Jun 2, 2016 - 1 min - Uploaded by Tim KennettMaksutov-Cassegrain telescope with multicoated optics - diameter 90 mm (3'. 2d Autocad Practice Drawings Pdf File on this page. 5), focal lenght. Buy Konus MotorMax-90 90mm f/13.3 Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope with RA Motor features 3.5' / 90mm Aperture, 1200mm Focal Length, f/13.3 Focal Ratio. German equatorial mount; Right Ascension tracking motor, runs on one 9V battery; Manual RA and Declination slow motion cables; Bar and counterweight for.

As promised here are my first impressions of the Konus Motormax 90. After deciding what I really wanted was a grab and go scope I was trying to decide between smaller maks and refractors. I then discovered that Park Cameras in Haywards Heath were selling the Konus for £110 and decided to get one of each. As the reason for the attractive price on the Konus was that it was an end of range item for Park, and they only had 2 left, I decided to get this scope first.

I hope to pick up an ST80 refractor next month. The specification of the Konus Motormax 90, from the Konus website, is: - Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope with multicoated optics - diameter 90 mm (3'.5), focal lenght 1200 mm (47'), focal ratio f/13.3 - equatorial mount with RA motor - metal tripod 73-121 cm (2.4-4.0 ft.) - 8x21 achromatic finderscope - 45° erecting prism and lunar filter - eyepieces Plossl 10 mm and Plossl 17 mm, diam. 31.8 mm (1'.25) - magnification with supplied eyepieces 120x and 70x. The Konus Motormax 90 appears to be a Synta product and the same as the Celestron C90 Mak but without the rubber armour and waterproofing, as well as the 45° erecting prism listed above the tube has a built in 90° mirror and eyepiece holder. What's in the box. Having lugged the scope home on the train, I was surprised by just how heavy it was, I set about unwrapping my new toy. Every thing was well packed in a large collection of boxes with the tube in polystyrene.

All the bits were present and correct with the exception of the moon filter which is pictured as a grey ND filter on the box but turned out to be green. The tube is blue painted metal and reasonable quality plastic.

The SCT screw thread connector at the back has a nice screw on metal cap. The eyepiece holder on top of the scope for use with the built in 90° mirror came with a rather loose fitting plastic cap which I have already managed to lose. There is a switch/lever on the left of the tube to flip the mirror up and use the erecting prism or anything else you want to attach to the back of the scope, this operates with a nice satisfying clunk.

At the bottom of the scope is a standard photographic tripod mount to which was already attached a metal mount to attach the tube to the supplied EQ1 mount. The EQ1 mount itself is fairly hefty metal item and the tripod is made of box section aluminium. The RA motor looks and feels more like a toy but does seem to work, unlike the included batteries which as they are not alkaline are unsurprisingly nearly flat. Also included in the box is a slim manual which turns out to be in 8 languages.

The actual English instructions consist of 2 pages of text which is rather poorly translated, or poorly written, or both. There are also 2 pages of diagrams which are a bit more useful and in practice every thing went together without any problems. The 2 eyepieces feel rather cheap but do come in their own white plastic pots. Finally the box also included an small cleaning cloth and a poster with a tolerable moon map on one side and on the other less useful maps of both the northern and southern skies, and of course the usual pictures of the kind of views of DSOs you can expect to see using nothing more than the contents of the box. And a multi billion pound telescope in earth orbit. When reading my comments on this scope please bear in mind that I am not a very experienced astronomer and most of the experience I do have was about 25 years ago.

First light was the moon with the scope on one of my photographic tripods. Using the 17mm plossl supplied with the scope gave some superb views along the terminator. Unfortunately this scope shakes a lot when mounted on even my most heavy duty photographic tripod. Partly this is the weight, but also the tripod bush is a long way behind the centre of gravity. This meant that it was impossible to bring the 10mm plossl to focus on this occasion. Another discovery was that the built in 90° mirror needs a lot of refocusing compared to the erecting prism.

So it isn't really practical to mount 2 eyepieces to the scope and flip between them. A day or 2 later I was round at a friend's place. He is a keen astronomer and had a few bits and pieces for sale.

I ended up buying a TS AZ Tisch altazimuth mount and tabletop tripod complete with a spare baseplate that lets me mount it to the tripod that came with the Konus, and a Celestrom X-Cel 10mm eyepiece. I have also acquired Skywatcher/Helios Long Eye Relief 15mm and Meade Series 4000 Super Plossl eyepieces 2nd hand and a Baader Skywatcher III RDF (which I have yet to fit to the scope) from Sussex Astronomy Centre. More Observing. I have been using the scope on the TS AZ mount and the Konus tripod. I find this a great 'grab and go' combination with the slow motion controls on the mount really proving their worth.

