Mini review - Orion 90mm Mak Cas

[steve000 (Steve)]

SO I picked up one of these on the weekend. Tonight I had the first chance to test it out. WOW what a great little scope. Ive used a bunch of different scopes over the years and none have provided me with such sharp images contrasting of Jupiter. My 6" reflector for example provides clear images but always a fraction fuzzy even after collimation and while you can see the bands you need to look away to see them well.
This 90mm scope with its super fine touch focuser and crisp optics provided such a great view. No aberrations and you could look directly at it and see all the details while maintaining a bright image allowing you see the moons clearly.
While I used one of my mounts the table top one that comes with it would be fine for the roof of a car or a table and lawn chair. It feels like high quality and while many parts are plastic they are a high quality plastic. Unfortunately the finder scope did not come with a battery for me to test it. I used my 30mm finder instead. Had I have used this scope before I purchased my first one this would have been my first purchase but on a better mount. $265 and it fits to a camera tripod and weight not much more than a DSLR.
In addition to Jupiter mum and I enjoyed some star clusters, eta carinae and the orion nebula. The scope provided images as bright as my 6" scope, quite amazing for such a small thing. 2017 will provide another great test of this scope for sun imaging.

Apologies for grammatical errors, quick post before bed.

[MortonH]

Nice review. Any pics of the scope?

[steve000 (Steve)]

Originally Posted by MortonH

Nice review. Any pics of the scope?

I might do 1 or 2 tonight.

I was hoping this weekend to spend the time doing a proper review as I might get some camera time with it.
To give you an idea I have attached a simulation of what jupiter looks like through it. I spent nano days of time generating this simulation
10mm eyepiece. 125x magnification.