Anybody got a Skywatcher Startravel 102 SynScan AZ GOTO?

[black hole sun]

Hi, does anybody have any feedback on a

Skywatcher Startravel 102 SynScan AZ GOTO?

Good beginners scope? portable/easy set up?

thanks

[AndyUK]

Hi there - I used to own one of these setups - In my experience, it's VERY portable and VERY easy to setup... Set the tripod up with the scope pointing North key in the info into the sysnscan (date, time, location), tell the mount to goto a star that you can see, adjust to center it, go to a 2nd star, adjust to center that... and off you go

As a beginners scope (for visual use) I found it great - No more having to search around the skies looking for objects (the goto's pretty accurate) and the tracking was pretty good too. The brighter DSO's were very easy to see, and with an appropriate EP, you can easily get to see the banding on Jupiter and the shape of Saturn (although don't expect them to fill the field of view!). With a phillips SPC880/900 webcam, you can even get some lunar images, but being an achromat, you will get a little "fringing"...

For imaging though, it's not quite so good (especially if maybe considering "prime focus" imaging" - I've never tried "Afocal" so can't comment), as the mount/tripod is a little too light to support too much more weight than the scope itself... (but then it's not sold as an imaging rig)

When I had the setup, it certainly whet my appetite for Astronomy - Having started with a 130mm reflector on an EQ2 mount, I could barely find anything, and when I did it quickly drifted out of the EP field of view... and I found using the manual RA/DEC controls really difficult to use as everything was upside down and back-to-front!

However, when I realised how easy it was to setup the mount and goto an object, I then found I wanted to photograph them, so fairly quickly upgraded to a CG5 goto... and within 6 months upgraded to an NEQ6 (which is obviously nowhere near as portable...).

(Hope that helps?)

[black hole sun]

Thats very informative and helpful, thank you very much for your time and explanation.