My NEW Scope! - Skymax 180 Pro - Planet Busting Power!

Introducing my new (to me anyway) scope, the Skywatcher Skymax 180 Pro Maksutov!

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#astrophotography #space #stars #nebula #pixinsight #seestar #zwo #asiair

[CuivTheLazyGeek]

Congrats on your new scope! I'm so surprised this is your first Maksutov! My first "real" telescope was a Mak, an ETX-125 (which was horrible to collimate since you don't have access to the collimation screws without unmounting the scope!). And YES, the jacket works great with a a Mak or Mak-Newt, it works with SCTs too - less effective with the Vixen Modified Cassegrains and other open designs (like classical cassegrains)

[GarnettLeary]

Sweet scope. Love mine. Absolutely amazing scope. Excellent for galaxies despite misconceptions

[josephluciani]

Luke, thanks for the Skymax tour. Always great to see your unflagging enthusiasm for this hobby.

[mountainman]

Really nice scope, always wanted to put one of these against my C8. On cool down - I just check the weather forecast on the morning, then if looking good the OTA and eyepieces are put outside until the time comes. (Of course, you need a safe place to put them, a garden shed works well).

[nathanbarnard]

Congrats on the new scope! FYI, I’m processing some recent data and I have your videos playing on my second monitor. You’re an excellent teacher and my images have greatly improved from your content. Keep it up my friend!

[MatthewHolevinski]

Thanks! Wish I had a mak and nice dark sky. I gotta group of about 30 kids that are expecting a tour of the night sky tonight. I am neither competent nor qualified, (sigh) gonna be a rough evening.

[Oamaruastro]

Congratulations on the new scope! I acquired this same scope when I bought my used HEQ5-Pro mount, but never got to use it much and decided to sell it to allow me to get an 8” SCT (which I love). I look forward to seeing what you get with it!

[Astrolavista]

Nice job on the insulated jacket there, Luke, and congrats on the planetary/Lunar beast :)

[bengterlandsson]

It’s a great scope, if you could share your experience in how to collimating it would be highly appreciated. Thanks, looking forward to seeing your results from using it.

[Astronurd]

Just had my 180 delivered last week and just fitted an electric focuser, clicklock and two layers of reflectix. Fitted a dew heater strap under the insulation. If you intend using a 3x Barlow with a f15 scope then you will need a camera with huge pixels. For planetary you want 5 x pixel size to be the f ratio.

[ekalbkr]

What fun! I'm interested in seeing what you can get out of it. Sending clear sky vibes your way...

[Rfhuir]

It's fantastic to see this scope getting some attention. I've been using the Skymax 180 for a couple of years now and absolutely love it. The optics are excellent, especially for lunar and planetary observation. I purchased a Powermate Barlow tube for mine, which works really well, although it requires excellent conditions. Like you, I went into it fully aware of the long cool-down times and mirror flop. I just plan ahead. For grab and go, I also bought a Skymax 127 which cools down far quicker and punches well above its weight. I didn't know about the silver jacket - thanks for that. You are going to love the 180!

[carvrodrigo]

Congratz my friend. Maks are very nice telescopes, crisp views. About the collimation inner shadow shifts this is not normal. As a Mak user myself this is caused by mirror shift. The shaft that the primary moves when you focus is a little small then the metal glued to the primary causing the mirror a little tilt that you saw at 6.08min. What you can do is twist the mak focuser all way down where the mirror can rest on the beginning of the shaft, then lock the mirror there and use the crayford focuser. This can solve your issue. Another tip is to collimate after you do it.

[PhilippeNoth]

Cool, finally an astro-youtuber using the Skymax! 🙂

Despite being a beginner – purchased the Skymax 180 for visual planetary and a WO Z73 for DS photo one year ago – I got amazing footage of Jupiter last summer. I bet you will love it too.

Could you maybe research the possibilities of adding an EAF or any external focuser to this beast? It is my understanding that it is hardly possible. I would be willing to let a specialist tune it because focusing is tricky @ 2700 FL.

[edwardgill]

Highly recommend mounting a Losmandy dovetail on the side opposite from the vixen dovetail. The Celestron orange colored dovetail for the 8" SCT fits perfectly and is "cheap" to boot. Why? The vixen is too narrow (heavy tube easily rolls out of the clamp when mounting and especially unmounting) and too short (hard to balance). You have to disassemble to scope, not too scary if you're careful and methodical.

[Mel-]

Ive looked at these scopes many times but never felt comfortable to own one. I kept going back to the idea of an esprite 160, so purchased the 160 instead. I will look out for your results on the Skymax. Love your videos, you come out with some amazing results. Clear sky's to you.

[KingLoopie]

You will enjoy the mak! When kept in its own ballpark it's an amazing instrument. I have 2 nexstar 4se, 1 celestron c130, and 1 150 f10 which appears to be a repainted intes. Still looking for an older Meade 7" (yeah, OK, ... I've got a problem...) The older Meade 7" was made with a 7" corrector and an 8" primary so as to not lose any light from the light days refracting outwards by the negative corrector. I don't know if the modern maks have that feature or even whether or not it makes a difference... But I'd like to find out!

[KevinMurphy]

Well done on your purchase. Absolutely wonderful telescope for the moon and planets. Excellent on globulars also, havent tried it on other DSO's so can't comment. I got one about a year ago and I really love it. I have the 127 version and I would highly recommend this also, and, to be honest, I use this more (on an alt/Az tripod for casual lunar and planet viewing). I would recommend storing it outside in a shed or sealed container (in the shade) due to cool down time. I also got the Astrozap dew heater which is essential. They say these telescopes are nearly as good as APO's, I would go further and drop the "nearly". Amazing piece of gear for the price.

[darkrangersinc]

Congrats and good luck with any reflector 😂. Looking forward to seeing what you get 💪🏼

[KevinRudd-ws]

Thanks for the review Luke. I have been considering a long focal length scope for some time but your initial review of this has probably convinced me not to go down the Mak route. If I had an observatory where I could leave it set up I would probably be inclined to think differently, but I'm a bit lazy and don't like playing around with things like collimation or waiting for long periods for the temperature to stabilise. Also I have read somewhere that Maks are not so good on DSOs like galaxies and planetary nebulae which is what I'm more interested in ( even visually I was never that interested in the moon or planets ). I have to say though, that Maks are very competitively priced for there size, and lots of people seem very happy with them. Looking forward to seeing the images you capture with this all the same, might help me change my mind.