Skywatcher 120mm Equinox

[Moonshane]

Well I cannot actually show it yet - maybe tomorrow - but I am now the proud owner of a 120mm Skywatcher Equinox with black Moonlite, mainly due to Paul's extreme empathy and kindness, waiting for me to make sales before being able to pay for the scope. Thanks Paul!

Some people might think I am a bit daft for making this swap about as I had a gold 120mm ED and a 102mm f7 ED.  The former superb and optically almost certainly identical to the new scope. My reason for purchasing the 102mm was as a more compact travel scope for when we are away in the caravan. The 120mm in its case is a bit cumbersome. The 120ED has actually been bought by the previous owner as he missed it so much. Paul has taken the 102mm in part ex.

Enter the 120mm Equinox. With a sliding dewshield and smaller case is just that bit more manageable and I can therefore cope with the one frac. One less scope in the house before we move will also go down well with my beloved. This will be my white light solar scope and also one used regularly at night and is a pretty decent travel set up ! I can use it on my giro iii with a counterweight or driven eq5. To get better at this sort of aperture I reckon I'd need to spend another  £2k even used.

Looking forward to meeting Paul tomorrow evening and will post pics asap.

 

[Paz]

Christmas has come early for you! Look forward to hearing reports on how it performs.

[Moonshane]

Actually for Christmas I am getting  a 9mm Delite giving a rather nice 100x, 0.62 degree field and a cool 1.2mm exit pupil in this scope.

[Stu]

Nice one Shane, enjoy the new scope.

Strangely I had a premonition you would buy this when I saw it advertised . Surely a good sign  

[Moonshane]

? spooky!

These scopes have always has some allure. Was finally seduced as it has Moonlite and after I realise it has the smaller case and shorter length due to sliding dewshield.

 

[Fozzie]

Glad you got sorted their Shane... and the f7 found a good home.. I was very very tempted to fire sale my 72mm ed and a delos before jumping in the car to come see you..

That equinox looks the real deal and for the price point, it's a lot of quality..

[Moonshane]

The 102 is a great scope indeed. I have a firm policy though of selling scopes or stuff I wont use although in this case i needed itcto make the purchase price of the 120 

[John]

Congratulations Shane. I did wonder why you were moving from the ED120 Pro to the Equinox ED120 but your explanation of the additional portability that the sliding dewshield creates makes a lot of sense

 

[nightfisher]

Glad its all worked out, the Equinox 120 is a lovely looking scope and does make sense to reduce the scopes so this should fit the bill, look forward to the pics

[Timebandit]

 

Well Done ?

 

I was eyeing this used Equinox up? .You may ask why when I already have one.

Don't laugh ,but I was thinking if mine and this one was put together then I could make some sort of binoviewing scope set up. Would of been interesting in trying this, and if worked would of production a great Ed bino scope?????

 

 

[Moonshane]

Wow. It certainly would. I think I'll stick with my binoviewers for now. 

[Moonshane]

Bit of a rubbish pic but here it is ?

[Moonshane]

And here's one of the main reasons I did this exercise

[Paul73]

Agreed. The Ed120 in its coffin is the exact opposite of compact. The Equiox looks better than the ED anyway. ?

Paul

[Moonshane]

I am delighted that what I had hoped was the case certainly is. I now have a 120mm f7.5 ed travel scope!

[Timebandit]

1 hour ago, Moonshane said:

Bit of a rubbish pic but here it is ?

 

 

Nice. But you will get so much better views through it if you take it outside?

 

 

1 hour ago, Moonshane said:

Bit of a rubbish pic but here it is ?

 

 

I am not sure if it's the angle of the photo. But the scope rings seem so much closer to the focuser end of the tube than mine? . It that the original placement? Or did they need some movement to get better balance on the mount?

 

  

1 hour ago, Moonshane said:

And here's one of the main reasons I did this exercise

 

 

Mine does that also. Such a great compact scope set up , that is nice and safe in that well padded alloy case  for transport ?

 

 

Hope you enjoy Shane ☺

 

 

 

[Moonshane]

Cheers buddy. Yep the binoviewers and 2x 25mm plossls add up to a fair old counterweight allowing the scope to be further up in the rings to avoid neckache.  In mono mode the scope will be set lower in the rings.