Okay, so have been playing with this for few days now. I had a SVBONY 0.8 focus reducer / flattener for my 80mm refractor and in fit of fancy to check if it would work on this Mak, voila ! It does fit well in the 2” side and then using a 2” to 1.25” adapter was able to attach rest of the visual imaging train, a dielectric diagonal and a low power 32 mm plossl. Was able to find focus with no fuss. Then took it out into a chilly night ( scope was cooled down) and what I saw was simply amazing. First target was the waxing crescent and it was super crisp, good thing was using the reducer seems to have done two things, 1. Allow the moon to fully fit with the FOV of any eyepiece 24 mm and bigger. 2. Improved clarity or brightness of the over all image, not sure if the seeing was good or the reducer was contributing to it. Then moved the Castor A and it showed the double star split in absolute clarity. Switched to a 8-24 zoom and had no issues even on the high power end of the zoom. I could zoom into the moon craters with great views. Visually observed few more like Mars, Procyon, Pollux etc in the western sky. Now I have to do the full math / calculations on what the focal reducer did to this scope. At a high level, the 1800 FL should have reduced to 1440 mm and F ratio of 9.6, not fast by any means, but better than F12. Now wondering if an Antares 0.63 reducer used for SCTs would work on this ?! That would make this a 1134 FL and 7.56 FR scope. Wouldn’t be a bad one to image few brighter DSOs… Any thoughts from you ? Guess should also start a thread on Cloudy Nights on this.
I got one recently after your review. Ioptron shipped me with a faulty focuser, but replaced it with a good one. Seeing has been bad, and it has been rainy and cloudy weather for almost 2 weeks now. Haven’t got a chance to do a proper seeing. This time of the year only Venus and Mars are visible as Jupiter and Saturn set much earlier.
@@dgdave2673 Nice to hear they did right by you with the replacement. Weather here is about the same, cloudy and a bit cold. Besides Mars and Venus, there is the Moon to target. Seems to me the MAK was made for it. Cheers!
Hi Garnett, That's what I found, or didn't find. There's just not a whole lot on this offering. Collimation is achieved at the rear of the scope. There are the typically push/pull screws. MAK's secondaries are not movable. iOptron cover this in detail in the PDF owner's manual, available at their website. Cheers!
It's the exact same as the Synta maks. Three pairs of push/pull screws with the push being a different length. I am hovering over the buy button at the moment lol. I must resist 😂
Nice review Richard, looks a much better build than my 127 Celestron Mak, although I can't complain about the planet views from it. In the UK we have been lucky over the past month as we've had a large number of clear skies. I even managed to get away in the camper to a dark sky with the some of the society members although it got down to a cool -7 degrees C overnight. We've got Kielder coming up at the end of March, skies get down to a nice class 2/3 in some parts, so keeping fingers crossed for the clear skies.
Hey Robert, Agreed, it's hard to beat a Mak for solar system work. Glad to hear you grabbed some clear skies recently. I've heard astronomy is challenge in the UK. Here in South Dakota we get a fair amount of clear skies but the Jet Stream typically flows over head and reduces the seeing to below average or poor many a night. Best of luck for Kielder!
Thanks for this review. I have been considering this scope and it's been difficult to find feedback and user experiences, until your review. I have been considering also a Skymax with a slightly larger aperture but somehow I find the iOptron more appealing. How is the focusing? Any image shift?
The 2 speed focuser is pretty good. Certainly better than the standard offering. There seems to be a slight amount of shift going from "in to out" when using the 10 to 1 knob. But really nothing that I would say is a deal breaker.
I wouldn't get it. Its luck of the draw on quality control now. The older ones seemed to have a consistent level of quality that the new ones no longer have.
The only photography you will be doing with a Maksutov is planetary, lunar and brighter planetary nebulae. For this the Gregory is actually sharper on axis and perfect for these targets. Also the longer the focal length the harder the guiding.
