SVBONYMK105 Telescope, 105mm Aperture Maksutov Cassegrain OTA, Dielectric Coatings Catadioptric Telescope, for Planetary Visual and Photography with 160mm Dovetail Plate

I'm more then happy with my Svbony MK105. Its very well put together, feels good in your hands and looks even better. It has a beautiful paint job. The focuser is silky smooth. The lens and mirror are flawless. If I had to say one thing bad about the scope is the dust cover, its fit is a little loose. I have a lot of Svbony products and this one is an other example of high quality and a great price. Thank you Svbony.

I have used this scope mostly for imaging of planets and small galaxies with my svbony cameras. The optics seem decent enough and the scope came without a blemish and was even well-collimated. Its light weight and portability are definite pluses. My only complaint would be the focuser knob being almost too smooth in travel. The slightest touch of the knob will move the focus, so just be careful around it. All considered, it is a great value for the use I've gotten out of it.

Super lightweight, great quality, and very portable. Was packed very well and even sealed against moisture. Never needs collimating and doesn't get out of alignment in transit. I should have bought this a long time ago as it is worlds better than larger newtonians- I can mount this on an AZ mount or a sturdy Photo tripod. I got this to attach a DSLR to primarily but no doubt it's fun using an eyepiece. I enjoy larger focal lengths for lunar or planetary and this Telescope is really bright even though it's f-stop is a somewhat higher than my telephoto lenses. I can't wait to do some lunar focus stacking with this scope.

I have owned this telescope for almost three months now. This is my second unit. The first one was out of collimation and impossible to collimate. I have collimated Maksutovs before. This one had some optical components alignment problems. It was sent back and two weeks later the second one arrived. As soon as it was removed from the box I heard a rattle. It was coming from a loose meniscus lens. The retaining ring had been left too far out. This could not be from transportation alone. I placed the telescope upright with the meniscus looking up, tapped on the sides to make sure that it was in its place on the cell and tightened the retaining ring just enough for a snug fit. Everything seemed alright. On first light I did a star test and again this unit was also out of collimation. This time I was able to properly collimated using a star at high power. After collimation an analysis of the in and out of focus star images showed no astigmatism or pinched optics but it was definitely showing more spherical aberration than it should. The in focus star image revealed a good Airy disc surrounded by a bright first diffraction ring but also secondary diffraction rings that were brighter than they should. In other words too much defocused light around the star indicating spherical aberration. Another reviewer placed defocused star images that show the problem. The planet Jupiter showed the atmospheric bands but I noticed a lack of crisp focus. This was under excellent seeing conditions with Jupiter at a high altitude in the sky. I live at 18 degrees north latitude. I carried on observations of Jupiter as long as I could until it was too low in the western sky. In all the observations the lack of crisp focus was there. On the moon the telescope did a good job but there was this lack of crisp focus that you expect in a Maksutov design, a telescope for the planets and moon. On double stars the optics were more forgiving but that fuzzy unfocused light was there. I own other Maksutovs that are more or less similar to this one in terms of cost and performance. Usually I can push them to a bit higher magnification than what is recommended and definition on extended objects like the planets and moon holds quite well. On the MK105 definition degraded rapidly when nearing the maximum recommended magnification of 200x with premium orthoscopic eyepieces. Regarding the telescope overall construction, it is excellent with a good solid metal structure and a very smooth focuser devoid of image shift. This is a big plus. Collimation screws are easily accessible and covered with a plastic plug. The meniscus lens dust cover is adequate but should fit more firmly. The dovetail is good enough for most mounts and the two finder or accessory mounts are very nice. For deep sky objects in which low power is usually utilized, the MK105 performs well but at f/14 this is a telescope primarily for planetary and lunar observations and imaging. With just a little more spherical aberration correction this telescope would be a champ among other 100-105mm Maks. This is my second sample of the MK105 but I am not the only one that has noticed the spherical aberration. I wrote SvBony about this and they mentioned passing this information to their optical technicians. All of my other SvBony products have shown superb quality. This is their first Maksutov design. I am sure that they will resolve this problem if they have not done so already. I have been in this hobby for 58 years and know my way around most types of telescopes.

This is a rather nice telescope. The one that I received was excellent in appearance and function.