Damping time is less than 2 seconds with this setup. Looking at the moon through this scope is fantastic, using either the 17mm plossl or the 15mm LER I have had views that are all I could wish for. Using the 26mm Meade the whole moon pretty much fills the eyepiece. With either of the 10mm eyepieces though atmospheric turbulence has been too intrusive to make viewing worthwhile.

The supplied green 'lunar' filter seems to be useless Planetary observation should be this scope's other strong point but so far I have been unable to get decent views of either Mars or Jupiter (the only planets I have been able to look at with this scope so far) through this scope. Both have been fairly low in the sky so I am hopeful that the problem was poor seeing rather than the scope.

I did however get a great view of Holmes with the Konus, it looked just like the images posted here but no quite as bright. While the high magnifications and limited angles of view offered by this scope make it less than ideal for stellar viewing I have pointed it at a few stars. Out of focus stars seem to look the same to me either side of focus, so I guess collimation is okay. Looking at the Pleiades through the Konus and the 26mm gave a lovely view of stars against a dark background but not even a hint of nebulosity. The viewfinder itself is better than I expected, but the mount is not, getting the finder aligned takes quite some time, knocking it out of alignment however takes no time or effort at all.

Hopefully the RDF will be an improvement. Terrestrial Use. One of the things that attracted me to this scope was that it would make a useful addition to my Kowa spotting scope for birdwatching. I have taken it to Pagham Harbour to try it out. The first thing that struck me was how dim the view was, not really surprising when you consider that my Kowa is a f/4.5 and this is a f/13.3.

Once I got used to that however I found the 26mm gave good views of the birds with the 17 & 15mm also both being useful though all eyepieces were sharper in the centre than the edge. The 10mm eyepieces however had so little depth of field that getting focus on a moving bird was near impossible. The view from the X-Cel was also so dim that I had to put a sweater over my head to keep the light out, I could make out flies on a bench over a 100 yards away when I did this, but this isn't really very useful. The Cracked Egg Las Vegas. The other thing to bear in mind is that this scope is a lot heavier than the average spotting scope, so is more suited to a hide or a fixed position. So am I happy with my purchase? On the whole yes, I think that for the price I paid this is a good deal, a 90mm Maksutov Cassegrain, an EQ1 mount with RA drive and tripod, and a couple of usable eyepieces for £110 can't be bad. I was pleasantly surprised by how well the included plossls held up against my other eyepieces.

I'm not quite so sure that I would recommend it at it's normal price of £199 though, and there are better all rounders out there. People do seem to have some reservations about Konus, I have seen comments ranging from the complimentary to flat warnings to never buy their products.

Most of their products seem to be made for them by Synta in China, who also make Celestron and Skywatcher and other low and mid priced scopes to the same or similar designs (it has been suggested to me that Synta have different factories for different brands). If there is a problem with Konus products then it seems to me that is likely to be with quality control. So Konus is perhaps a brand to be bought locally, from a reputable business, so that if you do get a duff one you can take it back for refund or replacement. I hope I haven't gone on too much, I will let you know when I have had the chance to put the EQ1 through it's paces, and when I have had a chance to do some more planetary viewing.

All the best, Will. Good Review Will.

I have the Skywatcher 90mm Mak, and this has proved to be an excellent model, in terms of quality of build, smoothness in operation, and optical sharpness. The images are (like your Konus) quite dim when looking at the stars. And field of view is narrow.

Mine cost £159 for the Optical Tube, two lenses and a red dot finder. And there was a good sturdy carrying case for the scope. You had a good buy with yours for £110. I think you are right when you say that Konus is a good brand to buy locally. Regards, philsail1. Thank for the comments CW and Phil. I have had a chance to use the EQ1 mount supplied with the scope.

I got up early Weds morning hoping to view Saturn. Sadly there was cloud coming in fast. The northern sky was already obscured so the was no point in trying to polar align the scope.

Trying to get lined up on Saturn I discovered that the Dec slow motion controller only goes so far before stopping, whereas both the slow motion controllers on my TS AZ mount operate through 360°. By this time Saturn had disappeared behind the clouds.

Venus however stayed visible long enough to get a good look and was able to clearly make out the phase. However I also discovered that vibration damping time with the EQ1 is around 4 seconds over twice that of the TS AZ on the same tripod. The amount of vibration is also greater and this makes focusing the shorter focal length eyepieces a real challenge. I can't say that the poor performance of the EQ1 mount comes as a surprise. I have read less than favourable reviews of it on this and other forums. Now I'm not too bothered by this as I'd always intended to get an alt azimuth mount, and I'm hoping that the EQ1 will come in handy for use with my DSLR, a lot lighter than the scope. Under mounting small scopes, the ones that beginners are likely to buy, seems to be common place and I think is rather short sighted on the part of the manufacturers, as I'm sure bad vibes puts a lot of people off.

All the best, Will.