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Thinking of getting a SW ST 120

Paul73

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Stu

Stu

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Paul, I've had a fair amount of experience using smallish refractors on holiday both home and abroad. Although mine have all been ED doublets, apart from the Genesis, the useage has nearly always been at low powers looking at widefield objects which are not visible from home. My recent Samos trip was with a 76mm scope and I could quite easily have just used a 24mm Panoptic giving x24 and a 2.8 degree field. Max I used was around x50.

I think a TAL, whilst a lovely scope, would perhaps miss the point being f10 and more suited to planetary/small DSO work.

These things often come down to practicality too. What sized mount and tripod are you likely to use? I often just use a photo tripod which is great at low power but struggles a bit a high power.

I would go for something you can easily fit in the car along with a suitable mount. I know that is a bit of a truism, but it is often tempting to go for something a bit bigger and when going away with the family it is a little harder to justify leaving one of the children out when the car is full and the Mrs comes out with an unexpected suitcase (!) so the scope gets left out.

80mm is enough to have some fun at a dark site, even an ST80 on a photo tripod, but I'm sure the 120 f5 would be great, providing you use it at lowish mags and don't expect high power views from it.

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mikemabel

mikemabel

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I have a SW ST 120 and I can agree that CA is very noticeable (violet / blue halo) until you achieve focus (at least on Jupiter) then it all but disappears

this was with a celestron x-cel x 5mm eyepiece

Venus was viewed with no CA issues

I haven't done much star gazing but planets are my main interest and it hasn't let me down

To me it is the ideal scope, large aperture , low cost and portable (in a fashion !)

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John

John

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So the seller says that it is the same optics as the SW ED Pro. Which is double the price.

What's wrong with the Celestron version??

Paul

The optics are exactly the same. The Celestron has a thinner tube diameter (don't know why) and they stuck a rather basic rack and pinion focuser on it. Oh, and a slightly odd front dust cap arrangement.

The Celestron ED's are made by Synta, who make Skywatcher of course and tend to be a little less expensive than Skywatcher ED's when bought used. I've seen the Celestron 100ED go for around £250 which is stonking value for a 4" ED doublet to my mind, despite the above issues.

Vixen also did a version of the 80mm and 100mm EDs and theirs were priced higher than the Skywatcher. All the same optics though.

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JamesF

JamesF

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My ST120 has a low-end dual-speed crayford on it and I think it's great as a "portable" scope.  It's pretty much on the limit of an AZ3, but I can stick the whole lot over my shoulder, stuff a few eyepieces in my pockets and carry it into the middle of a field without a problem.

The CA is obvious on bright targets, to be fair, but I've found an awful lot of the more tricky Messier objects (particularly some of those "summer only" ones) with it and enjoyed doing so.

It can't match slower scopes of similar aperture, but remove the dew shield and sort some sort of lens cap for the objective (or make a box for it) and it will pack up quite neatly to go in a car quite unobtrusively.  For what it is I think it's often unfairly underrated.  You just can't expect it to be good at stuff that fast achros aren't good at.

James

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Paul73

Paul73

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Thanks for the advice guys.

I'll give the wanteds a go for a cheap ED80/90 now that I know that cheap ones do exist. If nothing apears in a week. Then I'll go for the ST120 and happily live with its limitations. After all, it isn't reasonable to expect perfection from a £220 scope.

Paul

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Paul73

Paul73

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Thanks Happy-Kat

They don't seem to hang around long...

However, the combination of Mr BigSumorian and another SGLer. I am now sorted with a nice SW 80 ED, pending the logistics.

I can now see why the Frac Pack need quite so many scopes!

Paul

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