MortonH
22-09-2013, 09:33 PM
Did a quick comparison between my two Maks tonight. Results were interesting.
The Intes Mk-65 is somewhere close to 20 years old but is in great condition. It's a Gregory design, just like the Skywatcher, with a focal length of 1500mm (f/10). The primary mirror is fixed. It has an unusual diagonal with built-in helical focuser. Although the focus travel is limited, it has sufficient range for my collection of eyepieces which include Televue, Pentax and Explore Scientific. The helical focuser is very smooth and precise. It takes 1.25" eyepieces only.
The Skywatcher Black Diamond is only around two years old and in mint condition. It has a focal length of 1800mm (f/12). It focuses by moving the primary mirror, so it can accommodate any eyepiece. The visual back is 2" so allows the use of all 2" accessories. So far I've only used 1.25" eyepieces.
From my light polluted home it wasn't possible to compare the scopes on faint fuzzies, but I did compare views of stars and globular clusters, especially 47 Tuc which is conveniently placed from my balcony. Both scopes were collimated and allowed plenty of time to cool down.
I couldn't match the magnifications in the two scopes but used a variety of eyepieces to get as close as possible, switching around so that neither scope was always at an "advantage" due to higher or lower power.
The results were interesting, if perhaps unsurprising. At low powers, using a Pentax XL 21mm in the Intes and Panoptic 22mm in the Skywatcher, globular views were very similar. The Skywatcher seemed a bit brighter, perhaps due to its more modern coatings and being a 'younger' scope. However, the views in the Intes were still very good.
I swapped around my eyepieces, moving up to a Delos 14mm, Pentax XW 10mm, Explore Scientific 8.8mm and 6.7mm and switching them between scopes.
After using all the eyepieces, I confirmed that the Skywatcher is indeed slightly brighter than the Intes, as you would expect. Contrast seemed similar between two scopes, which might mean the Intes is slightly better in that regard, but losing out on the brightness factor. This seemed to be confirmed when the Intes reached its limit of observable detail at a lower magnification than the Skywatcher.
In summary, the Intes is still a very good scope, and is only just overtaken by the "youth" of the Skywatcher. The side-by-side comparison shows the Skywatcher to be a slight but clear winner. However, if I hadn't done the comparison I'd still be pretty happy with the Intes.
Of course, there's no point in having two such similar scopes, so I reckon I'll be selling the Intes soon. The question is whether to sell the Skywatcher as well and go for a modern Russian model such as an Intes Micro, which is kind of my dream scope. Decisions...
The Intes Mk-65 is somewhere close to 20 years old but is in great condition. It's a Gregory design, just like the Skywatcher, with a focal length of 1500mm (f/10). The primary mirror is fixed. It has an unusual diagonal with built-in helical focuser. Although the focus travel is limited, it has sufficient range for my collection of eyepieces which include Televue, Pentax and Explore Scientific. The helical focuser is very smooth and precise. It takes 1.25" eyepieces only.
The Skywatcher Black Diamond is only around two years old and in mint condition. It has a focal length of 1800mm (f/12). It focuses by moving the primary mirror, so it can accommodate any eyepiece. The visual back is 2" so allows the use of all 2" accessories. So far I've only used 1.25" eyepieces.
From my light polluted home it wasn't possible to compare the scopes on faint fuzzies, but I did compare views of stars and globular clusters, especially 47 Tuc which is conveniently placed from my balcony. Both scopes were collimated and allowed plenty of time to cool down.
I couldn't match the magnifications in the two scopes but used a variety of eyepieces to get as close as possible, switching around so that neither scope was always at an "advantage" due to higher or lower power.
The results were interesting, if perhaps unsurprising. At low powers, using a Pentax XL 21mm in the Intes and Panoptic 22mm in the Skywatcher, globular views were very similar. The Skywatcher seemed a bit brighter, perhaps due to its more modern coatings and being a 'younger' scope. However, the views in the Intes were still very good.
I swapped around my eyepieces, moving up to a Delos 14mm, Pentax XW 10mm, Explore Scientific 8.8mm and 6.7mm and switching them between scopes.
After using all the eyepieces, I confirmed that the Skywatcher is indeed slightly brighter than the Intes, as you would expect. Contrast seemed similar between two scopes, which might mean the Intes is slightly better in that regard, but losing out on the brightness factor. This seemed to be confirmed when the Intes reached its limit of observable detail at a lower magnification than the Skywatcher.
In summary, the Intes is still a very good scope, and is only just overtaken by the "youth" of the Skywatcher. The side-by-side comparison shows the Skywatcher to be a slight but clear winner. However, if I hadn't done the comparison I'd still be pretty happy with the Intes.
Of course, there's no point in having two such similar scopes, so I reckon I'll be selling the Intes soon. The question is whether to sell the Skywatcher as well and go for a modern Russian model such as an Intes Micro, which is kind of my dream scope. Decisions...