First light with my Mak 127

[Bobcat]

Finally had some clear skies last night here in Leicester so had it all planned properly...

Skymax 127 MAK set up outside from 6pm to let it cool down..

Aligned the finder-scope

Thermos full of brew ready at 7.30pm

Did the Brightest star alignment... needed Stellarium help with this for some stars.

I've had the most amazing views of the moon on the 25 ep and 10 ep. Put in the 2x barlow and even more detail ... fantastic !!

Told the Goto to slew to Mars and it was spot on. Didn't really get to see much with the barlow + 10ep... maybe need more mag (POWERRRR!!)

Next up was Orion nebula.... not much other than some grey smudge... but it was as expected with the MAK. Any tips on this?

Then it was Pleiades.... showed up lovely on the finderscope .. could make out the individual stars... but looking through the scope was quite a different experience. Used the 25ep and could make out the stars but I think I might need a wider ep to get the full effect. Any tips?

So onto the highlight of the night. Checked stellarium and found that Saturn will be making an appearance..

Synscan... go to Saturn ... and WOW:eek:

With a 25ep, its good... with 10ep it's better

with a barlow + 10ep.... WOW.... got the family to look at it and even they were amazed.

So with one final look at Saturn it was midnight and to pack things up.

The 127 skymax mak is one fantastic scope especially for planets. Not too sure I'm gonna get it to see galaxies/nebulae properly.

[Phil Fargaze]

It is a fact that visually for deep sky objects such as open clusters and galaxies you will need a wider field scope. A good excuse to go purchase a big dob me thinks! Then you have got the best of both worlds. I certainly plan to get a Mak to compliment my dob, as soon as the finances allow.

[A McEwan]

Sounds great! But am a bit concerned about your description of Orion nebula being just a grey blob? What eyepice was that with? Even with the 25mm you should have been able to make out the Trapezium and several distinct parts of the nebula itself. Suggest when you look at it again you pan around the view a bit and take some time to let the detail come out.

Saturn was great wasn't it. I had a look last night too!

LOack of detail wasn't your scope's fault, methinks: there was very little detail evident even with extended viewing for me last night. Just the polar caps and a hint of planetary detail - not much that was very obvious.

Enjoy the new scope!

Ant

[Talitha]

The wider 25mm ep supplied with your f/11.81 scope gives you 60x (1200mm focal length divided by 25mm). To find out what the actual fov of the ep is, divide the manufacturer's 'apparent field' by 60x.

IIRC, most of the ep's supplied with new scopes are Plossl's with an apparent field of 52°.. if that's accurate in your case, then your 25mm ep will have an actual fov of .87°.. almost the width of two Full Moons.

[Talitha]

What a wonderful first night out! You're right inthat the Maks excell at planetary work, but they do ok for galaxies and nebulae too.. at least my little 90mm ETX RA does.

Just wondering, though.. were you using the Barlow when you viewed M42? Assuming the supplied 25mm ep is a standard Plossl with a manufacturer's 'apparent field' 52°, your 25mm eyepiece should give you a 'true fov' of nearly one degree (60')... enough to fit in the entire nebula.

(Someone double-check this, please..)

1500mm fl divided by 25mm = 60x

52° divided by 60x = 0.866°

[A McEwan]

That's where I was coming from, Talitha.

[Bobcat]

Phil,

A dob is indeed on the plans (or was until last night). The missus wants to hook up my DSLR and start taking pics so maybe might end up getting a refractor instead... oooooh choices... Dobby or Refractor!! lol

Maybe a T-adapter would be a good start.

Ant,

I'm going to give Orion a try again tonight with it being much clearer than last night (slight haze could be seen). Saturn was fantastic indeed

Talitha,

The 25ep I used is the standard one supplied with Skywatcher Mak and I think the FOV is 50 deg. I don't really remember whether I had the barlow on the 25ep... I'm sure I didn't but gonna give it a try again tonight anyways ....

Gotta put the scope out to cool and do a quick re-alignment. Enjoy the viewing all...

B

[DarkerSky]

Great report there Bobcat. Mars is showing a difficult side to observe in the evenings at the mo. If you can get to x250 mag in some steady air you should start pulling out a little detail. But it is a subtle detail at the mo.