Eye Piece Suggestions for Mak 180

[Bushy69]

Hello Everyone.

I have recently purchased a used Skywatcher Mak 180 Pro (Gold Tube) OTA and HEQ5 Pro Mount. I already have a Skywatcher 8" f5 on a Dob mount and a handful of lenses that came with the 8" scope (all average TBH).

The Mak 180 came with the original Lenses (Pictured) and they are seriously awful. I have been getting by with some Meade 4000 lenses that came with a Coronado PST.

I am awaiting the Mak to SCT Visual Back Adapter, and plan on adding a 2" Dual Speed Focuser and a 2" Good quality diagonal (as I suspect the stock 1.25" diagonal that ships with the Mak 180 is a POS).

I have a 1.25" Meade 4000 8-24 Zoom in transit (just cos I have always wanted to assess the zooms) but this was primarily purchased for the Coronado PST.

So my question... I am after a couple of good quality eyepieces... something around the 12mm mark and also a low power eyepiece (24mm to 30mm range). The Mak 180 has a 30mm visual back opening, so assuming anything over 30mm is going to be an issue (though I have read people happily using 35mm Panoptics).

Price is always a consideration, but I would rather spend once on quality rather than chasing my tail and buying/selling.

I am visual only (dabble in basic AP), and when planets are down, tend towards small DSO's and Double Stars.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,

Bushy

[OzEclipse]

Steve (Unipol) has a number of Televue Radian eyepieces for sale in the classifieds. There is a 12mm Radian there for $240 which will work well on both your scopes. He really looks after his gear so you should get a mint condition eyepiece.

A new 35mm Panoptic will cost you $559+post. It will give you a 0.75 deg field of view with a 2.3mm exit pupil and 77x.

It will also give you a 7mm exit pupil on your f5 with a 2 degree field.

At f15 your Mak is quite forgiving of eyepiece design. The GSO superview eyepieces at $89 should perform quite well with the Mak. The 42mm will yield 1.06 deg at 64x with a 2.8mm exit pupil, the 30mm will yield 0.76deg at 90x with a 2mm exit pupil. These eyepieces are less well-suited to your f5 and the 42 and 50mm eyepieces will probably show a dark spot in the centre of field from the diagonal mirror.

Joe

[Bushy69]

Thanks Joe,

I was eying the 12mm Radian... will have a closer look.

Thanks for reply, much appreciated.

Justin

[Wavytone]

Another very nice one in your scope is the Vixen 13mm SSW, similar price. I found 10mm useful on nights with good seeing, as well.

[MattT]

Baader Morpheus are on sale right now.

I don’t have a Mak but a 6” f12 Refractor and the Morpheus are great in it.

Have used Naglers, ES 82’s, ES 68’s and Pentax XW’s in this scope and the Morpheus are my keepers. I have 6.5 9 12.5 14 and the 17.5 on the way. Longer fl’s are Panoptics.

Agena Astro and others in the US sell them for USD 179 til May 18. Much cheaper than Delos and Vixen SSW.

[Bushy69]

Thanks Matt and Wavy,

Too many options melting my brain. haha

[Wavytone]

I’d suggest trying before buying - if there’s a club near you pay a visit and do some swaps.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[bigjoe]

Hi Matt..
Those Morpheus are going out for a ridiculously cheap price now, for what you get... they use ED and Lanthanum Glass ...seem best value on the Planet ATM.

Bigjoe

[MattT]

I like an easy view even though I don’t wear glasses. The Morphs fit the bill with long ER and a big lens...just like longer fl Panoptics. Very close to XWs in feel. For slightly less scatter at high mags I’ll get out my orthos.... it I’m not really into the perfect view anyway.... only have long focal length achromat’s.

[bigjoe]

Matt...
Had a wonderful looking and performing 4" Unitron once at f15 ..had long Depth of Focus, and never seemed to be affected by poor seeing..sold it to someone in Jamberoo years back..wish I hadn't!

bigjoe.

[Bushy69]

I went for the Radian 12mm that UniPol had listed in Classifieds here. Nice to support the IIS community, quicker than Morph from US (I have a Mak to SCT adapter on order from Agena, and it is a 2 to 4 week wait) and I have always wanted to see what all the fuss is with regards to TV eyepieces.

Still looking for that 25mm to 30mm option, and I think until a 27mm Panoptic pops up at a good price, the GSO 30mm Superview eyepieces at $89 looks like it could fit the bill (thanks Joe).

I might still try the 17mm Morph to fit in-between the Radian and the 30mm GSO.... as the wait wont be as bad while I have a couple in the tube.

Really appreciate all your feedback, very useful.

