Skywatcher v Celestron

[stargrazer]

Being a newbie and total novice around scopes can anyone tell me the difference in quality between the Skywatcher and Celestron manufacturers?

[Moonshane]

pretty much none; both offer very good value and quality. they seem to concentrate on different sectors of the market as far as I can tell. where their products overlap I suspect there is very little if any difference.

I use neither as I prefer Orion Optics UK.

[malc-c]

From what I've read they both come out of the same factory - Synta. If for example you are comparing a SW 127 MAK with a Celestron 127 MAK I don't think any differences in optics (assuming there are any) would be that noticeable to the average user

[Skybrowser]

They'e a bit like the ford Maverick and the Nissan wotsit from a few years ago - virtually the same (ish). Same place of manufacture, slight difference but not much on the overlapping types. Decent kit all round at all price ranges.

[John]

For what it's worth, since April 2005 the optical manufacturing company Synta have owned both the Celestron and Skywatcher brands (the latter had always been under the Synta "umbrella"). Even before that Synta were making quite a number of Celestron scopes.

[hemihaggis]

yep they have the same parent company , the scope are for what its worth , identical , but i do find the celestron skyalign system easier to live with than the sw synscan ..?

[garethmob]

i think the difference is like compairing the toyota aygo and the purego 107

both identical, same factory, same designer, but the toyota did have some different parts that made it better quality

like skywatcher is the bog standard best value for money mounts (eq5) but the celestron CG5, had a higher load capacity, better bearings in side, and sturdier legs

scope wise they are identical optically though