Skywatcher 250 PX First Light

[SteveA]

After plenty of positive words from forum members here, I decided some weeks back to place an order for a Skywatcher 250 PX OTA. However as I had a problem with my EQ6 pro mount which required a new motor control board I decided to wait until the mount was operational before placing an order with FLO for the scope. I had to wait a week for the thing to be delivered as OVL seemed to have some kind of issue in shipping, despite Steve’s best efforts to motivate them. However finally after just over a week the delivery was made.

I had decided to have the delivery made to the office where I work and not surprisingly there were a few raised eyebrows when the box turned up in reception one morning....it was absolutely gigantic...looking something like a coffin!

I had to wait until the weekend to have a play however and unfortunately as the weather was fairly grim it was an indoors play. On opening the substantial cardboard box I found the actual scope packed within another really heavy weight box inside and large polystyrene spacers resulted in a very secure packaging system.

The various accessories, finder, eyepieces and barlow lens etc were packed in additional boxes within the main box and all the items themselves were wrapped in bubble wrap. Everything looked perfect.

The OTA came with tube rings and an 18” dovetail already attached, so it was a fairly easy task to remove the paper and plastic wrapping and stick the whole lot up on the mount. Maybe “easy” is not the best way to describe the task though...although the OTA is not that heavy, it is very awkward and I really did struggle to get the thing securely mounted on the EQ6 Pro. I have since taken some of the advice from other threads here and mounted a second dovetail bar to act as a sort of handle...it helps a bit...

With the OTA on the mount I was eager to get on with colimation. Being the first reflector I have ever owned I was slightly apprehensive about this task. However I had ordered a LaserColi from Steve at the same time as I ordered the 250 and apparently it was real easy to use. Well...it is, its a really nicely engineered bit of kit and the instructions for using it are excellent. Amazingly the scope required very little adjustment to bring it in to perfect colimation...quite incredible really bearing in mind the thing has been shipped all the way from China.

The first thing I realised after mounting the OTA was that it only just balanced with the two counterweights I had, as I’m into imaging and I knew I was going to need extra weights, so I’ve already now got a third weight.

A week later I managed to get off work early one day during the week when the weather was fantastic. I was set up in the garden by 6pm and ready for my first sight through the new scope.

First impressions...fantastic views, the supplied wide angled eyepiece was fairly impresive...funny you just see so many more stars compared to the ED80 I’ve been using for the last couple of years, though interestingly I hadn’t been prepared for the fact that the extra aperture actually seems to acquire more light pollution and the sky wasn’t as black as I’m used to. Admittedly though as it was so early in the evening and I had neighbours with lights on which was adding to the problem. There’s no doubt the views are great...M31 and its satellite galaxies are brilliant considerably better than the ED80...in fact I had not seen M32 through the ED80...it just didn’t show...

I’ve also found using the newt for visual work so much easier than the refractor...no need for bending down to get near the eyepiece.

I’ve yet to hook up the cameras...but fingers crossed...I’m hoping for clear skies at on Friday.

All in all I’m very happy with the new equipment, a well spent £380 !

[gary1968]

Good review Steve, an interesting read. The differance in light grasp from your ED80 up to the 250PX would make the views amazing.

Gary A

[saturn5]

I remember getting my "coffin "delivered to work,a telescope they said,must be the hubble,ho ho ho.

As you said,its money well spent