Will an 180mm Mak be and upgrade to 8" SCT in imag

Hi All,

Looking for an upgrade from my 8" Celestron Ultima 8 PEC. I have used this scope since 95, and its given many a nights of fine viewing. However, I have come to love the tight star images that I see from Newts and Refractors when I'm at star parties. I have collimated my scope over and over, but my images seem soft, blob stars, and no snap to focus. I have always found myself playing with focusing.

So any mak cass owners out there? It it a justified upgrade from say an 200mm SCT to a 180mm MCT like the Orion? Will stars snap to pinpoints in focus, with a black backround? Will I be able to push mags to over 250x?

Looking forward to hearing your inputs.

Thanks,

John

Hi,

I can't speak for the Orion MAKs but the Intes Micro 180 MAKs are a cut above 8" SCTs as far as high resolution observing goes. If you like tight star images that rival a good APO of the same aperture then a good MAK is the way to go. I had a IM 180 F/15. I was so impressed with it's optical performance that I upgraded to a IM 200DX F/15 for my retirement scope.

I'm using the 200 right now and though the sky is not the best as far as seeing is concerned I can still use 350X on Saturn and the image comes up crisp. Izar is easily split at 122x in this kind of seeing. I ran the scope up to 350x and even though the diffraction rings were a blur on both components because of the seeing, the airy disk was visable and the stars were a very wide split and still tight. I could even get repeated glimpses of Zeta Bootes (.8") in seeing this bad.

I'm trying not to get too wordy here but there is a difference between commercial SCTs and high end MAKs when it comes to high definition observing. I've owned both up to 14 inches. The really good (optically corrected) SCTs are butt kickin' but in my experience they are rare. Hope this helps.

Keith

John.
I had an Intes Micro 715DX Maksutov. It was fantastic. Nice tight star images, stars showed wonderful color, very high contrast, and no (really no) image shift focusing.

I do not know about the Orion, but the I-M is one to consider.

Clear Skies,
Paul

John Kramer said:

Hi All,

Looking for an upgrade from my 8" Celestron Ultima 8 PEC. I have used this scope since 95, and its given many a nights of fine viewing. However, I have come to love the tight star images that I see from Newts and Refractors when I'm at star parties. I have collimated my scope over and over, but my images seem soft, blob stars, and no snap to focus. I have always found myself playing with focusing.

So any mak cass owners out there? It it a justified upgrade from say an 200mm SCT to a 180mm MCT like the Orion? Will stars snap to pinpoints in focus, with a black backround? Will I be able to push mags to over 250x?

Looking forward to hearing your inputs.

Thanks,

John

It might be SLIGHTLY better (you mean the U.S. Orion, correct?) for planetary imaging/observing, but the images in this and the other Orion (Synta) MCTs I've tried are quite comparable to the usual Celestron/Meade SCT. For deep sky work it will be a DOWNGRADE. This is a slow, narrow field scope.

The tight stars you see in those refractors are largely due to two things:

Small aperture, low magnification.

I've got a U8 of the same vintage as yours (now mounted on a GEM). Take my advice: do NOT part with it. instead, supplement it with a small refractor! If you cannot push your U8 to over 250x, you need to look to your collimation and your seeing. I've regularly used mine at 500x + on Saturn. We'll not see its like again.

8)

I just got the Orion 180mm. I've had a 12" Meade LX200 that was great for deep space. My Meade AR-6 would blow away the 12" on planets , except Mars. I would get Diffraction spikes on Mars and the brightest stars in the AR-6. As expected the 12" would have far better views of nebula, and clusters, galaxies.

I haven't had the 180 out observing the sky yet but, just looking around at terrestial the Orion is blowing them both away. I would expect the Orion will blow away Your Celestron on planets. I live in Dallas so I don't think the cool down issues will be as big a deal as for someone up North. We will see ... I can't wait to get this thing out. I'll let you know.