Any small Mak owners?

[MortonH]

I'm thinking of getting a 90m or 102mm Mak-Cass for casual lunar or planetary viewing when I can't be bothered getting the big stuff out. I'd be using it on a sturdy camera tripod.

Just wondering if anyone has one of these and what you think of them.

[raymo]

I've had one, and used the other, and both do a great job. I would go with
the 102, or even the 127 if you consider it small and light enough for your
needs. I am biased, being a Mak fan, but they are a really good choice for
your needs, the short tube being convenient for portability, and less
susceptible to the wind than a frac.
raymo

[MortonH]

Thanks Raymo. I've had a 127mm Mak on loan for a while but it's bigger and heavier than what I'm looking for.

Agree that a 102mm would be better but I'll see what's available. Hoping to buy used (hence my wanted ad) but I don't think many have been sold on IIS over the years. There's a Seben 90mm in the classifieds just now but it's more of a spotting scope setup so not really what I'm after.

[ab1963]

Morton i used to have a Vixen VMC110L and was nice and sharp on planets but that was about it IMO, good for terrestrial viewing though but the advantage with them is the open objective for faster cooling down time but the negative with them was difficulty in collimating due to glued screws that could easily snap if you wasn't careful and how it was a bit of a lottery to get one well collimated from Vixen so overall didn't do it for me and dd not have it long

[MortonH]

I've read a lot of poor reviews about the smaller Vixen VMC's so they're definitely not under consideration. A simple Mak-Cass would do nicely.

[Wavytone]

Hi Morton,

For a very many years I had a Meade 4" f/10 SCT OTA that went on a sturdy camera tripod, originally for observing solar eclipses with full aperture filter in the 80s and 90s. It was small enough to go as cabin luggage nicely on a plane and have room left for all the normal things you'd take on a holiday.

It was fine as you imply for just a quick look at something that doesn't demand a big scope, mainly sun moon and planets, and the Maks around 102-127mm are similar, though will have longer f ratios - most seem to be f/13 to f/15.

The only caveat is stay away from the Meade ETX scopes as the mounts were plastic and horrid things.

Haven't tried a vixen VMC, though for a small aperture scope they seem to have missed the point - some of the big advantages of Maks and SCT's are the closed tube design means the corrector supports the secondary (no vanes), dust stays firmly out so the mirror coatings last a long time, and next to no issues with collimation.The VMC lacks these aspects and has vanes to support the secondary.

just don't expect Questar grade optics. The Questar 3.5" scopes are in a class of their own and I can understand why people buy them.

[MortonH]

Thanks Wavy. This is definitely not for critical observing so I'm going in with at least one eye open!

[Allan_L]

Hi Morton,
Have you considered a Celestron 4SE?
Optical Design Maksutov-Cassegrain
Aperture (mm) 102 mm
Focal Length 1325 mm
Focal Ratio 13
Light Gathering Power (Compared to human eye) 212 x
Apparent Field of View 1 °
Secondary Mirror Obstruction 35 mm
Secondary Mirror Obstruction by Area 12%
Optical Coatings StarBright XLT
Optical Tube Length 343 mm
Total Telescope Kit Weight 4.99 kg
Tripod Weight 4.54 kg

[MortonH]

Hi Allan,

Yes, the 4SE would be an option although I'm just after the OTA.

[Talby]

Morton , I recently purchased a 90mm Mak for the same reason and as a travel scope, found the scope itself ok for moon, planets, also able to see M8,M17, even 5128-reasonably dark site and no moon. I do have a problem using the camera tripod with tracking at higher mag though In retrospect ,a alt /az astro tripod may be a better choice- but my camera tripod is a cheapie

[MortonH]

Thanks Brad. That's useful to know it can pick out 5128 under decent conditions.

[dannat]

skywatcher virtuoso has my vote, 250US, includes an ra tracking mount, could be useful to throw your camera on, either for timelapse or some widefield. base of mount has 3/8" thread to sit on tripod for basic alignment & w/f photo using d-sl. camera bracket incl.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/929340-REG/sky_watcher_s11750_virtuoso_versati le_mount.html
PS i took a etx90ra to the US, regret seling it, good for quik looks, used for bear watching also in yellowstone..it out did a few $2K spotters, as the bears were on toher side of valley, had it cranked upto 130x during day

[MortonH]

The Virtuoso looks interesting. B&H Photo has it for US $250 plus $87 shipping which equates to around AU$445.

Andrews has it listed for $479 and says "due very soon". The picture on the Andrews picture shows the funky red tube with white lettering on it - looks like an oversized can of Coke!

[Retrograde]

Hi Morton,

I've had a little 80mm Mak (f11) since the late 1980s which I originally bought for eclipse travel. It's not exactly a high quality piece of kit (it was all I could afford at the time) but is extremely light and easy to handle and I've always used it on a light-weight camera tripod without any issues. I will still take it with me to the US next year for the eclipse as a backup scope. The views through it on anything apart from lunar/solar/bright planets are pretty dim however so my advice would be to go for around 100/102mm of aperture if you can.

[julianh72]

I've got a TwinStar-branded 90 mm Mak (FL 1200 mm / f/13.3) that I bought on eBay about 2 years ago for US$150 - I think the same telescope is available under quite a few brands. The key feature which distinguishes it is that it has a screw-threaded straight-through rear-port, and an internal flip-mirror to a second eye-piece port. I have bought a Mak-to-SCT adapter, so I can fit standard SCT accessories onto the rear port.

The telescope came with a 45° correct-image diagonal, so it makes a great terrestrial spotting scope. Replace the 45° diagonal with a 90° diagonal, and it's a very compact astro-scope.

The two ports are not par-focal (and not perfectly on-axis either - there's a bit of image shift when you flip from one port to the other), but I find I can fit a low power (eg 32mm Plossl) eyepiece in a short expansion tube in the flip-mirror port, and a higher power eyepiece and diagonal in the rear port, and then I have two almost par-focal eyepieces, which I find to be a great set-up for casual viewing. Enjoy the wider views in the 32 mm eyepiece, then flip to the higher power eyepiece, with just a small amount of fine focus required.

As a light-weight small-aperture scope, it is wonderful. The optics are absolutely pin-sharp and cool-down time is minimal. The supplied 8x21 finder scope is pretty useless, but I have replaced it with a red-dot finder, and that works much better. The supplied tripod is barely adequate even for low power, but it is now mounted on a more robust Alt-Az mount with slow-motion drives, and that works MUCH better for Astro viewing.

It is no match for my 200 mm SCT, but it's a great travel-scope, and I won't be selling it any time soon!

[julianh72]

The Seben 90 mm in the Classifieds looks identical to my TwinStar. If you get a Mak-to-SCT threaded adapter, you can remove the supplied 45° diagonal, and fit a standard 90° diagonal (or any other SCT accesories) to the straight-through rear port - it works great for me!

[Nikolas]

As an addendum to the above it also has a fliptop mirror and you can add an eyepiece or camera straight to it.