Telescope Reviews: Which 90mm Mak for tiny Apartment and travel?

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rmollise
Postmaster

Reged: 07/06/07

Re: Which 90mm Mak for tiny Apartment and travel? new

new

[Re: RafaelP]
#5595915 - 12/30/12 11:11 AM

Quote:

Thank Rod!
I will be taking the C90 along with me to the mountains in Colorado this week. I am hoping for dark clear skies so I can really test it out!

Cool, again, just don't expect good seeing. Or, as Eric points out, a classic Newtonian star test. If you are seeing good planetary detail, you are there.

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AlienRatDog
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 07/15/05

Loc: Ann Arbor

Re: Which 90mm Mak for tiny Apartment and travel? new

new

[Re: rmollise]
#5596778 - 12/30/12 07:18 PM

Can we get a couple of pics?

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rmollise
Postmaster

Reged: 07/06/07

Re: Which 90mm Mak for tiny Apartment and travel? new

new

[Re: AlienRatDog]
#5597652 - 12/31/12 10:12 AM

Quote:

Can we get a couple of pics?

Uh...what of?

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AlienRatDog
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 07/15/05

Loc: Ann Arbor

Re: Which 90mm Mak for tiny Apartment and travel? new

new

[Re: rmollise]
#5597656 - 12/31/12 10:16 AM

Of any of the new 90mm Maks!

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rmollise
Postmaster

Reged: 07/06/07

Re: Which 90mm Mak for tiny Apartment and travel? new

new

[Re: AlienRatDog]
#5597722 - 12/31/12 10:55 AM

Quote:

Of any of the new 90mm Maks!

Here ya go, straight from the pony's mouth...

http://www.celestron.com/astronomy/celestron-c90-mak.html

Edited by rmollise (12/31/12 03:47 PM)

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RafaelP
member

Reged: 12/01/12

Loc: NYC

Re: Which 90mm Mak for tiny Apartment and travel? new

new

[Re: rmollise]
#5597819 - 12/31/12 11:49 AM

I will post some pictures when I get back from my trip.

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Cepheus Elf
member

Reged: 08/01/10

Loc: Rainy, Cloudy Lancashire UK

Re: Which 90mm Mak for tiny Apartment and travel? new

new

[Re: RafaelP]
#5600239 - 01/01/13 07:59 PM

This has been a great thread...I'm now struggling to convince myself I don't need a c90!!

Clear skies!
Mick

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t.r.
Post Laureate

Reged: 02/14/08

Loc: Upstate NY

Re: Which 90mm Mak for tiny Apartment and travel? new

new

[Re: Cepheus Elf]
#5600851 - 01/02/13 08:40 AM

I think I've discovered my C90 impairment...that dang cruddy, cheap 90 degree diagonal Celestron sticks in packages. Do yourself a favor and throw this thing away! Next time out, I'm using a quality dielectric! However, the little C90 did show me a bald eagle flying gracefully on New Years Eve day. Around here, they are rarer than hen's teeth...a good omen for 2013!!!

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RafaelP
member

Reged: 12/01/12

Loc: NYC

Re: Which 90mm Mak for tiny Apartment and travel? new

new

[Re: t.r.]
#5601200 - 01/02/13 12:47 PM

It is very cold here in Vail, CO(~7500 feet.). It took out the C90 last night and let it cool for half an hour. Many more stars visible here than in midtown. Looking at Jupiter again, I couldn't seem to push the magnification past x62 without things fuzzing out. The Orion Nebula was bright, but I couldn't get enough magnification to see the Trapezium. According to Clear Skies tonight should be better.

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jrbarnett
Eyepiece Hooligan

Reged: 02/28/06

Loc: Petaluma, CA

Re: Which 90mm Mak for tiny Apartment and travel? new

new

[Re: RafaelP]
#5601496 - 01/02/13 04:03 PM

Rafael:

62x doesn't sound right. Mine has no trouble with 2x that, and 90mm is small aperture. Seeing shouldn't have that great of an effect on it.

Keep us posted, but to me it sounds like something isn't quite "on song" with the scope.

Regards,

Jim

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rmollise
Postmaster

Reged: 07/06/07

Re: Which 90mm Mak for tiny Apartment and travel? new

new

[Re: jrbarnett]
#5601642 - 01/02/13 05:41 PM

Quote:

Rafael:

62x doesn't sound right. Mine has no trouble with 2x that, and 90mm is small aperture. Seeing shouldn't have that great of an effect on it.

Keep us posted, but to me it sounds like something isn't quite "on song" with the scope.

Regards,

Jim

Seeing is everything. This is not a good time of year.

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Eric63
sage

Reged: 06/16/12

Loc: Ottawa, Ontario

Re: Which 90mm Mak for tiny Apartment and travel? new

new

[Re: rmollise]
#5601742 - 01/02/13 06:53 PM

In freezing temperature 30 minutes is not much cool down if the scope was inside. I keep my 127Mak in my garage which is close to freezing and when I take it out it needs at least 30 minutes. If I take out from inside the house, it needs a few hours. Perhaps cool down is the issue. I find that with the 127 I can see bands on jupiter at 50X in poor seeing. When the seeing is good I can go to 180X but when it is bad I keep it at 140X. But I can still make out some detail.

Eric

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azure1961p
Postmaster

Reged: 01/17/09

Loc: USA

Re: Which 90mm Mak for tiny Apartment and travel? new

new

[Re: Eric63]
#5601908 - 01/02/13 08:36 PM

Give it a fl hours cool down. Thirty minutes is fine for my 70mm refractor but that enclosed primary needs more time .

