4th November 1st Light for Big Mak

[philjay]

Despite the heavy dew, the skies were reasonably clear but atmospherics were making star images very shaky. The scope had been cooling in the observatory for about 3 hours with 1.5 hours with the roof open, therefore the scope was well acclimated.

 

Scope Skywatcher Skymax 180 Pro Maksutov

 

Eyepieces used

 

40mm Celestron E Lux Plossl (67.5x)

Vixen LVW 22mm - 122x

Vixen LVW 13mm - 207x

Antares 25mm Plossl x 2 for binoviewers - 108x

 

Diagonal - Celestron 2" XLT

 

The scope was fitted to the Celestron CGE mount in the observatory and surprised me as to its weight. This is a solid lump of telescope and although the CGE can handle it with ease and plenty to spare the counterweights were not too far away from where I used to have them when I had my C11 on the mount. Calibration of the mount was easy despite the limited field of view and there appeared to be little in the way of cone error caused by ring/dovetail misalignment as calibration stars were placed nicely in the FOV of the 40mm plossl each time.

 

As there were no large detailed planets around early on I wanted to test the resolution of the scope so tried it on the next best thing, double stars.

 

1st off was Gamma Andromeda. 22mm gave a lovely split of this colourful system, orange / red and blue / white this pair are reminiscent of Albireo but much closer. In focus star shapes were good (for a reflector), and so I upped the mag to see if I could discern any split in the main component, this is an almost equally matched magnitude pair with a sub arcsecond split at the moment, but atmospherics didn't help the star images at all and they were very wobbly so even upping to 400x made no difference as the image was dancing around. I came back to this later and tried again just in case the scope hadn't cooled fully but it was the same story. Therefore very tight splits were out tonight due to atmospherics

 

17 Cygni, 61 Cygni, Albireo, Epsilon Lyra (dead easy with the 22mm vixen), Eta Cass, Gamma Aries, Lambda Aries all fell prey to the capabilities of this scope.

 

Uranus, with a 22mm eyepiece  was a small blue disc and upping the mag to 207x gave a bigger blue disc and I was pleased at how steady the image was. I did consider putting the camera on it but I knew I didnt have much time before the clouds rolled in later so carried on with some DSOs.

 

Folks who haven't tried Maks or long focus refractors will say they are no good on DSOs, well I suggest to those folks that they actually get to look through one before making statement based on theory. My little 127 Mak used to give and my 4" F15 refractor to gives excellent contrasty views on DSOs and I wanted to see if this big Mak did the same.

 

M31 was straight overhead so this was 1st on the list and wow, a lovely view of the core with the dark lanes evident when the scope was moved a little. M32 and 110 were there easy to see.

 

Cats Eye

Blue Snowball

M27 this was massive taking up the centre of the FOV in the 40mm

 

The only decent globular that I could get was M15 (M13 was hidden by trees and very low by this time). Globs in Maks and long FL refractors are always special and this scope gave a view as expected, sharp with stars resolved into the core with a 40mm and the 22mm gave a dimmer but superbly sharp view with resolved stars well into the core.

 

M57 - The view through this scope in the 40mm eyepiece was so reminiscent of the view in my C11 (although fainter). The detail that was coming through with averted vision was excellent, the ring was showing that it was not just a single ring but was in fact whispy and showed considerable structure when averted vision was used.

 

Double cluster. I could just get both cluster cores in the fov of the  40mm eyepiece and the 22mm would only deliver individual clusters but the colour was excellent and roaming around both clusters was mesmerising at times.

My favourite use of Maks is to use binoviewers on lunar and planetary so I wanted to test the focus range of this scope with binoviewers. I swapped the 2" diagonal for a celestron 1.25" and fitted the binos plus 2 antares 25mm plossls. This configuration kept the focus distances between set ups similar and I didnt need to adjust focus much to get sharp images in the binos. The views were excellent on the double. I just wandered around the clusters drinking in the 3d effect view, I was well pleased.

 

The cloud was starting to appear in the south west by now (22:30) so even though Jupiter was still low and in the atmospheric murk I had to take a look now or I wouldnt get another chance.

 

The image in the 22mm was wobbly due to atmospherics but big and bright which means this scope will be most useful for imaging this planet later this year as Jupiter gets higher. At times when things settled a little (but not much) there were tell tale signs of just what this scope will produce for planetary views, the detail would just snap in. So much so that I tried the 13mm eyepiece and was given a lovely big and bright image with detail in the belts every so often.

 

Unfortunately by 2300 Jupiter was blanketed by clouds and I called it a night, well pleased with the 1st light.

[andyboy1970]

Nice one.

My 127Mak used to give great views of DSO's but it wasn't good with the camera attached.

 

P.S. what scope was it?

[philjay]

Sorry forgot to mention, sw 180 pro

[Guest Nightfisher]

A nice report phil, good to hear you will be getting plenty of use from the mak, and yes maks are pretty good on some dso`s

[dawson]

Lovely write up.

Yes the blue snowball, and the saturn nebula, have looked quite impressive in my too, nice contrast. I found others (m27, m57 etc) a little disappointing initially if i'm honest, but i think i had generally overly high expectations of what one might see of DSOs; have looked at too many lovely pictures of them. But i am keen to continue hunting for them, and playing at imaging them.

I do love the relative simplicity of the mak over a newtonian, i mean i find it easier to put on the mount, the eye piece is always easy to access.

I have absolutely no regrets about getting mine. And look forwards to playing with it more.

James

[dawson]

As you get to use it more, i'll be interested to know how it compares to the C11.

James

[philjay]

Hi James

the c11 had the apeture and f10 so the fov was slightly larger and of course dsos were brighter. M13 was stunning in the c11 whereas due to apeture difference I am sure it will still be good in the mak but not as bright. M15 was good in the mak.

Yep compounds are far easier to mount and use than newts, thats one of the reasons i have swapped, i just cannot get my head round newts on eq mounts.

[dawson]

Thanks. I do want to look through a C11. There is a lad in the nottingham astronomical society who has one, i'll have to pester him sometime.

I've never had a newtonian on a dob base, so having mine on the mount doesn't seem so foreign, though it is still a bit unruly. And getting to the eye piece can be interesting!

James