Okay, so have been playing with this for few days now. I had a SVBONY 0.8 focus reducer / flattener for my 80mm refractor and in fit of fancy to check if it would work on this Mak, voila ! It does fit well in the 2” side and then using a 2” to 1.25” adapter was able to attach rest of the visual imaging train, a dielectric diagonal and a low power 32 mm plossl. Was able to find focus with no fuss. Then took it out into a chilly night ( scope was cooled down) and what I saw was simply amazing. First target was the waxing crescent and it was super crisp, good thing was using the reducer seems to have done two things, 1. Allow the moon to fully fit with the FOV of any eyepiece 24 mm and bigger. 2. Improved clarity or brightness of the over all image, not sure if the seeing was good or the reducer was contributing to it. Then moved the Castor A and it showed the double star split in absolute clarity. Switched to a 8-24 zoom and had no issues even on the high power end of the zoom. I could zoom into the moon craters with great views. Visually observed few more like Mars, Procyon, Pollux etc in the western sky. Now I have to do the full math / calculations on what the focal reducer did to this scope. At a high level, the 1800 FL should have reduced to 1440 mm and F ratio of 9.6, not fast by any means, but better than F12. Now wondering if an Antares 0.63 reducer used for SCTs would work on this ?! That would make this a 1134 FL and 7.56 FR scope. Wouldn’t be a bad one to image few brighter DSOs… Any thoughts from you ? Guess should also start a thread on Cloudy Nights on this.
This was a great video. Thank you for putting this together.
Glad it was helpful!
Awesome, this is unearthing a diamond in a mine of Celestrons and Skywatchers. This so far is the best review of this scope out there.
Thanks, DG!
@@DakotaStarryNights - how do you like the dual speed focuser? Is it better than single speed on others ? Is it a differentiator for you ?
@@dgdave2673 Dual speed is certainty better, especially at high power, DG.
I got one recently after your review. Ioptron shipped me with a faulty focuser, but replaced it with a good one. Seeing has been bad, and it has been rainy and cloudy weather for almost 2 weeks now. Haven’t got a chance to do a proper seeing. This time of the year only Venus and Mars are visible as Jupiter and Saturn set much earlier.
@@dgdave2673 Nice to hear they did right by you with the replacement. Weather here is about the same, cloudy and a bit cold. Besides Mars and Venus, there is the Moon to target. Seems to me the MAK was made for it. Cheers!
Really excited when I saw this scope under review. Very little information exists on it. Excellent review. I’m interested in how collimation differs.
Hi Garnett, That's what I found, or didn't find. There's just not a whole lot on this offering.
Collimation is achieved at the rear of the scope. There are the typically push/pull screws. MAK's secondaries are not movable. iOptron cover this in detail in the PDF owner's manual, available at their website. Cheers!
It's the exact same as the Synta maks. Three pairs of push/pull screws with the push being a different length. I am hovering over the buy button at the moment lol. I must resist 😂
What are your thoughts for using for visual observation? Bruce. I really enjoyed this detail review. Thanks for sharing you expertise with all of us.
For solar system work it's really great! But be sure to give it at least 30 to 40 minutes to acclimate, and a hour is better.
Nice review Richard, looks a much better build than my 127 Celestron Mak, although I can't complain about the planet views from it. In the UK we have been lucky over the past month as we've had a large number of clear skies. I even managed to get away in the camper to a dark sky with the some of the society members although it got down to a cool -7 degrees C overnight. We've got Kielder coming up at the end of March, skies get down to a nice class 2/3 in some parts, so keeping fingers crossed for the clear skies.
Hey Robert, Agreed, it's hard to beat a Mak for solar system work. Glad to hear you grabbed some clear skies recently. I've heard astronomy is challenge in the UK. Here in South Dakota we get a fair amount of clear skies but the Jet Stream typically flows over head and reduces the seeing to below average or poor many a night. Best of luck for Kielder!
This is made by Bosma, same as the Omegon Mak
Thanks for this review. I have been considering this scope and it's been difficult to find feedback and user experiences, until your review. I have been considering also a Skymax with a slightly larger aperture but somehow I find the iOptron more appealing. How is the focusing? Any image shift?
The 2 speed focuser is pretty good. Certainly better than the standard offering. There seems to be a slight amount of shift going from "in to out" when using the 10 to 1 knob. But really nothing that I would say is a deal breaker.
I wouldn't get it. Its luck of the draw on quality control now. The older ones seemed to have a consistent level of quality that the new ones no longer have.
Reminds me somewhat of my Intes Mak
Hi,thanks for your review. To use the swo asi 585, are any extenders needed to get focus on the camera?
Well, I didn't need any with the iOptron 150.
Bresser mak another best scope?
Haven't tried that one yet.
The only photography you will be doing with a Maksutov is planetary, lunar and brighter planetary nebulae. For this the Gregory is actually sharper on axis and perfect for these targets. Also the longer the focal length the harder the guiding.