n1toga
member
Reged: 05/15/08
Posts: 90
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Hi all,
my earlier post about the Meade DS 5" Newt has unwittingly led me in this direction now...
So the Choices now are the Meade 4" DS seriese Mak or the Bushnell Northstar 127mm MakCass.
I need more info on the Bushnell if anyone is using one or knows someone who is. The OTA looks pretty much the same as the Orion 127mm Mak-Cass offering if it is then it should definately be a good one.
Thanks again,
Rahul K.
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doug76
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 12/05/07
Posts: 1639
Loc: 30.8N 90.0W
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NO Bushnell!!! NO NO NO! The Meade is essentially the ETX105 on a cheaper mount, so at least optically it will be very good. The Orion 127 would be nearly as good quality-wise, but better in a way due to the larger aperture. Are you sure you want a Mak? Fine for high power work, but they do have a narrow field of view.
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Truckstop Astronomer
Meade 12" Lightbridge with Dob Driver II
Celestron C6S OTA
Celestron C6R OTA
Celestron Omni XLT150 OTA
Celestron Omni XLT127 OTA
Celestron CG5-ASGT mount
Celestron Omni CG-4 mount
Celestron (large) Nexstar SE2 mount
Celestron (small) Nexstar SE1 mount
Meade SWA 34mm
Televue Panoptic 24mm
Pentax XW 10mm, 7mm
Televue Plossl 32mm
BO/TMB Planetary 9mm, 5mm, 4mm, 3.2mm, 2.5mm
Astro-Tech diagonals
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werewolf6977
Lord High Smasher
Reged: 12/15/03
Posts: 7037
Loc: Hanover, Ohio
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No BUSHNELL MAKS!! Run the other way!! Very bad scopes. Spend your money on an Orion, or a Meade DS Mak.
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Pete
6" Apogee/LXD55 - "The Beast"
Starhopper 6" Dob - "Shiva"
Spaceprobe 130 EQ - "Spacey"
Bushnell Fatboy
The Abomination
Sun Pak Pro 7500 Platinum Edition
10X25 Bushnell Camo Roofies
7X35 Tasco Classic Plastic (good views though)
7X42 Tasco Rare Bird
10X50 Nikon Actions (Type 7)
15X70 Skymasters - "DroolMeisters"
One ratty old IBM 600E LapTop
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ken svp120
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 12/19/04
Posts: 895
Loc: Ohio
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I'm not sure what "cheap" means budget-wise, but if it includes up to a few hundred bucks I would strongly consider the Orion 5" Mak. A buddy of mine has one and its really a nice scope, no complaints.
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Orion 120 Refractor
Orion SkyviewPro Mount, Single Axis Drive
Losmandy G11 Mount, Non-Gemini
TEC 140 APO #300
Meade DSI Pro II Monochrome
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sang33ta
sage
Reged: 07/08/08
Posts: 399
Loc: UK
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There are the Celestron SE 4" Mak/ 5-6"SCTs too
I recommend the ETX-125 though from my own experience it was a good goto and tracker.
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Hioptic 152mm f12.5 Maksutov
Celestron Advanced CG5-GT Mount (Mr Noisy!)
Meade 4000 Super Plossl Set
Casio QV-2900UX
Got fed up of waiting for Meade ETX-150 so put this together for £500/$1000 
Edited by sang33ta (07/20/08 12:40 PM)
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christinam
sage
Reged: 03/29/07
Posts: 360
Loc: Duncan BC Canada
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We have a Skywatcher (Orion in the US) 127mm Mak. It was our first scope and we still love it. It does, like Doug says, have a very narrow field of view, which can be troublesome if you are new, but the views out of it make up for the front end work of learning how to find a target.
Chris
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"Those who have a why to live can withstand any how" Nietzsche.
 Duncan BC.
Nikon D50
Nikon 18-55mm and 70-300mm lenses
WO ZS80ED (thanks Santa Baby)
HEQ-5 Pro (woohoo)
Also using the B/Fs Mak &
Skywatcher ST80 and
EQ6Pro
Bunches of eyepieces
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X-Lurker
Underpaid Slacker
Reged: 09/12/06
Posts: 485
Loc: N.W. Ark.
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I do not know much about the other scopes, but I own the Orion 127mm and I love it! It's pretty good with planets and the brighter DSO's... No complaints here.
