Skywatcher Startravel 150

[bish777]

Hi all,

A few months ago I purchased a Startravel 150 as my main form of transport is a motorbike and reflectors didn't seem to like the bouncing and vibrations much, necessitating a lot of collimation! I hoped that a refractor would stand up to the pounding better. Since I've owned the refractor it seems to have stood up very well and I haven't noticed anything untoward.

The scope itself is finished in a very nice metal flake black on the tube and the lens cell is in a satin white paint. The paint on the tube itself seems very strong and wear resistant, however the paint on the lens cell is soft and flakes where the dew shield mounts.

The lenses look very nice and have very nice looking coatings (not that I have any idea what a great coating should look like ). The inside of the tube is well blacked and the baffles dont intrude into the lightpath as far as I can tell. I had heard this was an issue with earlier incarnations of this telescope.

My main gripe with the telescope as it came out of the box was with the focuser. To be frank it is Rubbish. It is a basic rack and pinion unit and it very notchy and sloppy. I was also unable to stop the drawtube from slopping up and down and side to side quite a bit. I quickly replaced this with a crayford focuser-skywatchers own but there are also several more available should you want a fancier one.

Optical performance is generally pretty good-no noticable vignetting even with a big 42mm eyepeiece and the field seems reasonably flat with no serious distortions that i could make out. The 42mm Plossl gives a huge field of view, so much that a finder is almost unnecessary!

Stars are nice sharp pins, with only a little CA on bright blue'uns. Seems to work nicely on DSOs with lovely contrast.

I had been warned that such a fast achro would produce some nasty CA and it is there-it isn't bothersome on the moon with only a slight fringe and tint. Jupiter is quite badly fringed and covered in a blue haze. I purchased a Baader Fringe Killer and this does get rid of most of it. Whilst the filter does impart a yellow tint, the result is good and details can be made out. The fringe killer also improves things with the moon and I can't wait to try it out on the other planets!

I mount the scope on a Teleoptik Giro III-as the scope is fairly short and nose heavy it needs careful balancing, but once done is beautifully simple to swing around and point at the night sky. The tube weighs 7kg ish as is and is not a bit heavier with the more substantial crayford focuser. The heavier crayford does help the balancing by moving the centre of gravity rearward a bit.

The cope is supplied with a 2" star diagonal and the usual 10mm and 25mm Skywatcher SuperMA (kellner?) eyepieces. The 25mm is actually very nice but the 10mm is a little mushy.

To sum up:

The Good-

Wide field of view

Great for DSO

Easy to point

The so so-

Viewing the planets really needs a filter, Baader Fringe Killer for example.

Paint on the lens cell is a bit soft-the dew shield interface isn't great.

The Bad-

The focuser is junk. Replace it with any of the available crayfords to save your sanity.

[southernman]

Nice review. Echoes to a large extent my own findings with my 150mm f/8 SW achro. The baader fk filter does help ca. I also use a crystalview moon filter that really makes a difference.

[nightfisher]

I had one of these 150 star travel scopes, and found the same issue`s and good points, first job was to replace the focuser

[bish777]

The focuser makes all the difference-the slow speed knob really helps on the bright stuff combined with the filter.

I just love the huge field of view and the way faint fuzzies leap out so easily even with some light pollution. I had struggled with my previous maksutov (starmax 102) which was the complete opposite, not easy for fainties but winderful on the planets.

[Vince1963]

Great review Bish777, I found this very helpful as i have been looking at the 120 for some time now, Shame about the focuser. Thanks

[fredster]

Nice review and mirrors my own experiences with my Startravel 120. Focuser replacement is a must, i was fortunate to spot a secondhand Dual Speed Crayford on Buy'n'sell for £50. And i use my scope on the AZ4, plenty of spare capacity, so i guess it would take the 150 too.