| The deal of the week is a marriage made in heaven. The exceptional Rumak optics of the Astro-Tech 6" Maksutov-Cassegrain scope mounted on the quality EQ5 Pro go-to mount from Sky-Watcher. Add the Sky and Telescope Hot Product Astro-Tech 1.25" dielectric diagonal and the Astro-Tech Series 6 20mm wide field eyepiece and you have a great package at a great price.
The 6" Astro-Tech AT6M Rumak-type Maksutov-Cassegrain is a superb optical system for the serious amateur astronomer who wants apochromatic refractor-type performance on solar system objects and the brighter deep space objects – but who doesn’t have the budget for a big apo. Its multicoated optics compare quite favorably with the image quality of 5" and larger apochromatic refractors that are five and six times its very reasonable price.
This Astro-Tech Maksutov-Cassegrain has:
* 150mm f/12 Rumak-type Maksutov-Cassegrain optics
* BK-7 optical glass primary mirror, Rumak-type secondary mirror, and Maksutov meniscus corrector lens
* aluminized and quartz-overcoated primary and secondary mirrors
* moving primary mirror focusing via a helical knob on the rear cell
* non-marring 2" and 1.25" compression ring accessory holders
* separate adapter to emulate a Schmidt-Cassegrain rear cell thread
* separate T-adapter
* Vixen-style dovetail mounting rail
* 8 x 50mm straight-through finderscope in a quick-release mounting bracket
The Sky-Watcher EQ5 PRO go-to German equatorial mount is designed to take the frustration out of locating celestial objects for the beginning astronomer. By the same token, it will help experienced astronomers set up faster and more efficiently so they have more time to observe and image. The mount has all the performance, features, and amenities you expect from a first-class piece of equipment. The Sky-Watcher EQ5 PRO’s SynScan go-to computer control system makes finding and tracking over 30,000 solar system and deep space objects easy and automatic. You spend more of your time looking at celestial wonders, and less time looking for them. Its easy-to-read, 2-line, 16-character backlit LCD display displays clearly in temperatures as cold as 10 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.
Several different methods for aligning your scope on the sky are built into the SynScan computer. One, two, or three star computer-guided alignment methods are easily accomplished in only a few short minutes. You can be observing in less than 15 minutes after you first take your scope outdoors, including telescope assembly time.
For the astrophotographer, the SynScan computer includes periodic error correction to eliminate the unavoidable small tracking errors in right ascension common to all worm-gear drive systems. An auto-guider port allows hands-free guiding of the mount during astrophotography. Backlash compensation in both RA and Dec keeps the guiding response prompt and uniform.
The EQ5 PRO’s SynScan computer includes a database of over 30,000 celestial objects it can take you to and track. It including the planets, the Moon, Messier objects, interesting double stars, and the thousands of objects in the CNGC, IC, and Caldwell catalogs, plus other specialized lists. There is also the provision for adding 25 user-defined celestial favorites.
The 1.25" Astro-Tech first-surface mirror star diagonal was named a Sky & Telescope Hot Product for 2007 and is still a premium performer and stellar value today! Sky & Tel recognized that the Astro-Tech diagonal would be an outstanding value at even twice its low price. As it is, this Astro-Tech diagonal is unique among 1.25" star diagonals for its exceptional price/performance ratio. This is one premium-quality diagonal that doesn’t happen to be priced like one.
The Astro-Tech 1.25" dielectric star diagonal has state-of-the-art 46-layer dielectric mirror coatings for a full 99% reflectivity. This is markedly higher reflectivity than the 88% of a conventional aluminum diagonal or the 96-97% of an easily-tarnished silver diagonal. The result? Extremely faint objects at your scope’s performance limits become more visible, changing your viewing from “I guess I see it" to “it’s really there!"
The 20mm Astro-Tech Series 6 wide field eyepiece is a good medium power/wide field (65°) eyepiece that will give you a full 0.72° field at 90x with the Astron-Tech 6" Mak, almost half again the diameter of the full Moon.
Great scope, go-to mount, dielectric star diagonal, wide field eyepiece – all at a huge deal-of-the-week savings over the price of the components bought separately. This is a deal to jump on, but it won’t last long, so don’t miss out.
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