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Sky Watcher Mercury 705 AZ3


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What sort of performance would you expect to get on planetry targets with a Sky Watcher Mercury 705 AZ3?

It has a Focal length: 500mm an Aperture: 70mm (f7) Magnification with supplied eyepieces: 10mm = 50x, 25mm = 20x

The description on Meade Sky Watcher Mercury 705 day & night starter telescope kit says :-

"At good observing times, when observed at just 50x magnification using the included 10mm eyepiece, the planet Jupiter will appear as a banded disc larger in size than you normally see the full Moon with the unaided eye! In ideal viewing conditions, detail can be seen in the violent atmosphere of this greatest of the gas giants that can be observed in motion on the planet's disk in just a few minutes"

That sounds pretty powerful for what looks like an entry level scope ...

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i think its not bad, better than a lot of scopes in this bracket, comes with a respectable mount, eyepeices. i would say the aperture is a tad small but then i have had some pleasing views through smaller scopes.

a 130 reflector would truly blow this away so might be worth a look at one of those too?

but for under £100 its a good deal for someone who needs a tripod

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At 50x in my scope I can make out the main bands and 4 moons, but nothing else. Jupiter at 50x may be larger than the full moon in angular diameter, but it looks pretty tiny in the eyepiece.

The actual quality of the view will depend on the telescope optics as well as the eyepieces. For example the EPs included with a scope are usually of poor or average quality, with the lower power ones being slightly better.

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That's a great telescope to start with, however, note that near perfect 'seeing' conditions are needed to see some of the characteristics mentioned in the advert, but anything is possible with a decent quality telescope like this one.

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  • 2 years later...

whats the next upgrade to this? or can you just buy a better lens for it?if so which lens do you recomend?

The next upgrade to this depends on so many things its impossible to just say its this scope and thats it. things such as:

  • Budget
  • what you viewing targets are likely to be.
  • is it intends purely for viewing.
  • do you want goto or tracking
  • how portable does it have to be.
  • are your preferences for a refractor, newtonian or cassegraine

No doubt there are others but off the top of my head thats some of the main ones. Lots of things need to be taken into consideration before you start shelling out your cash. 

One of the standard but probably better pieces of advice given out is get yourself along to a local astronomy club where there will always be some people who are only to happy to help you make the decision that is most likely to meet your needs.

Steve

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A new eyepiece would improve the view a little but the best upgrade would be a bigger scope. It,s a nice scope but you are running up to the limit of what it can do.to misquote someone "You Cannae change the laws of physics"

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I bought one in a sale for the mount, the mount is perfect for what I wanted and adding a counter weight bar makes it even better.

The mercury 705 does suffer from CA and the supplied 10mm is shocking for it. But better quality eye piece certainly in my other fast small refractor makes a difference. It is pretty portable but it is still an impressive stater telescope and fairly well constructed with a usable tripod as I also use it for my camera with a camera adaptor plate added.

On Jupiter the two main bands can be seen and the moons but no further detail.

This is a lovely review.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/223257-new-scope-for-young-eyes/?fromsearch=1

If you looked at second hand you would get more perhaps for the same budget.

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