Having previously owned the smaller 127 and then the 150mm Maksutov over the preceding years I have grown to really appreciate the Maksutov design. I acquired my 180 earlier this year and have been using it quite a lot considering the planets aren't even favourably positioned at this time. The 180 is a welcome return to the Maksutov intended design of around F15, whereas the Gregory design of the 127 and 150 are around F12. The detail and sharpness of the lunar surface is breathtaking as was my first looks at Saturn. Despite Saturn being low in the sky and suffering from atmospheric disturbance I could still get a glimpse of the Cassini division and planetary banding. This was aided by the use of an ADC I obtained from FLO. I put it outside to cool for a good 3 hours before observing. I am going to wrap mine in insulation which is said to help with tube currents while cooling. There's obviously something to this as i don't think the many people who carried this out was just to make their scopes look pretty.

Fantastic telescope for planets, not tried any deep sky stuff yet still waiting for clearer skies, it sits ok on the eqm35 pro Mount however it’s definitely at its upper limits for this Mount
Great service from flo for the quick dispatch only took two weeks considering it had a restocking time of 30-40 days i was very happy definitely a recommended buy comes very well packaged box was a bit dinged on the corners but the contents were all ok
Not sure if I can post this but here’s gif of Jupiter I managed with this telescope recorded on firecapture
https://imgur.com/a/fGyxekH

Amazing telescope I was warned about mirror flop but have not seen it on this 180 yet . Not as heavy as I thought it was going to be sits nice on my HEQ5 pro it was a nice surprise it find it has more than enough back focus not to need a Barlow on my WO binoviewer. Saturn was amazing with this scope and bino set up . The only pain was the finder scope I can't zero it in so will need to put spacer to push the finder down at the front so it will line up but it's a small price to pay for a really nice telescope .Must have item is a dew shield so order one when you order scope
And a big thank you to the staff at FLO a really fast service I had my scope the next day what more could I ask for glad you forgot to put clouds in the box

It’s a beast I love it, and extremely happy with first light optics, I ordered this from the USA and received it within a week and a half, couldn’t be happier everything well packaged. Just waiting on clear days to try it out.

I have always tended to use refractors for imaging. I like the sharp focus and stability which avoids regular collimation. I' have a owned a couple of 150mm APO's in the past and still have images to compare this scopes performance. Although only one imaging session so far and not in particularly good seeing I am very pleased. Side by side comparisons of the lunar images produced put this scope of a par with the APO's. Given the seeing was not good, I think with longer time to cool down and a steadier atmosphere this scope will do better
It sits on an HEQ5 well and is easy to handle.
All in all, I would recommend this to anyone interested in imaging the moon and planets.

Lovely made piece of kit, long 4 month wait but it finally arrived! Sits well on my NEQ6 Pro mount and this is the mount to use for this ota. The only bugbear I have really is if you have lots of accessories like a 2" diagonal and eyepieces in a 2" Crayford dual focuser it has to sit quite a way forward in the saddle clamp to balance the tube and for that reason I would recommend upgrading the saddle clamp to the ADM unit which I had already done whilst waiting for the scope to arrive. Not had a chance to try it as yet as it only came yesterday and as usual in the UK the weather has decided to turn for the next week or so!

I got mine second hand but in very good conditions, I really like it, This telescope is very solid and well made, the optics are very nice and I compared it side by side with my Esprit 150 and I find that it is very close and gives very sharp details and nice contrast.
Although the focal length is very long and ideal for planetary I found that it gives very nice view to some deep sky objects, the Ring Nebula looks really nice even from a very light polluted location.
Recommended indeed.

Skymax 180 pro black diamond...the poor mans 7" APO

I have owned this telescope for about 5 months now, i mount it on my EQ5, just at its limits, now upgraded to CG5 tripod so more stable, the OTA is 7.8 kg!

It is supplied with a 2" diagonal with 1.25 reducer, i found the 2" diagonal seemed to "droop" so i now use a 1.25 dialectric in mine, it comes with 9mm and 20mm ler eyepiece`s, i sold them on!

If you want to get this superb OTA allow for it to cool down before it gives its best, some people think it takes 3 hours to cool, rubbish, just keep it in a cool place, simple.

There were reports of mirror flop on early ones, when focusing, i have not noticed this problem on mine, unlike the omc 140 it replaced! Focus is very good, it snaps to focus very sweetly

The 180 pro gives fair to good views on larger dso`s, but this is not where its at, this is a planet/lunar scope, you just dont buy an OTA with 2700mm focal length for deep sky, viewing Jupiter with this scope is amazing, so much detail to be seen and as for lunar, well you wont find any thing better with out spending a lot more money.

My main eyepiece i use is a Baader genuine ortho of 18mm, this gives a very useful x150 with very good eye relief, if i need more magnification i just x2 barlow to x300

The 180 pro is gaining popularity with the planet/ lunar fraternity, and rightly so, 2 years back this was my dream scope, my dream came true!

Ordered this telescope for planet and lunar visual (and a little imaging) work. Great packaging, arrived quickly and once unpacked was up and running in minutes.

Jupiter and the 4 moons easy to see immediately with the supplied and OK 1.25" 20mm eyepiece, even better once the scope had cooled down (supplied 9mm is poor). With better eyepieces, the coloured bands of Jupiter are clear, GRS and dark barges easily seen. Moon transits across the surface are as clear as day.

Lunar work is amazing, you can easily spend hours looking at details with this telescope. Image is very bright for lunar work, so consider a moon filter.

Being f15, DSO objects are not as distinct as through a big reflector, but they are still there and with good contrast. A lot of people suggest this telescope has similar image quality as some ED refractors, and I would have to agree.

This telescope now has a 2" back, so easy to fit camera etc. to the back of it.

Provided eyepieces and diagonal are OK but you would want to replace these very soon. An aluminium hard case is not available for this OTA (unlike most of the other OTAs) which is a real shame.

So to sum up. Great telescope but let down a little by the mediocre accessories and lack of a hard case. Would have been 5 stars but because of this, only a 4.

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FLO site now states that this telescope is now provided with a 2” Di-Electric Star Diagonal and a 2" 28mm LES eyepiece. Their site said this when I bought mine, but I actually got a lower quality diagonal and two 1.25" eyepiece(20mm and 9mm). Take a lookie please chaps