Justin

[Waxing_Gibbous]

I think with a Mak, you'll want to go for a wider FoV than a plossl or orthoscopic type EP. I found the 11mm Nagler and 27mm Panoptic to be ideal at f10 and up.
The ES 11mm is also an excellent EP, but I've not used it in a Mak.
FWIW, my eyepiece set for my Intes (f15) was:
11mm Nag.
16mm Nag.
24mm Panoptic
27mm Panoptic
30mm Generic 80* from MyAstroShop (Can't remember the name).

Hope that helps.

[ab1963]

I second the 35 Panoptic ,Good option.....:thumbsup:

[Bushy69]

Thanks Peter that does help. Did you have a preference between the 24mm and 27mm Panoptic?

Andrew, I have read elsewhere that the 35mm Panoptic is a nice fit for the Mak Cas 180, but having a restriction of 30mm visual back opening, I wonder if this will cause any optical issues.

My wallet will only stretch to one of the Panoptics (substitute wallet for wife), and I am torn between 27mm and 35mm (or even the 24mm).

Cheers,

Justin

[ab1963]

The 35 pan is the limit for this scope and will not vignette ,The 41 pan is a different story and would vignette ,I had a 35 pan and loved it in my refractor but had to sacrifice it to get my 21 Ethos or else it would never had left me ,Put a wanted in the classifieds and then if you don't like it can always move it on again but I don't think you will it's a lovely eyepiece.....

[Rkonrad]

dont have a 180 Mak but a 150 which I mainly use for detail moon/planetary use I never had an issue using cheap Plossl eyepieces but the slighly more expensive celeston X cell LX work well , I certainly would not get expensive eyepieces for a Mak

[ab1963]

He is asking for advice on a 180 not a 150 which i think the people who have posted their advice has all been good for the scope at hand ,Lots of different things at play here ,Coatings ,Fov ,etc ,etc.Premium ep's are for a lifetime of good viewing through whichever scope you throw them in and from one who learned the hard way good money spent on eyepieces is never wasted IMO....:)

[Wavytone]

Not true - I’ve had 2 SW 180 maks over 10 years, Bigjoe had one (I bought his a while back) and I’m now using a 9” f/13 mak.

Agreed I’ve resisted TV eyepieces and there are certainly some excellent choices in midrange and even budget pricing. Regardless of cost there are some aspects that remain important in the eyepieces - sharpness over the field, contrast, lack of ghosts and flare with bright objects, field curvature, lateral colour off axis and so-on.

The selection of eyepiece focal lengths however is primarily determined by the focal ratio of the scope, first and foremost. F/15 is f/15, regardless of aperture.

[ab1963]

What the heck are you talking about i am talking about these 2 scopes and as far as i am concerned suggestions for the 180 are good
Skywatcher 180/2700 f15
Skywatcher 150/1800 f12

These 2 scopes are not both f15 which makes them different animals
a 35 panoptic in both scopes

180/2700 f15 ex pupil 2.33mm -77x mag-fov-0.88 deg
150/1800 f12 ex pupil 2.92mm -51x mag-fov-1.32 deg

Already said if you read it properly the properties of an eyepiece is so important and top shelf eyepieces give you this,Whether you have a 9'' Mak or not is irrelevant and cannot understand why you would throw that into the ring ,I am just trying to help someone out with a suggestion for an eyepiece which will marry well with the 180 Mak.....

[Bushy69]

I have to be honest, forking out retail price for some TV eyepiece would cost as much in marriage counseling as the eyepieces themselves. However, good brand and quality 2nd hand eyepieces change that considerably. This Mak Cass is my 6th telescope in about 10 years (I still have 3 and have sold 3). So my theory is to start building a nice collection of quality accessories that could be used with future scopes, or at least on sold if not suitable for a particular scope.

I have a collection of crappy eyepieces that gather dust and take up space... yet combined, probably still cost as much as a top quality eyepiece. So my belated new years resolution is to have less but better quality.

The suggestions so far have been really useful, thanks to all for taking time to comment.

Justin

[ab1963]

I wish you all the best Justin

[Bushy69]

Thanks Andrew,

Will be keeping an eye out for a 2nd Hand TV Panoptic 35mm.... I think that will be a really nice Wide Field addition to the Mak Cass 180.

Having a few focusing issues at the moment (which is probably a thread on its own), but so far have been very happy with the scope (views of the moon have been breathtaking).

Cheers,

Justin

[WilliamPaolini]

I "believe" that the current line of SW Maks use the same standard threading for the back as do Celestron and Meade SCTs. If so then the .63x reducers that are sold for those SCTs will fit. I used to have the Orion Apex 127 Mak and used the .63x Celestron reducer on it but needed special adapters from Scopestuff. At any rate, it worked wonderfully.