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I wasn't sick...I just called in uninterested.;)
Glob
AOAS Member
Atlas 10 EQ-G Reflector
12X50 Bino's
SPC 900NC
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n1toga
member
Reged: 05/15/08
Posts: 90
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Thanks a lot guys,
Saves me a lot of bucks on the Bushnell. Well to be honest it did sound too good to be true. More research on the Mead and Orion Maks.
I must mention that I will ablolutely need GOTO to counter the light pollution and the narrow fov of the Mak.
Jgraham chimes in very favourabally in the previos thread about the meade mak. A 90mm though.
Thanks
Rahul
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Protheus
Vaguely offended
Reged: 09/01/07
Posts: 3907
Loc: Illinois, US
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I wouldn't really worry about field-of-view. Well, maybe I would, but not too much. That being relative, anyway... It's at least very likely that you can (with some combination of focal reducer and long focal length eyepiece) get enough field for most things you want to view with little trouble.
Chris
Edit: Ok, one other thing I suppose somebody should mention is that, compared to a jones-bird of similar size, you aren't likely to gain limiting magnitude in a comparably sized Mak. What I mean is that the only improvement you should probably expect is in image clarity. You probably won't see objects which are any more dim, and you probably won't achieve higher magnifications. The improvement in clarity, of course, will be subject to viewing conditions and so on just as the clarity of your current view.
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"To tread the sharp edge of a sword;
to run on smooth-frozen ice,
one needs no footsteps to follow..."
"Well, people sometimes ask me 'how did you get involved in astronomy?' I said 'I got born, what's your problem?'" -- John Dobson
"In discussing the large-scale structure of the cosmos, astronomers sometimes say that space is curved, or that the universe is finite but unbounded. Whatever are they talking about?" -- Carl Sagan
Edited by Protheus (07/20/08 04:18 PM)
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helpwanted
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 07/04/07
Posts: 1575
Loc: Phoenix, AZ
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not to go to far off topic... but can someone point me to the selling points of a mak?
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XT8 (8" f6)
EPs: Hyper, Pan, SPL, TMBs
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Jared
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 10/11/05
Posts: 1700
Loc: Piedmont, California, U.S.
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Quote:
not to go to far off topic... but can someone point me to the selling points of a mak?
Pros:
1) Like SCT's, very compact optical tube for the aperture and focal length
2) Potential for extremely high image quality, though that is usually realized only in more expensive units
3) Most samples hold collimation very well
4) Generally make good planetary instruments due to their slower focal ratios
(allowing longer focal length eyepieces for a given magnification) and their relatively small central obstruction (which keeps contrast levels high)
Cons:
1) Above five inches in aperture, can be slow to reach thermal equilibrium. Often require a fan to aid in cooling.
2) Top quality units are not inexpensive.
3) The slow focal ratio means they are a poor choice for widefield/low power use.
4) Like SCT's, the front corrector plate makes them very prone to dewing issues.
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- Jared Willson
- Fluorostar FLT-110 w/ TEC optics
- Vixen VC200L
- Astro-Physics Mach1 GTO
- Stellarvue SV80S
- Takahashi Teegul SP Mount
- STL-11000
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doug76
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 12/05/07
Posts: 1639
Loc: 30.8N 90.0W
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Quote:
Thanks a lot guys,
Saves me a lot of bucks on the Bushnell. Well to be honest it did sound too good to be true. More research on the Mead and Orion Maks.
I must mention that I will ablolutely need GOTO to counter the light pollution and the narrow fov of the Mak.
Jgraham chimes in very favourabally in the previos thread about the meade mak. A 90mm though.
Thanks
Rahul
Then grab the ETX125 from Astronomics, quickly. Major sale, but supply is going fast.
Doug
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paul hart
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 06/01/04
Posts: 870
Loc: Lawn Guyland, New Yawk, Earth
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Then grab the ETX125 from Astronomics, quickly. Major sale, but supply is going fast.
Doug
I agree, that is a very good deal.
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Paul
Long Island, New York
Orion Starmax 127 Mak
TScope 14" f/4.7 dob w/ F80 finder
10" f/4.8 dob
Orion 10x50 Ultraview Binoculars
28 UWAN
24 Panoptic
17 T4
12 T2
7 T6
Misc. Plossls, Orthos, Burgess Binoviewer
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Kolenka
sage
Reged: 06/01/08
Posts: 256
Loc: Seattle Area, WA, USA
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Well, I may say that 750 in 6 months is pretty fast... the rate of sale seems to have dropped off after that first month or so. If you want a nice 5" Mak, the ETX-125PE is still a pretty good for the price.
