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Old 24-04-2019, 09:25 PM
brian nordstrom (As avatar)
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brian nordstrom is offline
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Perth WA
Posts: 4,374
Yes very good points ,,, But

have you ever viewed Jupiter in one of the best 10 inch SW Dobsonions at ,,, say 500x on an excellent night ? ,, you know when the view is like a Hubble photo ? . I have as a good friend who is member here and has one of the best reflectors I have ever had the pleasure to look through it's ,, a Sky Watcher 10 inch Dob , this scope is amazing taking 6-700x with ease ,,, but ,,, the viewed object goes so fast on an Alt/Az mount .

At 500x where a good 10 inch is still not breaking a sweat , the Dob mount has run it's race and it gets hard fast really fast , true my friend .

FF to a Mak 180 on say a driven EQ/HEQ 5 mount at 500x on the same night .. , I will leave it here as it's " Horses for Courses "

Me I am lucky to have a great C9.25 that does it all , and a few 4-5 inch refractors but that is not the OP's 'Q '

Brian.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GodsPetMonkey View Post
The 180 Mak is certainly a good planetary scope, but I think the first question you need to ask yourself is how is your current dob letting you down and how will the Mak (or any other new scope) address that.

Looking at your list of gear, you should have to trouble hitting atmospheric limitations - the powermate plus 5mm eyepiece would give you a healthy 600x magnification, and that would require some extraordinarily good seeing to pull off! Even the delos with the powermate would see your dob hit a more manageable 300x magnification (and is a very nice combo too). Your powermate effectively turns your 1200mm dob into a 3000mm dob - pretty comparable to the 2700mm Mak, except your dob has an extra 70mm of aperture.

Actually, I think your equipment 'weakness' is actually at the other end, you are lacking a nice wide-end eyepiece for the bigger DSOs and beautiful star fields. You need to upgrade from that included 25mm job!

The Mak does have a few pluses - it's smaller and lighter than the dob, which means you might be more likely to use it if you have to move your score around. They are pretty hassle free and are will known for their performance on the moon and planets - if you are big on viewing the planets having such a dedicated instrument can make a lot of sense. Having two scopes can also mean you can hunt two different objects at the same time (or share your viewing with others more easily!).

Last edited by brian nordstrom; 24-04-2019 at 09:38 PM.
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