Skywatcher explorer 150 & EQ3

[Andy274]

Hi all I've come across the above scope for the sun of £150.

I'm after having 2 questions answered..

1. Is it a good deal

2. Will it suit my needs?

I'm primarily looking to observe planets etc with a view to (at some point) having a crack at astrophotography....

Cheers

Andy

[E621Keith]

Not a bad deal, although not ideal for astrophotography.

[Brent]

Sounds like a pretty good price to me.

I have the same scope and mount, and as Keith says, it's not brilliant for astrophotography, but click the white Flickr link in my signature to get an idea of what it CAN do.

Remember that to image anything other than the planets and moon you would need to add at least an RA motor drive (if one is not included).

EDIT: And they would be better images if I learnt to process properly!

[bish]

Nice little scope. As already suggested not great for astrophotos - I'm very impressed with the pics on Brent's flickr site though.

[rowan46]

I would be happy with those photo's may not be pic of the week but good enough to make my friends go wow!

[dazmoraz]

tell me how you get a snap of jupiter like that brent (or anyone), cause im really struggling to get any kind of detail out of it at the mo!

being focus or getting the levels right in sharpcap.

[Brent]

Thanks bish & rowan46.

I'm very happy with them myself and more to come hopefully.

For me, a lot of the satisfaction comes from seeing what I can do with limited (mainly due to lack of funds!) equipment - but having said that I'm hoping that Skywatcher will have the EQ7/8 out in about a year so I can get an EQ6 Syntrek at a hopefully lower s/h price.

[rowan46]

Thanks bish & rowan46.

I'm very happy with them myself and more to come hopefully.

For me, a lot of the satisfaction comes from seeing what I can do with limited (mainly due to lack of funds!) equipment - but having said that I'm hoping that Skywatcher will have the EQ7/8 out in about a year so I can get an EQ6 Syntrek at a hopefully lower s/h price.

I don't imagine the s/h price of the eq6 will come down much or even at all

[jon1000]

Nice Picture of Jupiter Brent.

What eye piece size's would you recomend for myself to buy? I today bought the 130p and have just seen some nice detail of the moon and Jupiter with 4 moons with the supplied eyepieces, I would like more magnification so I can see jupiter (ond other objects) more closely.

I really like your picture of jupiter, its very good considering it was taken from a 130p, What camera and software did you use?

[Brent]

I don't imagine the s/h price of the eq6 will come down much or even at all

No, but I can dream

dazmoraz, for Jupiter I used a 3x barlow plus extension tube for scale. Because our mounts aren't GOTO I find the easiest way to focus is to get the moons down to as tight a point as possible. It's difficult and takes time because any touch on the focuser creates massive movement at such a scale, but you will find it is worth it. Take about 2000 frames in an .avi and then when you run it through Registax it will limit them to the best 80% (or whatever you tell it). Then you can play with the wavelets to bring out the detail - don't overdo it though like I did!

I'm not on the PC with my files on, but I will post the SharpCap info file for you later.

EDIT: SharpCap settings below:

[Philips SPC 900NC PC Camera]

Resolution=640x480

Frame Rate (fps)=15.00

Colour Space / Compression=YUY2

Exposure=-4

Brightness=64

Contrast=32

Saturation=0

Gamma=0

ColorEnable=255

BacklightCompensation=0

Gain=40

jon1000, cheers. It's actually imaged on a 150p but you'd get something very similar with a 130p. It was taken with a Philips SPC900 webcam with SharpCap and then processed in Registax and a little Photoshop.

As to eyepieces, I would personally get a decent barlow and replace the 10mm with a better quality one to start.

[Parus major]

tell me how you get a snap of jupiter like that brent (or anyone), cause im really struggling to get any kind of detail out of it at the mo!

being focus or getting the levels right in sharpcap.

Three suggestions, get motorised if you're not already and don't want a mount upgrade Easier to faff with everything else when you know Jupiter's not going anywhere.

Get one of Keith's Bahtinov masks..... Bahtinov Mask for Sky-Watcher 150P | eBay

And lastly, just keep playing around. The above two make playing much easier and enjoyable, though.

[RikM]

The 150P EQ3-2 can give quite nice photos if you take your time to get a good polar alignment and take lots and lots and lots of subs. The majority of images in my deep sky album were taken with that combo. I upgraded to an EQ6 last October so I have a couple of pics with the same scope mounted on that and it makes a huge difference to how many subs you can keep.

Very nice scope for visual use as well. Nice wide field and bright images.

[dazmoraz]

Cheers Brent.all a case of trial and error in freezing conditions.found out about histogram

setting too in s/cap,trying to keep it around the 200 mark which seems to help.

This pic is my 3rd attempt of jup last year so i thought i would be improving on that,must of been beginners luck!

I cant decide whether to get a motor or not which i know would help but i can feel an upgrade coming on!

[Andy274]

Picking up the scope on the weekend & can't wait.as I've no idea of what I'll need to do, can anyone give me some pointers? Apparently the guy I'm picking our up from hadnt set it up.will it be a mare to setup etc.

Obviously I'll be asking the owner all these questions but I'm not hopeful I'll get the right answers!

Can't wait to get it & start viewing.

Cheers

Andy