focal reducer

[brbelly]

Just a quick question. Would a 0.6 focal reducer make it possible to look at DSO's thought my 127 mak?

By my calculation it would reduce the focal length to 900mm, but is the seeing affected?

Thanks Lee

[Merlin66]

You don't say which reducer you'll use. If you can get the Mak to SCT thread then the Meade/ Celestron x0.63 reducers can be used, but IMHO they don't give all that fantastic performance.

The long focal length of the Mak makes it ideal of lunar/ planetary / double stars etc but is very limited in wide angle DSO type stuff.

That's the nature of the beast...

Ken

[brbelly]

was looking at the astro engineering 1.25" 0.6x focal reducer

[Merlin66]

Is that a 1.25" filter size?? If so then it's designed for webcams not visual.

[brbelly]

the skys and scopes website said it could be used for visual to. Thanks looks like youv'e saved me spending money id shouldn't need to.

[RichieP]

Don't forget that it is perfectly possible to get a field of view of over a degree with a 127 Mak, which is okay for viewing most DSOs. e.g. I use a 26mm Meade 5000 eyepeice with a 60 degree afov, giving me 1.04 degrees of actual view at 58x.

Problem can be in actually finding the DSOs in the first place so I would recommend a good optical finder.

Regards

Richard

[riklaunim]

Filter threaded focal reducer will help you get bigger filed in eyepieces with moderate focal length (and smaller). Widefield 1,25" about 32-40 mm eyepiece could be better. Note that in small 127 mak you won't see fainter DS clearly.