I received my Orion 150mm Mak-Cass on Friday and have had 2 mediocre nights to get a first impression. The scope is nicely built: good fit and finish, but quite hefty at a bit over 12 pounds. Central obstruction is 31 percent, a bit smaller than that of the average compound scope. The focuser is smooth with a nice feel, though there is a 20 arc-sec image shift in one spot. The optics are very good, perhaps excellent. Stars are tight pinpoints with a clean airy disk and smooth first diffraction ring at high power. Delta Cygni resolved at 130x despite poor seeing. Epsilon Lyrae "bullet holed" at 130x. Jupiter displayed the GRS , considerable belt detail, and fine color saturation at 130x. THe moon, although low in the sky, was very sharp with black shadow and good contrast and depth. Can't use the scope as an RFT, however. I went as low as 60x with a 30mm Celestron Ultima ep - very nice on the deep sky objects, but limited f.o.v. Initial impressions suggest that performance is similar to older Orion (Intes) Mak. I'll be writing a full review for ASTROMART after more observing and comparisons with other scopes.
Clear skies!
Larry Carlino
Clear skies!
Larry Carlino
