Thinking About It: Mak60 Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope Awesome, Compact & Highly Portable & Only $100 on Amazon ^^

~$100 on Amazon <- "Click Link" to buy one :)

Compact hybrid design of concave mirrors & a concave primary lens, genius optics designer Dmitri Maksutov designed this type of telescope in 1941 after years of refining a way to put long focal length performance into a smaller package with excellent optical performance, reduced distortion, & detailed imaging !

Accomplishing reduction in aberration, coma & other optical defects typical of larger refractors & reflectors, this design able to fit 750mm of focal length into a 200mm long housing. Its a little larger than a typical water bottle & easy to put in a backpack for on the go adventures.

Made of a 6th generation robins egg blue colored plastic housing with removable lit so curious people can look inside to see the cleaver mechanism or layout of the optics & light path, providing an educational opportunity for learners of all ages.

Conveniently the image erect or "right side up" instead of upside down like other telescopes, making photography, spotting wildlife & other terrestrial uses more practical! Have a look at some of the performance examples I recorded with my iPhone SE2 camera.

This is where we set up the Mak60 in the Highlands, Issaquah, Wa, USA /
Looking west towards Bellevue & Seattle,
through the trees you can see the city scapes of high-rise buildings.

Downtown Seattle Buildings through Mak60
Amazing a seaplane in the image too :)

Looking east toward the cascade mountains you can see snowcapped range from the ground with your naked eyes. A beautiful view of nature too! In the second image you can see the view as I hand hold the phone camera above the eyepiece without the included adapter (speed setup) resulting in a soft focus view of the snowcapped mountain top!

Nature view without the Mak60 zoom

Soft focus (handheld matching, no mount) of Mountains

Example near the Airport, Snohomish County, Washington State, USA. First on the ground near a commercial business complex nearby, then through the Mak60, then through the Mak60 with Phone Camera Zoomed In Maxed Out // Amazing to see the heat distortion of the light!

Tower, Paine Field, Snohomish County, Wa, USA

Using iPhone SE2 zoom in with Mak60

Near Downtown Issaquah, we first setup the Mac 60 & this view below what you see naturally, then with the phone camera zoom & then through the Mak60 telescope.