Real images to understand capabilities of Evostar 120 / Startravel 120 / Mak 127

[Rigel-7]

Hi,

I am looking for a starter travel scope under £500 but cannot find any good sample images displaying the planetary and DSO capabilities of the above scopes.

I know the Mak 127 can show some stunning images of the planets but has anybody got any shots of what DSO's I could see.

I was favouring the Evostar 120 ACHROMATIC, as it's an f8 and should be more general purpose, but I cannot find any shots for this scope at all.

I intend to mount the scopes on an EQ5.

Please help !!!

[damnut]

Hi Rigel-7,

A picture is not representative of what you will see! Both telescopes you have listed will provide you with great views of the sky. The limitations are :-

The mak has a long focal length and is unsuitable for long photographic exposure, the evostar 120 and st120 are achromatic and will exhibit some false colour known as Chromatic Aberration.

Before parting with hard earned cash go along to a local astro group and have a look through some scopes to see what suits you best.

I have three scopes an ST120 for grab & go a Bresser 127mm F9.4 and a Ten inch SCT. The ST120 is a great all rounder and bullet proof for travelling, the 127 is a better all rounder than the 120 and the SCT is my main home scope. In the end its horses for courses so do go and look bfore you buy.

Good Luck with your choice.

[Bizibilder]

The Evostar 120 is an achromat but the false colour fringes are really not noticable except when the target is very bright. The only time I have had a problem is when looking at Venus. With the Moon you get exellent images, admittedly not as good as an apochromat, but personally I don't find the slight colour fringing a problem. DSO's are pretty faint and I doubt if you would notice any false colour. You can buy filters specially designed to remove these fringes:http://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/baader-fringe-killer-filter-1-25-inch_d501.html

I use mine solely for Solar imaging now so I've attached a picture of the Sun taken a few days ago - Hope this helps: