Both of these telescopes have a focal length of about one and a half meters.
To put this into perspective, my slide roll here is configured to be about one and a half meters long.
That means that given the same eyepiece, they'll both produce the same magnification. Tonight we'll
have a comparison to see what a planet looks like in each of these and which one... is better.
The first telescope that we'll be using is a Maksutov-Cassegrain made by Orion.
It has a diameter of 127 millimeters and on the back is an Orion image-corrected diagonal.
Next up is a Newtonian on a Dobsonian mount. This 12 inch reflector is made by Zhumel.
Both of these telescopes were purchased used and the Dobsonian's mirror has been recoated.
To compare apples to apples we'll be using a Tele Vue 8 millimeter Plossl.
Given that the formula for magnification is just the telescope focal length divided by
the eyepiece focal length, we can see that if you take the number 1500 millimeters
and you divide by 8 millimeters, we get 187.5 so the magnification is just shy of 188.
This should be plenty of magnification for seeing Saturn.
Okay here we have the Maksutov-Cassegrain. It's pointed at Saturn. I have an 8 millimeter
Plossl in there and there's an Orion diagonal.
It's a pretty good view of Saturn. It's relatively sharp. It's not super bright - that might just be
because of the capture area and I'm here in the city so there's a lot of light pollution.
It's pretty neat, the rings are relatively sharp i can't quite make out the Cassini Division.
I think I might be able to see it, yeah i can just just barely
see the Cassini Division but Saturn looks pretty sharp in this. It's nice.
Okay now we have the 12 inch Dobsonian, it's pointed at Saturn.
I have an 8 millimeter Plossl in here, let's see how it looks.
The rings are really sharp. I can see the Cassini Division really well.
The atmosphere must be really stable because this is basically the best I've ever seen Saturn.
Okay, so let's summarize our one and a half meter focal length shootout. We used the same
8 millimeter Plossl eyepiece to make sure that they both had the exact same magnification
of about 187 roughly 188. So that was to make sure that everything, we had apples
to apples comparisons, so let's start out with this guy. This is the Orion Maksutov-Cassegrain
127 millimeters in diameter on this guy and uh let's talk about the pros on this. The first obvious pro
to this is that it's so portable. You can pick it up carry it around, you can do a football carry,
this thing is super portable you can put this in the backseat of your car you can put in the trunk
put it anywhere that's a really good thing especially when we talk about the dobsonian
the images that this produced were pretty good now they weren't as bright the contrast wasn't
there that i'm used to i've used dabstonians for about 20 plus years so i'm used to super bright
images but the image that this produced of saturn was pretty darn good i could see the
rings i could just almost see the cassini division in the ring almost uh but it was it was it gave a
very satisfactory view of saturn i would imagine uh if you went somewhere where you didn't have
as much light pollution as you have here in town you would probably get a an even better image of
saturn with this so let's talk about the other telescope the dobsonian the 12 inch dobsonian
the main downside for the dobsonian is the sheer size
i have a confession to make that is of the few times i've gone camping and brought a telescope
along i've never been able to bring the 12-inch topsonian because it won't fit in our vehicle
unless i want to sleep inside the tube itself we can't fit it in the car with the camping gear so
it's either sleeping bags or giant telescope instead i take the 8 inch dobsonian which fits
very nicely in the vehicles let's see the dobsonian since it's a big light bucket it gathers
so much light it produces very bright images and it produces very sharp images you know tonight i i
saw the atmosphere was just perfect and i saw the best image of saturn i've ever seen i can see the
the cassini division very clear in the dom sonia i could almost see it in this one so you know to
give it credit where credit's due but again uh the as far as the quality of image and brightness goes
the dobsonian one now i know it's um it has a bit of an advantage it's gathering a lot more light so
that's not exactly the fairest but i will say that the portability of the dobsonian
is a pretty huge factor it weighs a lot i would say 70 80 pounds total and so when it comes down
to it both of the telescopes produced acceptable images you know i was very happy with both of them
i would say if you could find a really good mount for this i had it on a tripod that was being very
finicky so that was a little bit a little bit irritating actually the amount that i had this on
if you were to put this on a good solid equatorial mount i think it would make a huge difference
i'm used to the ease of the dobsonian the dobsonian it's the point-and-click telescope right
you just you just grab the front end then you move it wherever you want it to go and it stays
it's really nice so again i am biased towards dobsonians but i will say if if you're at a if you
need a telescope that doesn't take up a lot of space and it's very portable
then this is the one you have to go for if you have a big vehicle and it doesn't matter how big
the telescope is then i would say go ahead and get a big dobsonian but either way if you see
either of these and you get a really good deal on them i would say pick them up i think you'll be
happy with either one to be honest so please like and subscribe and clear skies everybody