Skywatcher Startravel 150 OTA

[asteele3]

Is this a good scope for Visual and imaging work?

Thanks.

[JamesF]

Not really for imaging. If it's anything like the ST120 it will show noticeable colour aberration which whilst not a major issue for visual use isn't so great for imaging.

James

[Caldwell 14]

Great widefield low powered scope, but very heavy, low re-sale value and loads of CA. ED80 far more suitable if you want to get into imaging. Good budget scope to do both might be a 150 PDS from SW

[asteele3]

I really want a small scope in actual size but it must at least have 150mm and be good for viewing and imaging! Not much to ask for then, huh!

[tjr]

Have you looked at a SW Mak 150/ Celestron 6SE?

[JamesF]

Yes, a well-corrected 'frac is likely to be expensive at that kind of aperture. A Mak or SCT would seem to be the best if you want a large-aperture physically small scope that can be used for imaging. You might need to think about a reducer if you want to image DSOs however, and even then it will really be a bit of a compromise. There is the Hyperstar option for imaging with the Celestron SCTs, but it is expensive and apparently not exactly "user-friendly".

Can't think of anything else off the top of my head. A Ritchey-Chretien, perhaps?

James

[asteele3]

Is there anywhere that you can buy a Celestron 6SE OTA?

They seem to come in packages!

[RikM]

I use an Explorer 150P Newtonian with a coma corrector for imaging and visual. Small light scope, easy to mount, with plenty of aperture from a dark site, no chromatic aberration and nice and cheap. What more could you want?

[yuklop]

I have a ST150. I think its brilliant. The relatively large aperture allows pretty good visual work. It does have some CA but how intrusive this is depends on what you want to image. In my experience the moon is pretty good to look at however Jupiter and Saturn could be better. The CA does wash out some details on these 2. You can still clearly see the main stripes on the disc of jupiter and the rings around saturn with others reporting seeing the Cassini division. However this scope is not really designed for solar system stuff. It is a deep sky scope. With the faint objects the CA is not an issue. It can lead to bloated stars if they are very bright but this can be partially combated with filters. It also depends on how you image. I use a DSLR and get what I feel are pretty good results. But better results can be achieved with RGB imaging where I think each colour can be separately focussed thus avoiding CA all together. This is the next thing I want to try. Basically for any narrowband imaging this is as good as a multi-thousand pound triplet. I believe, bang for buck, this thing can't be beaten and is a great choice for something good for visual and photo. It's not that small though!

[sgazer]

not really as other have said. I would recommend a 150pds; compact, light, cheap, same aperture, easily corrected (for coma) giving excellent, halo free images.