Pete

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mmclure
professor emeritus

Reged: 12/30/10

Loc: Sacramento, CA USA

Re: Which 90mm Mak for tiny Apartment and travel? [Re: azure1961p]
#5602200 - 01/02/13 11:58 PM

Since my new tripod (Manfrotto 055XPROB with a 128RC fluid head) arrived today, I took out the C90 for another look. The better tripod/head makes a huge difference to the usability vs. the Velbon Videomate 607 tripod I tested with earlier. It's still not optimal (I need to tighten the altitude axis to keep it from falling back near zenith) but there's very little stiction, and it's quite steady. The tripod has the possibility of setting the column horizontally - that might improve balance issues at the cost of limited azimuth motion.

In any case, the limiting factor was definitely seeing. Jupiter showed moons and both equatorial bands very nicely at 40x, started turning into mush with moments of clarity at 80x. Four stars in the Trapezium were visible at 80x, although they were flashing like Christmas lights due to seeing. All in all, a very nice little scope, and easy to handle. At some point I'll probably purchase an astronomy-specific tripod head like the DwarfStar, but the 128RC is definitely usable.

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RafaelP
member

Reged: 12/01/12

Loc: NYC

Re: Which 90mm Mak for tiny Apartment and travel? new

new

[Re: mmclure]
#5608479 - 01/06/13 02:08 PM Attachment (40 downloads)

Colorado was way too cold! I was out for several nights at -10 F, but couldn't take it long enough to view much. Anyways, here is a picture of the C90 on the Dwarfstar mount with the Orion RACI. I also found a little waterproof box with barely enough room for 3 plossls and a barlow(and manages to fit in the little backpack.)

Edited by RafaelP (01/06/13 02:26 PM)

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RafaelP
member

Reged: 12/01/12

Loc: NYC

Re: Which 90mm Mak for tiny Apartment and travel? new

new

[Re: RafaelP]
#5608489 - 01/06/13 02:10 PM Attachment (27 downloads)

And the little box...

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bsim
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 01/04/08

Loc: Miskatonic

Re: Which 90mm Mak for tiny Apartment and travel? new

new

[Re: RafaelP]
#5609064 - 01/06/13 07:13 PM Attachment (36 downloads)

Here's my new Starmax 90 mounted on a Universal Astronomics MicroStar Deluxe and a Bogen 3011 Tripod. I'm using stock accessories but will replace the diagonal with a GSO 1.25" dielectric diagonal. For eyepieces I'll use a TV 32mm Plossl, Pan 24, ES68 20mm & 16mm along with a TV 2x barlow.

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RafaelP
member

Reged: 12/01/12

Loc: NYC

Re: Which 90mm Mak for tiny Apartment and travel? new

new

[Re: bsim]
#5609923 - 01/07/13 10:48 AM

Looking good!

I kind if wish I had gotten a 9x50 RACI finder scope instead of the 6x30 so I could see more of the faint background stars.

It seems tonight will finally be some OK seeing here in NYC. I think I will try for M103, M78 and Hind's Crimson Star(and Jupiter as usual!) I think I saw M103 last night, but it clouded over before I could make sure.
~Rafael

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stevenf
sage

Reged: 10/11/09

Loc: Vancouver, BC

Re: Which 90mm Mak for tiny Apartment and travel? [Re: RafaelP]
#5610130 - 01/07/13 12:26 PM

Great photos guys, always love to see how others are mounting their little maks. Rafael I sometimes use a 9x50 with my 90mm mak, works well but it is just a bit big and can throw the scope off balance. I'm actually looking at getting a 6x30 like yours.

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t.r.
Post Laureate

Reged: 02/14/08

Loc: Upstate NY

Re: Which 90mm Mak for tiny Apartment and travel? new

new

[Re: stevenf]
#5611713 - 01/08/13 10:51 AM

Just an update...Took the C90 for a spin last night with the dielectric diagonal and a few eyepieces. Scope was mounted on my trusty Jason EQ-2 (Celestron years ago called it the G-3 when mated to the C90) and found it quite stable and user friendly. Jupiter was up and I used the provided finder scope to center on it and used a 40mm plossl for first astronomical light. Even at this low power, the bands were visible although irradiation was annoying. Switched to the 20 SWA briefly and it cut down the glare and sharpened the detail. Then, out came my coveted Leica 7-22 zoom and I was off! Due to the seeing conditions, I couldn't quite get to my usual planetary mags, but I did indeed see quite a bit of detail. The red spot was rotating in, N & S equatorial belts with temperate belts, hints of a festoon and polar hemisphere gradation. No red Jr though this may be asking alot. Oh yeah, and COLOR! This little beauty showed a little bit of belt color to ole Jove! It easily trumped what my C80SS shows for detail and this is why I asked for the C90 for Christmas. I didn't get to the mags I think the scope should be capable of, but I'll let it go blaming the seeing conditions. The moons were alittle messy, so I'm sure the conditions were the culprit. I'm hoping for more good weather to put this little gem through its paces. Its a fun, easy, no fuss grab and go even in my upstate NY winter clime. I did let it aclimate for an hour going from a heated indoors to outside. Collimation is spot on. It does outperform the C80SS, which is a Vixen scope and no slouch with excellent star test. I just wish the C90 had the widefield ability of the SS...Oh well, can't have everything, though I may SBS mount them at some point. It was ironic having a $500 zoom eyepiece sticking out of a $150 mass produced scope...but it works well as a system!

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