obstuction. M57 and M27 also showed up well, particularly when using a UHC filter. Jupiter looked particularly fine, giving nice crisp image comparable to the Megrez. One test I would have liked to perform would be to ramp up the power on the two scopes to see how they compared but the low position of Jupiter in the sky pretty much ruled that out.The main difference I found was that, with all that focal length (1500mm) I could achieve decent magnifications using lower power eyepieces, which are always more comfortable to use. I have not had a shot at the moon yet, but that is next on the list.

A quick star test showed some nice diffraction rings, although it appears my collimation is not quite spot on, which is something I shall have to have another go at.

Focussing was easy, and I saw nothing that might be decsribed as image shift.

Ergonomically, the only problem I came across was that the finder scope is mounted a little too far back and sometime gets in the way of my head. Perhaps I just have a big head though.

Summary

I do like this scope, it's definitely a keeper. It's a very compact and lightweight way of getting 5 inches of aperture and, despite Maks always being described as lunar and planetary scopes, it performs well on the more compact DSOs. The big issue I think is going to be in finding those objects. The narrow field of view isn't going to help and I deliberately picked the objects above because I can find them with my eyes closed. I can see, however, why this scope is popular with the GOTO enthusiasts where finding objects isn't such a problem.

For this reason, despite the extra aperture, it's not going to supplant the Megrez 90 as my grab and go scope. Its narrow field of view limits its flexibility and there is the cooldown time to consider as well. It has got me thinking in terms of a larger rich field refractor though.

If, however, I fancy some planetry or lunar action, and I can't be bothered to lug the AR5/GM8 downstairs then this is the scope I will be reaching for which, together with the EQ3-2, is going to give me some fine views I am sure.

Richard

[Macavity]

Excellent (and very fair!) review. I love my little MAK.

The 127 is [iMO] on the "cusp" of being of "narrow field of view". It is a 1500mm scope - But not much longer focal length than yer average Dobsonian and moreover easy to fit with a 2" adaptor (or diagonal) to work with upto 30mm 70 Deg 2" e.p.s. Then (within limits) you have a cracking general purpose scope!

Recently I have been using just a RDF with mine, and I sense (as you suggest?) a better finder is (also) needed. Even with a GoTo, I'm going to try and squeeze a spare 9x50 RACI finder closer to the balance point. With FAINT DSOs there is still a sort of "no mans land", even if the GoTo is set up reasonably accurately.

[PaulG]

Nice review Richard

I used to have the 127 which sat nicely enough on my EQ3-2, in fact I could pick up the whole kit and kaboodle and just walk outside with it.

If I was going to split hairs then absolute detail was resolved with my 120mm F8.3 Achro on the Moon but the Mak gave it a real good run for it's money.

The 127 Mak is a great budget planetary scope that is easy on the back pocket and packs a BIG punch.

Also the Moon & Mak really fills the frame on a digital DSLR when prime focus is used.

Paul

[prokyon]

Hi Richard,

I like this scope too. Though I use it all at first for drift alignment. 1500mm are perfect for that. But sometimes I make some pics of moon and planets with the webcam. The results are good.

An example, done with the 127 Mak and 2x Barlow:

cheers

werner

[bish]

I like the pic - amazing shadows being cast by the mountains.