my new portable scope - it's here!

[janoskiss]

I just put my name down for an ebay 4" skywatcher Maksutov: an ultra portable scope to keep in the boot or under/behind the driver's seat. Still gotta get a mount for it. AZ3 from AOE for current bargain price me thinks. :confuse3:

[iceman]

ooh nice one.. where/when will you use it? What's the going rate?

[janoskiss]

Skywatcher 102mm Mak for $300. Just like the Orion one I was going to get from the States before I found out how much postage would be. Here it is:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7599022055

Seller will not take bank deposit (cheque or money order only :P), so it won't be paid for till tomorrow (being Labour day holiday today). It's for all those occasions when I wish I had a scope but the bulk of the Dob makes it impractical to take along. I just got to get an equally portable mount. Maybe it will work on a camera tripod with a slow motion adapter. :confuse3:

[Miaplacidus]

Nice looking scope, but, er, isn't the red dot finder pointing the wrong way?

[janoskiss]

I think installing the finder back to front is a prerequisite for listing a scope on ebay. :lol:

[Robert_T]

hope it gives you years of pleasure!:D

[ving]

cools steve :)

saving for something similar :)

[dhumpie]

Looks cool. But won't the cooldown be an issue since it is a Mak??????

Darren

[janoskiss]

It's a tiny scope, so I hope cooldown won't be a problem, Darren.

[danielsun]

Well done Steve!!
How much are the az3 mounts going for?

[janoskiss]

AZ3's are $129 from AOE, but I'll wait and see how the scope goes on my camera tripod first.

[vespine]

and if your keeping it in the boot.... :thumbsup:

[Starkler]

Make a mini Lymax style cooler for it ;)

[janoskiss]

I'll keep it on ice in the esky ready to go. :D :P

[janoskiss]

Received the 102mm Mak today. Exceeded all my expectations.

Saturn: Cassini, banding on planet, shadow of planet on rings, inner translucent ring (donno what it's called). All there without even trying.

Star clusters: nice clean star images, no complaints whatsoever.
Omega cent: a fuzzball, no stars resolved from my light polluted location.

Jupiter: Quite a lot of detail around the cloud belts. Most impressed for so little aperture. I could just make out the shadow of Europa on the surface, the size of which seems to be right on the resolving limit of the scope. About 125x seemed optimal for viewing Jupiter.

Moon: beautiful. :)

It works well with the binoviewer too (without a corrector :)), despite the small aperture.

Star test shows collimation is just a little bit out. I have to read up on collimating Maks.

It is a tiny scope. Practically fits in the palm of my hand. And I think it will work fine with my camera tripod if I manage to balance it. 1300mm focal length is short enough even for the larger DSOs and it is ideal for viewing planets. Would make a great beginner's scope if compact size is important. It is pricey new though: Andrews has the OTA on the website for $599. I got this for $300 and it is immaculate, like new. :party:

... plenty of daytime potential in the scope too... :)

[ving]

would a focal reducer go well in it for better dso views steve?

got a pic of your setup?

[allan gould]

Janokiss
Be very carefull with collimating the Mak. There are very good and some bad instructions about on the net. I sweated blood the first time I tried it and almost messed up but I then found a good detailed explanation and got it perfect. Then you can see what a Mak is capable of. Enjoy your new scope.
Regards, Allan

[janoskiss]

I guess you could use a focal reducer, but I'm not going to. It would probably cost as much as the scope itself. The scope on its own will give a max of about 1.25 degree true FOV with 1.25" eyepieces.

There is a pic on the ebay paged linked above. It is sitting on top of my trusty old Linhof camera tripod for now.

[janoskiss]

Thanks Allan. I'll try to find some instructions from a manufacturer or nig importer. I'll start with Orion. They usually have good manuals.

[Starkler]

Steve have a search in the yahoo user groups. There seems to be a group devoted to almost every scope known to man ;)

[RB]

What a great choice Steve, glad it's outperforming your expectation.

:)

[ving]

even wobble-o-tronic i believe :P

[allan gould]

Steve
Try this url for collimation
http://www.company7.com/library/orion/Inst_makcasscollim.pdf
Allan

[janoskiss]

Thanks Allan. I'll give it a go. Looks too tedious for tweaking while star testing, unfortunately.

[Starkler]

You could always try a stationary artificial star like we did at Snake Valley ;)