127MM Orion Apex vs 127MM Intes Micro Alter

Hello all,

I have the Orion 127MM Apex and I enjoy it's optics and portability so much that I'm thinking of acquiring a 127MM Intes Micro Alter scope.

What can I expect as to this scope's improvements over the Orion scope? Is it really worth 2X the price of an Apex. I know, "Beauty is in the eye's of the beholder"

Your thoughts please...Roger Sherman

I haven't used either telescope in question but have used the a 150mm Intes Micro and own a 90mm Orion Apex. The Intes Micro was a top quality instrument, while the Orion is a chinese knock-off with surprisingly good optics.

The Orion star tests with slight over correction and slight astigmatism, but I would still call it a diffraction-limited optic (the errors are small), maybe 1/5 wave PV error. The Intes Micro star tested very very slightly undercorrected, but then all spherical-optic Maksutovs must have some residual (5th order) spherical aberration and I believe I was just seeing that. I would call the IM optics pretty much perfect given the limitations of the design.

The light scattering (that is optical smoothness) favoured the IM as well, but again, we are talking the difference between very good (Orion) and excellent (Intes Micro).

Mechanicals in the focuser etc would be a greater win for the IM... the IM is excellent while the Orion is merely good. But then again, the Orion is "good enough", with a couple of stickier spots on the focuser but it still focuses fine.

If you already own an Orion Apex I personally would see no reason to buy a IM of the same size. The differences in view and smoothness of the focuser are small. You need to get a significantly larger scope to make an appreciable difference.

Grant Gussie
Salt Spring Island