Skywatcher Capricorn 70mm Review

[lexyastroman]

Approximately 18 months ago I ordered a new telescope online that was for sale at £90. I have no idea what store I ordered from as I can't remember and the receipt as long since disappeared. All I remember is searching google for starter refractor telescopes and up popped the Sky watcher Capricorn 70mm amongst others. The cheapest of the bunch at a little under one hundred pounds so I thought I'd snap it up and give it a try. It had a decent review in BBC Sky at night magazine. The box arrived a couple of days later well packaged with all the materials and instructions included. The EQ-1 Mount was pretty straight forward to set up and took about half hour to 45 minutes out of the box and set up. In the early days I had endless trouble figuring out how to use it properly polar aligning was troublesome for someone not mechanically-minded like myself. It does get easier after a while and I watched a few videos on you-tube to guide me on aligning the finder-scope and using the setting circles and finding coordinates A word of advice if you buying this or any other EQ-1 mounted scope, familiarise with the mount first. Either through online research or attend a local astronomy club who should have an EQ-1 mount trust me it will save a lot of hassle in the future.

First light happened to be Mars I think it was around February 2010, the view was great. It resolved the disk of Mars into a bright amber like colour I saw a hint of a polar cap as well that was not expected and some dark banding, It was very pleasing on the eye. Regrettably I haven't been able to use the scope as much as I'd like, a combination of bad weather, family factors, health and others have conspired against me. However I have been able to see Jupiter 3 of it's moons and a couple of cloud belts as well as Uranus like a small blue dot when it was close by to Jupiter. I also have seen Venus through the scope I have no idea what the phases of Venus are but you can make them out. The not to be forgotten moon, there's not a lot to say other than the view is just superb especially along the terminator line. So many craters and mountains it's almost like you getting a almost free sightseeing excursion. That's pretty much all I’ve seen with this telescope so far. For some reason Saturn as eluded me thus far.

In conclusion this is a really good starter scope, somewhat let down by it's mount but that is going to be different with other people who have more patience than me. It is really light to handle the whole package can be lifted with two hands quite easily from indoors to your garden. The supplied eyepieces aren't great but a good starting point also the red dot finder is not something I like but that's maybe just me. The focuser does it's job, I plan on using this scope a lot more in the future and already going to upgrade to a skywatcher sky liner 150p dobsonian. I think the two will compliment each other well. So would I recommend this telescope? Absolutely, it's a good starting scope that will show good images of solar system targets, also I understand it's used as a guide-scope by a lot of people. So even if you outgrow it you can still keep the OTA for other projects. Haven't used it much on deep sky really yet only a few planets and the moon.

I thought it was about time I did a review after having the scope for so long but better late than never as they say. I think they sell for around £100 now so still pretty cheap, don't be fooled by the price though. It can give you hours of viewing pleasure if you treat it right and your expectations are not to high. That's good value for money if you ask me. I also included a photo of the scope not best quality but should give you an idea of what it's like.

Lex

[southernman]

Great review. As a 'starter' scope the venerable 70mm refractor does a good job especially on solar system fare. The EQ1 mount is a reasonable introduction to eq mounts as well.

[vegaandarctures]

Thanks for posting this. I have been looking everywhere for a decent review of this scope as I have been considering buying it myself. Just one Question. When you looked at Jupiter and Mars were they fairly high in contrast?

[lexyastroman]

Yes i'd have to say they pretty high contrast for the price of the scope not the greatest but pretty good it may be that i live in a fairly good dark sky location so it might depend on location. The views are pretty subtle in detail though. Heres a link for the bbc review that i read http://www.opticalvision.co.uk/documents/68.pdf it's a shame there aren't more reviews of this scope as it's proof you don't have to spend £££'s on a starter scope.

[Ags]

Sounds excellent for the price.

[lexyastroman]

Heres a couple of links which includes the bbc sky at night review of the scope which might be of interest.

CAPRICORN-70 (EQ1) - 70mm (2.75") f/900 REFRACTOR TELESCOPE by OVL

http://www.opticalvision.co.uk/documents/68.pdf

[IvyMike]

Nice review!

It's suprising how much you can see with such a small aperture. Just a week a go i was very suprised when i for fun turnd my 70mm to the ring nebula and actually found it right away, thats a mag. 9 objekt!

I was even able to make out a donut shape with adverted vision and at moments of extremly good seeing (the seeing was probably the best I've experienced this year). And that was with the moon just passed full and high in the sky.

M81 and 82 is no probelm neither.

[lexyastroman]

Thanks IVYMIKE, haven't used it much for deep sky yet but hoping to in the coming autumn months and see if i can do a mini messier marathon during september. I have seen Pleiades and Orions Sword so far and probably one or two others that i don't know the name of yet. The view of Pleiades was nice and crisp so many stars, looking foward to seeing some more clusters. I really want to test the maximum magnitude of this scope to the limit...

[IvyMike]

Take a look at the double cluster, it's really amazing!

The scope handles high mag good, but the limitation is the mount.

I use a maximum of 225x (8mm+2x barlow) and I think that's close to the limit, it gets really hard to get sharp focus on anything dimmer than the moon and the exit pupil is right at the edge (0.3mm), no probs for me but I still have young eyes.

[vegaandarctures]

A 70mm Scope has a maximum mag of x140. How can you use x225? It would just go dark and blurry wouldn't it?

[IvyMike]

On anything but the moon and the sun yes, there is a noticeable drop in brightness but it's still very sharp and bright. Perhaps I should clarify that my 8mm is the ethos and i use a tele vue 2x barlow.

If i use the 10mm plossl and barlow that came with the scope, it's too much (180x). It's almost impossible to find focus.