PROMAK 150 suitability

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

Hi All,

I originally asked Mike Salway this question when commenting on his uber DSO imaging set up and it brought to mind this little piece of gear I found on the Andrews Comms website namely;

PROMAK150 150mm x 1800mm Maksutov-Cassegrain OTA has a 1.25" visual back and is gold in colour.It is supplied with a matching gold coloured 9 x 50 finderscope in a white holder, 1.25" push-in diagonal, LET 9mm and 20mm eyepieces - ONLY $600!!!

Now the question(s) are these (notwithstanding the imminent divorce proceedings if I buy one):

1) If this is a Skywatcher MakCas scope with 150mm aperture, would the increased size / FL and better optics give me a boost in the imaging stakes as well as DSO object finding?

2) Also, would this fit on my EQ2 medium duty mount (Skywatcher) if I bought some 150mm OTA rings as my existing 130mm scope is a short tube Catadioptric Newtonian with a tube length of 500mm and a FL of 1000mm?

3) Is the money better spent elsewhere? Such as on a 8-12" DOB that gets me closer and brighter for less stuffing around?

Any ideas or comments are welcome.

Thanks in advance

Chris

[programmer]

I'd be interested in comments on this scope as well, and if it would mate well with an iOptron Cube GOTO mount.

[JethroB76 (Jeff)]

If your talking primary scope and you can handle it I would be tempted to go for the 8-12" dob..it seems that down the track you can stick an 8 or 10" on an eq5 or eq6 fairly easily.

I cant comment on the suitabllity of your existing mount for the Mak, but as for imaging and DSO's - I've got a feeling the Maks are meant to be better suited to lunar or planetary stuff rather than faint fuzzies etc