Thread: SW 180 Mak ?
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Old 13-07-2018, 10:32 PM
Wavytone
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Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Killara, Sydney
Posts: 4,147
Brent I've had two over the past 12 years and seen a few more...

An early one (OK but not perfect) and a later one that was as near to optically perfect as you could expect from a budget scope, 9.5 out of 10. The latter scope was IMHO the perfect scope for casual lunar & planetary observing and the others I've seen were all good, definitely better than the equivalent 8" SCTs.

- they are the smallest scope I know of that is fitted with a 2" back, although the central baffle limits the light cone somewhat they will fill most 2" eyepieces if you have a 2" diagonal.

- at f/15 the central obstruction is smaller than in SCTs giving a refractor-like view - enough aperture and perfect resolution easily exceeding all the 8" SCT's I've seen in 40 years...

- ideal size - big enough but not too heavy, for casual observing;

- with a big 2" eyepiece (I used a 38mm UWA) they can do quite nicely on DSO's if you have a dark sky site, though an 8" SCT will have more light-grasp;

- focussing is by the primary sliding along the central baffle driven by a micrometer screw much like Celestron/Meade, however the mechanism is good and image shift nothing to fret over;

- with an aluminised spot secondary there are no adjustments at that end. The only collimation adjustment is at the primary mirror cell - with 3 pairs of push-pull screws. Be very very careful with these as a fraction of a turn is all it takes to send the collimation totally skew-whiff if you are unsure of what you are doing.

Only reason I sold mine was to fund the replacement.. which is (drum roll...) a bigger mak, and one with an impeccable pedigree. But at 228mm aperture it is a LOT heavier !

Only word of warning - be prepared to rethink your eyepiece collection. You will need a big 2" low power one, around 40mm. In these scopes eyepieces around 15..13mm are definitely a sweet spot for medium power and if the seeing permits, 8mm is useful on the planets. I doubt you will need anything shorter, ever.

As Justin indicated the factory dovetail is somewhat unsatisfactory and you may notice the OTA flop a bit. I left mine as-is and for visual use its OK, but if you to add heavy accessories then consider either rings, or obtaining custom-machined curved blocks to fit (from Losmandy or Farpoint) and fitting a Losmandy D plate to the OTA
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