Skywatcher 350P Synscan Go-to first impressions +mods

[Dude_with_the_tube]

I will carry on with Graham`s aka Stargazer_00 started mission of giving some more information on Skywatchers 14" dobs as there is literally no information/reviews of these scopes anywhere.

So here we go.

As promised (sorry for a slight delay) i finally managed to get some time to take some pictures and also the last bits arrived to day so they have been freshly installed,as such for time being i can call the project temporary done.I am still missing a high power eye piece and currently the options i have considered are either to snatch up a reasonably priced TV Ethos in 6mm or wait for 15th of december when ES releases they 5.5mm in 100degrees.

Anyhow,scope.

its big and super heavy.No idea why Skywatcher have used that 1" thick MDF for the base as a single person is unable to lift it. By all means I dont call myself a weak person and i have done weightlifting on amateur level so I can lift quite a lot,but this beast is out of my league.These where my first impressions,however,after assembling it and then playing around,i actually got the point.Base is super stable! No wind or hurricane can move it,tube sits firmly and movements in manual mode are super smooth.

Here are a few pics of the scope with my fellow observers.

As i do not have a dedicated observatory or my own shed,scope will be stored next to my PC desk in living room.Something like this:

fully expanded and ready for observation,scope looks like this:

I opted for Go-To version as you can see i have 2 sons of mine who are regularly participating in my observations and obviously the 14" scope will require a small ladder for them so manual one is out of question.Also wifey do participate time to time and also for her the focuser will be too high up.

First impressions of the scope in "as is from factory" settings.(Un-moded)

1.Base.

No complaints of built quality,no missing parts.Very well packaged,simple to build and takes literally 2 mins to assemble or dismantle.I agree with Graham`s aka Stargazer_OO comment on the holes where the screws are fitted,they could off been a tiny bit larger as you might get your skin scalped off if not careful.However,i might play with this in summer and saw them bigger and also take off excess from the side panels to make it a bit lighter.i had at one stage a plan to completely rebuild the base from plywood but i will leave this for summer if i do decide to go ahead with it.other than that,no complaints.

2.Tube assembly.

Again,very well packaged,nothing missing,straight forward instructions on assembly,a bit hairy moment on installing mirror,but with a kind help of my wife we managed it perfectly.

Positives:

good build quality and mirror seems to be off a good quality with no concerns that it shouldnt perform.i really like the idea of the scope being collapsible and it does work perfectly.Paint work seems to be off good quality and internal paint is OK-ish,not too much of a glare.I had worth in my 10".

Tube is absolutely perfectly balanced! it is bottom heavy so no additional weight system (knife racks,dumbells etc) are required! I have done multiple tests with different settings and i cant dis-balance the scope.one point goes to Skywatcher for this.And yes,i tried it to lower down parallel to ground as low as possible and in both manual and hand controlled modes i didnt had any issues!

Negatives.

1.focuser. original one seems to be a step up from previous models and knobs are bigger and better quality,however,the focuser is so low profile that i was unable to slip my fingers under the knobs what made it a struggle to operate.By all means i do not have a super thick sausage fingers

2.finder.it is the standard straight through one and i never liked them.They work perfectly fine on refractors but not on newts.(not for me atliest).

3.Secondary mirror screws are still the same allen  hex screws what means you will require an allen key to adjust it and i dont like the idea of tinkering with the screws over a large primary.Thumb screws are cheap in china and i just do not understand why Skywatcher cant just put them on??? 

4.Primary mirror thumb screws (next to collimation screws).i have the same problem what Graham had with his.Screws are too short! Springs holding the primary are great and relatively stiff as such,i do not expect any massive sag in them even after a long while so why on earh supply 30mm screws where clearly 40mm length is required!

But i think this is sufficient negatives

now about the great thing what blow my socks off.

Go-To system.

When i placed my order,i was expecting exactly the same system i had on my 10" but with stronger motors as obviously bigger tube to move arround,also the pictures on FLO and any other supplier showed that it is basically the same system,to my surprise and i am guessing yours.IT IS NOT the same! I presume majority of yours have seen advertising videos of Orion Skyquest Go-to scopes with they go-to system with adjustable clutch system .Yes,you are right,Skywatcher has it too! thats what my scope has and i am super pleased with that.When i had the 10" dob with the old system,i had to take it apart to adjust the clutches so they dont slip when heavy glass is used and you really had only 2 choices being:leave it medium so you can use the scope manually and with the controller and suffer the clutch slip time to time and as such your go-to accuracy will suffer,or option 2:tighten it down and use the scope with controller only.

