Hi Trevor,yes I realise that, but the Mak was only really intended for planetary visual use and the plan was to use a short F ratio Newt. for D.S.O. work/photography.
Anyhow it doesn't matter now as I have been extremely dissapointed with the state of confusion that exists with amateur astronomy(after a 30 year break) and the various types of scopes and their pros and cons.
It seems that any unknown brand that threatens the existing ones with a once in a life time price can only be crap.
Then comes the expert opinions from the ''very experienced'' who have owned at least a dozen different types of scopes and end up professing that the best scope is a ridiculously priced Ferrari red refractor that defies the laws of physics and beats everything hands down
??
It doesn't stop there............
............ .in comes the ''aperature rules'' crowd that insist that their 30 inch dob is the ant's pants and is the greatest peice of kit the world has ever seen.
I once owned a 16 inch Newtonian with English made optics.It was an F4 and compared to my 8 inch F4.4 Orion, the ''fuzzies'' were still ''fuzzies''.....only a bit brighter and occasionally showed slightly more resolution, mostly with averted vision
Needless to say, I got sick of hauling that big heap around and nudging it from time to time because it did not pocess a drive system.So, ........been there and done that.
As a teenager, I dreamt of owning a C14.......the original orange one.
I still do...................until I started reading comments on this forum and others on the Web.
Now it seems like they are not what they're supposed to be : the ultimate, compact, powerful and large aperature dream machine????
Apparently these SC.T's (yes the latest versions) are plagued with the dreaded ''central obstruction/contrast destroying secondary mirror''.
Then comes problems with the focussing system and ''mirror shift''.
On top of that..........dew on the corrector lens, and yes.............they too can go out of collimation...................as can refractors.............WHAT???
Oh yeah, ............before I forget....................only a triple element exotic glass primary lens made by highly trained Japanese masters during the year of the dragon is worthy to be used and called a refractor for any serious viewing or photography.
I apologise for this rave, but my venture back in to astronomy has ground to a sudden halt.
I am no longer confident in spending any money towards any type of scope because of the issues I have mentioned and I definately DO NOT want to own 4 or more different scopes to overcome the defficiencies that exist between them.