Posts Made By: Ramon Martinez

I have had an MK67 and a TV85 as my Airline portable scopes. I prefered the image Quality of the TV85. I am now looking to upgrade to the largest Apo That can fit in an overhead bin. Thank you in advance.

Hello guys, I need to make a decision on these 2 scopes. I ordered both 4 months ago and they will both be available within the next 2 weeks. My goal is to get the best airline carry on planetary scope. The Tak FS102II is 24" long and the focuser can be removed to make it easily airline carry on. The Intes Micro M615 is less than 18" long, has a central obsturction of about 30%, should be 1/7 to 1/8 wavefront, and has a built in cooling fan. I was going to get both, and sell the loser, but finances now dictate that I can only get one. Soooooo.. can anyone please help me decide. Have any of you compared scopes of similar designs on planets (especially Jupiter)? Any insight and comments would be greatly appreciated.
Ray

Hi Mark. I have owned the mk67, mn56, and currently an Intes Micro 615. The best for planetary and wide field is the mak-newt, due to the smaller obstruction and fast focal ratio, but it is about 34' long and weighs about 16 pounds. If your looking for airline carry-on portability, and binoviewer use, The best compromise for me is the Intes micro 615. It has a smaller obstruction than the mk66 or67 and is still only 18' long and about 10 pounds. Ramon

How about a longer nexstar single arm mount mount with GPS for short apo's and maks. A quick relase bracket to switch between my TV85 and IM615 would make a lot of altaz and equatorial mounts obsolete for visual grab and go. Ray

Hi Robert, I too have been searching for an airline pertable travel scope and so for have had these expieriences.
MN56- Great optics, but to long for airline carry-on. I sold it.
Intes Micro M615 (30% obstruction)- Great scope so far (I've had it 2 Months), comes with airline carry on case, 1/8 wave, and mounts well on short heavy duty tripod with UA Unistar Deluxe altaz mount. Negatives are cooldown and narrow fov, weight similar to your traveler.
TV85- still my favorite, does everything well but aperature limited.
Possible But more expensive solutions:

UTI 8, Borg 125ED, TMB 130F6 with
removable focuser.
Dream Travel scope- If Pete Smitka can make a Portaball 8 with a smaller sphere that can qualify as airline carry on.

The search continues. Ramon

One more option, sell the AP 130 and get the TMB 130F6LW with removeable focuser, also a good insurance policy on it. I am contemplating selling a Teleport 10" to do the same. The sky in NJ rarely allows the Teleport to to surpass my Nexstar 11 on planets. Ramon

Ultimate Travel scope, I emailed Pete Smitka, the maker of the Portaball, wanting to find out if the Portaball 8"F5 can be made Airline carry-on. Here is his reply:

Ramon -

Actually, it (as well as the 10" and even the 12.5") already is a "carry on" scope. The only difference between your thought and actuality, is that you don't carry on the entire
telescope - but only the mirror in it's cell in a wood box like we ship it, and perhaps the pole tube (though in the 8" f/5 that wood easily fit in a suitcase) and the rest goes as
luggage. In the configuration it is shipped in, there is even room for a sleeping bag and some clothes in the spheres container.

Call me for additional details.
Peter Smitka

So if you are willing to do a little more work, you have The ultimate travel scope. Wide field of about 2.5 degees, Zambuto optics limited only by the atmosphere, curved spider for no diffraction spikes,and the smoothest altaz mount on the planet, I think I found my ultimate travel scope! Ramon

Hi William, I have the Intes Micro 615 and it works perfectly with my Denkmeier binoviewer. I have plenty of focus range beyond the focus point with my 19mm Panoptics. The views are incredible for such a small scope. Ray

Hi Don. I had an Ultima 9.25 which I thought was just ok the first 6 months I owned it. Then I had "one of those nights". It was dead still air and I could not believe the detail I was seeing on Jupiter. Numerous belts, white ovals and festoons were visible.It was a night I will never forget. In 4 years in north NJ I have only had 3 nights that evevn came close. I sold the scope and now have a 10" Zambuto Teleport and a Nexstar 11 for about a year. They have yet to come close to the view in the 9.25. I believe that the only way to really evaluate a premium scope is to have one of those perfect nights for a comparison. Until then it is really hard to judge. I hope to buy a 5" APO next to see if they really are better for my average seeing conditions. I really can't believe that my 9.25 could out perform a well collimated 10" Zambuto. but until I get another perfect night, I really can't tell. If you have really good seeing in you area, maybe your 9.25 is a dog. if your seeing is like mine, I encourage you to give it a more time. I sure miss mine. Ramon

Hi Emanuel. You have a great portable scope. Like you my primary interest is planets. I have an Intes Micro M615. Similar to yours with a longer focal length. I have an assortment of orthos, naglers, radians, and other eyepieces but find I need just 2. I use a Nikon zoom 7-21mm (very sharp and parafocal as you zoom) and a Panoptic 24. The eyepices alone give me mags of 94 (Pan) and 107-321 (Nikon). Whats really neat is I also have a Denkmeier Power switch diagonl that provides a 2x barlow and and a .6 reducer. This effectively simlates having a 40, 24 and 12 panoptic. With the zoom I have a magnification range of 64-642! I could actually do fine with the Nikon alone, but the panoptic is just the most perfect eyepice for me due to the the increased field of view and eye relief. Ramon