With 350P i dont have this issue anymore.If i want it manually,i simply release the clutch and scope becomes a superb manual instrument.Moves are superbly smooth on both Alt and AZ,i never thought that skywatcher scopes can move so smoothly in manual mode! I hated the 10" in manual.this is like day to night comparison.Unfortunately i still have not had the possibility to fully test the Go-To accuracy due to our weather,but i hope it will perform spot on.

Here is the close up picture of the system confirming that it is the same as Orion.

Now onto my mods i did to the scope.

No mods where done to the base as i couldnt find any isses with it so we move to the tube assembly.

1.I removed the original focuser and replaced with Moonlite CR2,also as the original one had the necessity of extension tubes to be used with both 2" and 1.25" Ep`s,i installed additional raiser plates to lift up the focuser off the base as such i have plenty of space to put the fingers under it,it is much more easier to operate with and i do not require any extension tubes with any of my eye pieces.

2.original finder was replaced with RACi finder .

3.Telrad finder with 2.5" raiser was installed.it is a very tight fit on the tube!

4.I did manage to have a brief 20 mins session with the scope and found that on 100degree eye pieces coma is very noticeable,specially with ES 20mm as such i managed to find a Type 1 paracorr in USA and it safely landed into my hands today. (Paracorr PVL-2008) i will be leaving the paracorr in all the time.

Few pics:

1.Focuser,RACi finder and telrad:

2.close up of focuser with Paracorr:

3.How it looks when 20mm ES is in the focuser:

P.S. I have still to test this set up if i can get into focus,however,with Moonlite you have the option to remove or add extra plates if required and I do have another 2 plates spare.This will be tested and adjusted on next test when weather permits.

5.I replaced the original allen key secondary mirror collimation screws with thumb crews.(bought on ebay) and installed aditional washer from empty milk jug.Also painted the back and edges of secondary mirror with black permanent marker.

6.The whole tube assembly was flocked with flocking material from FLO.

 bottom assembly:

top assembly:

7. i replaced the original primary mirror thumb screws which where too short with standard M6x40mm screws.

8.I purchased Astrozaoshroud.

9.I purchased a scope cover to be used if i decide to leave the scope outside overnight or resume my observations later.

10.With kind assistance of wife,a dew shield was made out of a camping mat from Argos for 4.99 it attaches to scope with a velcro strips.

Whilst i had the 20min session i managed to have a look at Moon and the views where absolutely superb.i did also manage to have a 3 min look at Jupiter with 9mm and i could clean split the main bands with additional 2 smaller bands where with 10" dob and with 4.7mm i could only manage a clean split of 2 main bands.

i still have to test the performance of ES and TV ethos in my scope and will report back once its done as i have not had a chance to look at any clusters or any sort of DSo`s as of yet,but i think i will need to get a shoe strings attached to my socks when i do so so i dont end up being a bare footed in the cold.

As of yet,very impressed with the scope and looking forward of using it.

And yes,base does NOT fit through the doors so the scope will have to be dismantled every time i will use it.

Clear skies everyone.

[Daniel-K]

Great review. I can just lift my base on my own so yours with the motors must be a beast. Do you have a link for the secondary screws I need some of them! The moonlight really sets the scope off. Awesome scopes for the ££

[Dude_with_the_tube]

I just used standard m6x40mm bolts I had in my bolt box.as they are tightened by hand it doesn't really matter are they thumb or not.

[vlebo]

Excellent review . Beast of a scope . I wonder how much heavier the goto version is from the manual one ? With my budget I am thinking of the 12" with a moonlite or a 14" with the standard Skywatcher dual focuser but by all accounts the Skywatcher focuser seems a bit naff.

[Dude_with_the_tube]

on the factory box, net weight of Go-to base of 14" states 60kg and the tube assembly with all the mods and shroud is about 20kg easy so all in all it is 80kg. Graham or Dan should be able to tell us the weight of manual versions.However,one person can easily dismantle/assemble this scope thanks to thumb screw/modular built base. 

