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  #21  
Old 02-07-2018, 09:28 PM
raymo
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I'd like to as an aside mention that a member[I forget who it was] did
a comparison recently between Skywatcher's 18" Dob and an SDM, and had
trouble picking a winner. I also seem to remember that nobody made
any comments regarding the result.
raymo
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  #22  
Old 02-07-2018, 09:35 PM
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Atmos (Colin)
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Although not at the same quality as your Santel, it’s why I love the Mewlon 250. Sometimes I think the seeing isn’t as good as I’d like and then I realise that I’m at 350x and thinking I was below 200x. The stars looked better at 200-350x in the Mewlon than any mag ification with my old 10” LX200.
Optical quality really helps.
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Old 02-07-2018, 09:54 PM
Wavytone
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Hi Colin... yup... I've had the Santel at 440X quite often. Initially I didn't expect there was much point taking a Mak this size past 300X but ... there is with this beastie, and I'm surprised how often it can go that far. Nearest competition is either a TEC 10" or possibly a C11 but I haven't had the opportunity to do a side by side comparison with one, yet.

Built like a russian tank - it is mechanically crude but effective with fixed optics and a crappy JMI crayford focuser. This year I'll overhaul it - mirrors to be recoated (they're 15 years old), add lifting handles (its heavy), blacken the interior parts, add a new backend, new Crayford focusser, new finderscope (the russians one is not great) and more blocks/rails for accessories and a heated dewcap.

The previous owner didn't dare touch the collimation for years - it was very close but not absolutely perfect - and with patience to perfect the collimation the result is simply amazing.

Saturn and its tiny moons are IMHO more stunning than Jupiter.

Last edited by Wavytone; 02-07-2018 at 10:20 PM.
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  #24  
Old 02-07-2018, 09:56 PM
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Atmos (Colin)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wavytone View Post
Hi Colin... yup... I've had the Santel at 440X quite often.
Initially I didn't expect there was much point taking a Mak this size past 300X but ... there is.
Binoviewing Jupiter at 566x is really comfortable when the seeing is reasonable. High magnification helps suppress my astigmatism issues
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