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After much debate within myself:
"Should I get it?" "Should I not get it?"
"I already have 9 working telescopes and 2 other telescope projects!"
"My wife won't understand if I buy another telescope!"
And then finally reading a post from a member of another club I belong to: The60mmTelescopeClub@groups.io, and from watching this video review below, I decided to pull the plug!
It's called the Sarblue Planet Mate 60mm Maksutov. It has a focal length of 750mm and includes a nice little 20mm reverse kellner eyepiece for 37.5x magnification, a phone adapter, and a not so good tabletop tripod. The interesting feature of this scope is that it has a lid on top of the OTA that opens up to reveal the internal mechanism, I imagine for the educational value.
I ordered it yesterday from Amazon for $109.99 and it arrives today!
Bruce
Refractors: Meade AR-5 127mm f/9.3, Meade ST-80 f/5 and Meade 60mm f/12, Jason 60mm f/15 #313, Jason 60mm f/12 #306 S7, Bushnell Sky Chief III 60mm f/15. Reflectors/Catadioptrics: Meade 10" F/4 Schmidt-Newtonian, Galileo 120mm f/8.3 Newtonian, Meade 2045D 4" f/10 SCT, Meade ETX-90EC f/13.8 & Sarblue 60mm f/12.5 Maksutov-Cassegrains. Mounts: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro & Meade LXD55 Equatorial mounts, ES Twilight II and Meade 2102 ALT/AZ mounts, a modified 10" SkyQuest Dobsonian mount, various 60mm EQ mounts. Misc: Celestron 20x80mm binoculars, Revolution II Imager/accessories, & lots of optical accessories/eyepieces. Projects: 8" f/2.9 and 65mm f/10 reflectors, Dobson-style binocular mirror mount.
Interesting, I look forward to your thoughts of it.
Gabrielle See Far Sticks: Elita 103/1575, AOM FLT 105/1000, Bresser 127/1200 BV, Nočný stopár 152/1200, Vyrobené doma 70/700, Stellarvue NHNG DX 80/552, TAL RS 100/1000, Vixen SD115s/885 EQ: TAL MT-1, Vixen SXP, SXP2, AXJ, AXD Az/Alt: AYO Digi II, Stellarvue M2C, Argo Navis encoders on both Tripods: Berlebach Planet (2), Uni 28 Astro, Report 372, TAL factory maple, Vixen ASG-CB90, Vixen AXD-TR102 Diagonals: Astro-Physics, Baader Amici, Baader Herschel, iStar Blue, Stellarvue DX, Tak prism, TAL, Vixen Eyepieces: Antares to Zeiss (1011110) The only culture I have is from yogurt
Yup. Will be curious to read your thoughts / experiences.
============================================================================= I drink tea, I read books, I look at stars when I'm not cursing clouds. It's what I do. =============================================================================
AT50, AT72EDII, ST80, ST102; Scopetech Zero, AZ-GTi, AZ Pronto; Innorel RT90C, Oberwerk 5000; Orion Giantview 15x70s, Vortex 8x42s, Navy surplus 7x50s, Nikon 10x50s
"I am more than a sum of molecules.
I am more than a sum of memories or events.
I do not one day suddenly cease to be.
I am, before memory.
I am, before event.
I am"
Nine telescopes already!!
I recognize this. A typical case of morbus telescopio. I have it too. Incurable, you must learn to live with it. The well known medicine "buy quality, cry once", doesn't work long.
There is only one medicine for minor cases: go out and observe as much as you can with all of them. That will keep the fever down a bit. When clouded keep inventing innovations for them. Once you stop observing, you will be lost and upgrade to the most expensive final stage: collector.
Never mind this nonsens,
Have a good time with your new telescope!
Refractors in frequency of use : *SW Evostar 120ED F/7.5 (all round ), * Vixen 102ED F/9 (vintage), both on Vixen GPDX. GrabnGo on Alt/AZ : *SW Startravel 102 F/5 refractor( widefield, Sun, push-to), *OMC140 Maksutov F/14.3 ( planets). Most used Eyepieces: *Panoptic 24, *Morpheus 14, *Leica ASPH zoom, *Zeiss barlow, *Pentax XO5. Commonly used bino's : *Jena 10X50 , * Canon 10X30 IS,*Swarovski Habicht 7X42, * Celestron 15X70, *Kasai 2.3X40 Rijswijk Public Observatory: * Astro-Physics Starfire 130 f/8, * 6 inch Newton, * C9.25, * Meade 14 inch LX600 ACF, *Lunt. Amateur astronomer since 1970.
Congrats on the purchase. One can never have too many scopes or binos.
-Michael Refractors: ES AR152 f/6.5 Achromat on Twilight II, Celestron 102mm XLT f/9.8 on Celestron Heavy Duty Alt Az mount, KOWA 90mm spotting scope Binoculars: Celestron SkyMaster 15x70, Bushnell 10x50 Eyepieces: Various, GSO Superview, 9mm Plossl, Celestron 25mm Plossl Camera: ZWO ASI 120 Naked Eye: Two Eyeballs Latitude: 48.7229° N
I received the little 60mm MAK yesterday just before the sun set. I was surprised how light the package was! I was also a little surprised after opening that box, how little the box is containing the scope. Looking outside, I noticed the sky already clouding up! After dark, the clouds were everywhere with just a few bright stars poking through. So First Light will have to be postponed until the clouds clear!
I opened the well-packed box to find the telescope with capped prism diagonal attached, eyepiece with caps, phone adapter, and tripod , all covered individually with plastic bags and placed tightly in separate compartments within the styrofoam. The OTA is plastic, as is the diagonal, phone adapter, and eyepiece barrel. The tabletop tripod is mostly plastic with metal legs and hardware. The tripod is more stable than I thought it would be, and is easy to operate smoothly with just enough stiffness to it. You would think the use of plastic would be a negative, but in this case it is well executed, with none of the telescope accessories having excess plastic showing. The OTA seems very robust.
The very basic "finder" is made of two in-line plastic protrusions pre-formed in the removable plastic "hood". I will definitely upgrade the finder to either a laser, red dot, or small raci finder. The included tabletop tripod I would use in a pinch, but a full sized camera tripod would be easier to use. I will post again when seeing conditions allow. It looks like clouds again tonight!
Attachments
Bruce
Refractors: Meade AR-5 127mm f/9.3, Meade ST-80 f/5 and Meade 60mm f/12, Jason 60mm f/15 #313, Jason 60mm f/12 #306 S7, Bushnell Sky Chief III 60mm f/15. Reflectors/Catadioptrics: Meade 10" F/4 Schmidt-Newtonian, Galileo 120mm f/8.3 Newtonian, Meade 2045D 4" f/10 SCT, Meade ETX-90EC f/13.8 & Sarblue 60mm f/12.5 Maksutov-Cassegrains. Mounts: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro & Meade LXD55 Equatorial mounts, ES Twilight II and Meade 2102 ALT/AZ mounts, a modified 10" SkyQuest Dobsonian mount, various 60mm EQ mounts. Misc: Celestron 20x80mm binoculars, Revolution II Imager/accessories, & lots of optical accessories/eyepieces. Projects: 8" f/2.9 and 65mm f/10 reflectors, Dobson-style binocular mirror mount.