The new skywatcher focuser isnt that bad.Dont get me wrong.They have stepped up a milestone in comparison to earlier models.It is just the position of it is too low to the tube.If they could also start manufacturing some sort of raiser plates similar to Moonilte for they own focusers to get rid of those stupid extension tubes,the scope then would be awesome.Still,even as it is,it is a great value for money and i dont think that i will go any bigger aperture in the near future as this scope is ticking all the boxes for me.

I went for 14" purely of aperture(as big as i can  handle) and also the height at zenith is spot on with my legs still being on planet Earth.Viewing position is comfortable at any position. i was thinking of 16" at one stage,but the idea of ladders in darkness put me off.And no i dont have that thought of:Hmmm,how this would look in 16" so my aperture fever is cured.

[swamp thing]

Nice review

Glad to hear your aperture fever is cured.

[Daniel-K]

mine aint

[vlebo]

My trigger finger is getting a bit itchy !

[Mike73]

Its a great feeling when you are really happy with what you have and aperture / equipment fever is finally cured, all thats left now is for you to enjoy the views.

[Stargazer_00]

Love it welcome to try club dude. It's such a good scope, you'll love it.

I was going to do another lengthy review during the winter when I've had some time with Jupiter, Mars an Orion. We can collaborate, the three of us

[Dude_with_the_tube]

I agree with you Graham,me you and Dan should be able to do a nice reviews of this beautiful scope so any person thinking of it,could read up and decide.there hasn't been any reviews so it is time to get that changed.

I really hope weather will turn nice any time soon as I am so desperate to try it out .

[vlebo]

I'm waiting with baited breath ! Still can't decide between the 12" with a Moonlite and a couple of XW's (7 and 5 mm ) or the 14" with the stock focuser and just the one XW (7mm) as I already have the XW 30 ,20 and 10mm

[Dude_with_the_tube]

i would personally go for 14" just for aperture as you will end up sooner or later with a nagging question:how this would off looked in 14".(i still get this thing popping in my mind that i should off gone for 16"!!)

SKywatcher focuser isnt that bad and you will be perfectly fine with it until you have the funds to upgrade to Moonlite or Feathertouch or Baader steelrack.Also you have a set of really nice Ep`s,what means only 1 will be required (high power) and you dont really need to buy everything at once,even with 10mm XW the views will be awesome.You can drag it out and make your purchases when funds allow.Scope,as it is,straight out of the box, is perfectly usable.Both Stargazer_00 and Dan have not modded it for sure and are using it as out of the box version.Dan has the skywatcher coma corrector where i think Graham(Stargazer_00) doesnt have any,as such they are still in progress of doing something i guess and are still using they scopes with great sucess.

[Dude_with_the_tube]

well... i finally managed a proper 2 hrs session after a long time! wanted to carry on but cloud cover didnt allow me to do so.

i am so over the moon with the new scope and views i had that i doubt i will be able to sleep tonight.

One disappointment:i ididnt manage to see Orion nebulae as it was too low when i started and now the clouds have covered the skies like Persian rug.

But my main goal has been achieved and final tweaks done to the scope.

I had to install additional 2 plates(4 in total) to raise focuser up more as 30mm ES with paracorr wasnt coming into focus and also for other Ep`s the focuser had to be racked out almost to max.But after that done,everything works like a charm and every single EP comes into focus without any problems.As said before,i am not using any extension tubes on focuser.

Paracorr type 1 (PVL-2008) works like a charm .The only EP showing around 5% of coma was ES20 where only 2% coma was observed with Ethos 13mm and ES9mm and no coma was present on ES30mm.FOV is absolutely flat. Stars are perfectly shaped,only issue i found with 100 deg EPs is eye position has to be perfect on or black beaning will be friend of yours.But thats a matter of practice. Strangely i found eye relief most critical on Ethos where ES was more friendly .I had to literally push my eye into EP with Ethos where ES 9mm and 20mm had more relaxed approach.82deg 30mm was lovely and i had no issues with this eye piece at all.