If the reducer fits your 180 then it will become f/9.5. The reducer itself cannot take the full field stop of a 2" eyepiece but I find they generally work well visually with field stops as large as about 36mm. Not sure the 35 Pan would work because its field stop is larger at almost 39mm. But if it did it would get you about 50x and 1.3 degrees TFOV, and a 17.5 Morpheus would get you 100x and .78 degree TFOV, and the 11mm ES82 would get you 155x and a .5 degree TFOV. That would be a nice lineup giving you 50x, 100x, 150x. And if the Pan is too expensive then just get the ES68 equivalent as they generally give you 95% or more of the performance of the TV equivalents IMO.

[Bushy69]

Hi William,

I could not find the threads, but a few have tried the 0.63 focal reducer with mixed results (mostly poor). The issue seems to be related to the fact that the reducer is designed for an SCT and has a field flattener component to the optics. The Mak Cass does not require the flattener, and as a result the Celestron based reducers are not ideal on the Mak.

From what I can tell with my limited use of the Mak Cass 180 and my research on the OTA, the main issue is the F15 nature of the beast (2700mm FL). For those solely into planetary visual... they say "what issue". However, with the growing popularity in Astro Photography, and some seriously amazing DSO images being posted from amateur telescope users, there is the urge to make the Mak try and emulate those DSO images (which it can not). Planetary images... that's another story I hope. :)

Cheers,

Justin

[WilliamPaolini]

Interesting. Thanks!

[Wavytone]

Bill, someone else spurred me to consider putting a camera on the back of my mak, but no.

The mistake most are making is hoping to use a cheap camera typical of what they use on fast small refractors - a small sensor with pixel spacing far too close for the focal ratio of the maks.

AP of DSOs with a Mak is definitely possible but it requires a sensor with much larger pixels - and pixel spacing - than the popular cameras offer, possibly in the range 7-15 microns.

There are one or two such cameras - but they’re not cheap - to the extent if you’re aiming to photograph DSOs it’s cheaper to buy another scope with a faster focal ratio.

Conversely if you did have this type of camera it won’t suit short fast scopes...

[Rkonrad]

I dont have a 180 Mac only a 150 one and had those eyepieces not bad but not good depending on your budget the celestron X cell LX are better or if you need better then the ES 82 are really good but its all to do with how much!
Most of the time I use Plossel with maks small FOV but them my primary use with a mac is planets and double stars

[doppler]

Here's a couple of pics taken at prime focus, (no barlow) mak 180 pro gold with a zwo120mc cam.

[yoda776]

What was the exposure time for these planetary images? I was hoping to give my Intes MK67 F12 a go on these when they get up a bit earlier in the night!

[doppler]

Not sure about exposure times or settings, used sharpcap to capture 500 frames and then stacked them in Registax. I just muck around with the sliders using live view till I get the best exposure then go from there.

[Bushy69]

Thanks to everyone for feedback and suggestions.

Here are a couple of pics of the upgraded setup.

Visual Back upgrades:
- Mak to SCT Adapter (New from Agena in US)
- GSO 10:1 Dual Speed SCT Focuser (New from Andrews)
- 2" WO DuraBright Diagonal (Used/Like New from IIS Member)

New Eyepieces:
GSO 2" 30mm SuperView (new from Andrews)
TV 1.25" 12mm Radian (used from IIS Member)

So far really happy with the setup (so nice to be able to focus easily now). No planets or moon in view for me ATM, so the 30mm has been pretty much the sole eyepiece in the finder.

I also have a Meade 8-24 Zoom, and this spends most of its time between 20mm to 24mm, down to about 15mm. Any lower than 12mm and just cant get a good focus.

Did a star test last night (as wanted to wait for the new diagonal), and it does need an adjustment, not looking forward to that (might be a new post just to get advice on collimating this thing).

I still have my eye out for a TV Panoptic (24mm or 27mm), but for now I have enough to keep me busy.

Once again thanks for all the interest and feedback in this post.

Cheers,

Justin

[doppler]

Pretty easy to do on Mak,
http://www.robincasady.com/Astro/collimation/

[Rkonrad]

Ok so you have Dobs for wide field views and you got a 180 mac for planetary views why do you want to get expensive eyepieces for the mac to get the same result as with cheaper eyepieces on the dobs, The dobs will benefit from the quality eyepieces not the Mac I disagree with most posts Mac is is for fine detail views at high power dont change it

[Rkonrad]

try your scope with no diagonal I have had many Mac's and they keep collimation well