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Meade 10" LX200R + AstroTech 66ED "Super Finder"
Meade ETX-125PE
Baader Hyperions 8mm, 13mm, 24mm, 31mm + Meade 5k 26mm Plossl
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scopethis
super member
Reged: 05/30/08
Posts: 188
Loc: Kingman, Ks
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Quote:
No BUSHNELL MAKS!! Run the other way!! Very bad scopes. Spend your money on an Orion, or a Meade DS Mak.
You are so correct about the Bushnell. Me and a few others observers watched in horror as one of those thing began to fall apart before our ours. It was so bad we had to shoot it.
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stefanj
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 11/15/07
Posts: 1134
Loc: Western New York State
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If you have your heart set on a Mak- I would lurk around the Swap and Shop section- I just picked up a Mead ETX 90 with 2 eps, and both the table top tripod and a good solid wedge tripod for $200. Optiacally it is like new-
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Life is a circus- and I'm stuck in the FREAK TENT
Meade ETX 90RA w/ tripod
Meade AZ 70
Meade DS 2130 AT
Zhumell 10" Dob
Zhumell Plossel EP and Filter set
Simmons 10x50 Binoculars
GLPx5
LPI
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Protheus
Vaguely offended
Reged: 09/01/07
Posts: 3907
Loc: Illinois, US
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Quote:
Quote:
No BUSHNELL MAKS!! Run the other way!! Very bad scopes. Spend your money on an Orion, or a Meade DS Mak.
You are so correct about the Bushnell. Me and a few others observers watched in horror as one of those thing began to fall apart before our ours. It was so bad we had to shoot it.
Did you at least keep the corrector? It could probably be used in a project with one of those cheap jones-bird newts to make a little Maksutov-Newtonian that could be worth using... 
Chris
--------------------
"To tread the sharp edge of a sword;
to run on smooth-frozen ice,
one needs no footsteps to follow..."
"Well, people sometimes ask me 'how did you get involved in astronomy?' I said 'I got born, what's your problem?'" -- John Dobson
"In discussing the large-scale structure of the cosmos, astronomers sometimes say that space is curved, or that the universe is finite but unbounded. Whatever are they talking about?" -- Carl Sagan
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Bubbinski
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 06/18/05
Posts: 850
Loc: 40.56 N 111.96 W - Utah
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I don't have too much to add, but I have been very happy with my 90 mm Orion Mak on EQ-1M tabletop mount. It's collecting dust since I got the Dob, but for three years it was the scope that brought me into this hobby to stay.
I'm hoping to get a GOTO mount for it at some point, that can track the ISS. We'll see if that happens.
Justin
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Orion Skyquest XT 4.5, 90 mm Mak, ST 80, 11x56 Garrett Geminis
5/6/9/10/12.5/15/17/20/25/30/32 mm EP's (TMB, Highlight, Expanse, Sirius, Paul Rini), 2x Shorty Plus, 3x Tri-Mag barlows
106 Messiers Observed Since Spring 2005
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n1toga
member
Reged: 05/15/08
Posts: 90
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Going off on a tangent here,
What do you think is the weight limit of the Nexstar SLT mount for visual observation?
Do you think I can stick a 10 pound SCT/MCT on it and get away with it purely for visual purposes?
The OTA's I'm thinking abouth are the C130 MCT and of course the C6 with starbright XLT coatings. Both can be had for 300 or 400 dollars. The mount will come from the Nexstar 60 SLT with the tube being tossed.
Thanks,
Rahul K.
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GeneDiG
sage
Reged: 05/31/05
Posts: 240
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Go with the 6" SCT over the 130mm Mak. I have a C130. In my opinion it is a nice 'scope if you can: A) get it for less than $225 B) be ready to make some modifcations to the OTA C) be prepared to do some collimation efforts D) get some adapters becuase regular SCT threaded accesories will not fit on the visual back of the C130's OTA.
As for the Nexstar 60 mount holding your MCT or SCT. It can be done, but it seems at the limit of its abilities. I have an old Tasco Starguide 60 mount which is identical to early Nexstar 60 mounts. I added a Baader bracket which allows the use of a Vixen style dovetail. I used my C130 on the mount but it seems like the motors really strain to move the large OTA. The Starguide mount works better with a short-tube 80mm I have.
Gene
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