Views i had are hard to describe.I mainly concentrated on globular clusters and ohh my god what a beauty! So far the best one was  Hercules double cluster and it was absolutely breath taking.Every single cluster was nicely resolved with pin sharp stars and millions of them.

i am not going to list all i managed to see but i have a WOW factor and i am looking forward to get this scope out ot my dark location.

next task was to test Go-To acuracy.And not a tiny bit of disappointment there either! Alignment stars chosen where:Deneb as first and Aldebaran as second .before alignment i made sure that scope is perfectly leveled and after 1hrs cooling i colimated it.

Alignment done,lets test it.Pleiades was placed right in the middle of 30mm ES,next target:Andromeda:same result,next target:hercules Double cluster:again dead centre.Then i started to visit different other targets and every single time,each target was dead centre in 20mm ES.i couldnt find any fault so far with Go-To where i remember with 10" old Go-to system there where evenings when the system was just not playing the ball and adjustments had to be done on every single target or the target was not even found. nothing like that with the new system.Also old system never liked heavy eye pieces so 30mm or anything heavy had to be removed when slewing or Go-To will not be accurate due to clutches slipping despite me adjusting them to very tight position.No issues with this scope and paracorr+eye piece where left in all the times.

managed to do a small head to head with TV Ethos and ES and i found NO difference at all whilst observing the same target.Both eye pieces showed pin point sharp stars,only difference is eye relief and Ethos is tighter as such i cant see myself replacing ES with Ethos and my high power eye piece will be ES 5.5mm unless super cheap Ethos in 6mm appears somewhere.Again, this is my personal opinion and i am not interested to open a can of worms to start a  comparison between TV and ES. I have them both and i like them both.neither of them outperformed each other,and none of them where miles away from each other.I recommend both Ethos range and ES 100deg range and it is subject to individuals thickness of wallet.

2 hrs tonight was mainly to test the scope after all the mods and adjustments where done and to test the Paracorr,settings of it and Go-To system.Results are better than expected and scope is ready to go to dark site!Now lets hope weather will play the ball.

Clear skies.

[vlebo]

i would personally go for 14" just for aperture as you will end up sooner or later with a nagging question:how this would off looked in 14".(i still get this thing popping in my mind that i should off gone for 16"!!)

SKywatcher focuser isnt that bad and you will be perfectly fine with it until you have the funds to upgrade to Moonlite or Feathertouch or Baader steelrack.Also you have a set of really nice Ep`s,what means only 1 will be required (high power) and you dont really need to buy everything at once,even with 10mm XW the views will be awesome.You can drag it out and make your purchases when funds allow.Scope,as it is,straight out of the box, is perfectly usable.Both Stargazer_00 and Dan have not modded it for sure and are using it as out of the box version.Dan has the skywatcher coma corrector where i think Graham(Stargazer_00) doesnt have any,as such they are still in progress of doing something i guess and are still using they scopes with great sucess.

You do make it sound very tempting  Thanks

[swamp thing]

Glad to read your mods all went well.

The wow! Factor on scopes this size is kinda special isn't it you'll find yourself grinning from ear to ear when you get it to a dark site.

Enjoy.

[Dude_with_the_tube]

Very pleased with results Steve and my smile is already from ear to ear even without going to a dark site.

[Stargazer_00]

Sounds like it's come along nicely.  I should flock mine.  I've had the flock material for months now... just haven't gotten around to using it.  I'm on a break at the moment.  I'm not going out till mid decemeber.  I have a habit of viewing things as soon as they come up on the horizon and I want my first view through this scope of Jupiter and the Orion Nebula to be when they are higher in the sky.

[Dude_with_the_tube]

i had the pleasure of seeing Jupiter twice now and views are positively better as they where in 10" due to increased aperture and focal length.On good seeing conditions i can clearly see main two bands and separate the smaller bands and thats with 9mm( x183) . looking forward to get an eye piece in 6mm range what should give me about x275 or 5.5 what will result in x300

Have not managed to see M42 yet,but really looking forward to it.

[A McEwan]

That looks a killer setup! I actually can't imagine the views through a 14" Dob from a dark site. Best I've managed is through a 12" and that was pretty awesome. Great write-up and sensible mods too. That 'scope is going to last well and work hard. Hope to hear more about your observations through it!

Ant

[Dude_with_the_tube]

i am sure we can get something arranged Antony so you can tick the box:i looked through 14" dob

[A McEwan]

Heh - that's be great!

[astronymonkey]

dude,

what scope did you upgrade from ?