Geoptik Bag - Newtonian 150/750 f5 Review

[Alan White]

As many owners of the Skywatcher 150mm f5 750mm fl scope will know, storage bags for this scope are either difficult to find or expensive when you do find one.
In the past SGLers have used Cricket Bags, Wooden Boxes or Other Padded Bags in place of the couple of expensive bags sometimes available.

I had looked high and low and been using an oversized D.J. equipment bag to date. 
Well worry no more; Geoptik have released a suitable bag and at £64.99 not too expensive.
So here is my quick review and pictures, hope it is of help to others.......

The bright red bag is sized spot on for the scope and is lined with a velvet type material, is well padded and has nice handles that have rubber grips.
The picture shows the bag sitting upon the solid case for my ED80 scope.
 

The bag is very well put together and made from high quality material, the outside looks to be a 'Ballistic Nylon' type of material and a very red red colour.
Think Ferrari and you will be at the correct colour!

Padding is a good thickness of a suitable foam, feels to be about 10mm thickness.

Good Zip with two tags, so opens in both directions and gives a very generous opening in which to place the scope into the bag.

The bag is very well fitting and suitable for purpose and at the price, very reasonable.
I am known to be careful with my spending and careful in what I purchase.
Highly recommend this bag to the SGL community.

I purchased this from RVO but other retailers are now stocking this bag, sadly to date the SGL sponsor does not, but who knows.....
 

 

[25585]

Considering one for my C8. Thanks for the shots Alan, no tripping over that colour in the dark!

[Alan White]

No tripping over it I need the day either!  It’s rather bright.

[JG777]

Looks decent Alan, does it have any other compartments for bits and pieces? 

[DHEB]

I like Geoptik bags very much and, indeed, have two of them. One problem I have witnessed though is that the inner material in both bags is prone to release a lot of red specks that attach electrostatically to whatever is inside. One not nice surprise for me was to find a lot of these specks deposited on the primary mirror of my Newtonian. I resorted to keep vacuum cleaning the interior of the bags often, but I guess a more fundamental solution would be to use a different inner material. I recently wrote to Geoptik a friendly email to tell about this issue but got no response. Sad.

Edited February 1, 2018 by DHEB

[Alan White]

12 hours ago, JG777 said:

Looks decent Alan, does it have any other compartments for bits and pieces? 

Sadly no compartments are built into it.

 

[Alan White]

6 hours ago, DHEB said:

I like Geoptik bags very much and, indeed, have two of them. One problem I have witnessed though is that the inner material in both bags is prone to release a lot of red specks that attach electrostatically to whatever is inside. One not nice surprise for me was to find a lot of these specks deposited on the primary mirror of my Newtonian. I resorted to keep vacuum cleaning the interior of the bags often, but I guess a more fundamental solution would be to use a different inner material. I recently wrote to Geoptik a friendly email to tell about this issue but got no response. Sad.

That’s a shame. So far no loose bits in my new bag, long may it stay that way.

[25585]

On 14/01/2018 at 13:35, Alan White said:

As many owners of the Skywatcher 150mm f5 750mm fl scope will know, storage bags for this scope are either difficult to find or expensive when you do find one.
In the past SGLers have used Cricket Bags, Wooden Boxes or Other Padded Bags in place of the couple of expensive bags sometimes available.

I had looked high and low and been using an oversized D.J. equipment bag to date. 
Well worry no more; Geoptik have released a suitable bag and at £64.99 not too expensive.
So here is my quick review and pictures, hope it is of help to others.......

The bright red bag is sized spot on for the scope and is lined with a velvet type material, is well padded and has nice handles that have rubber grips.
The picture shows the bag sitting upon the solid case for my ED80 scope.
 

The bag is very well put together and made from high quality material, the outside looks to be a 'Ballistic Nylon' type of material and a very red red colour.
Think Ferrari and you will be at the correct colour!

Padding is a good thickness of a suitable foam, feels to be about 10mm thickness.

Good Zip with two tags, so opens in both directions and gives a very generous opening in which to place the scope into the bag.

The bag is very well fitting and suitable for purpose and at the price, very reasonable.
I am known to be careful with my spending and careful in what I purchase.
Highly recommend this bag to the SGL community.

I purchased this from RVO but other retailers are now stocking this bag, sadly to date the SGL sponsor does not, but who knows.....
 

 

Neat little Newtonian you have there ?

[garryblueboy]

Always use them or Artsky just got one for my CPC11HD it's massive but well padded 

[markse68]

On 02/02/2018 at 20:33, garryblueboy said:

Always use them or Artsky just got one for my CPC11HD it's massive but well padded 

Hi Garry, how do the artesky bags compare? I read they have a padded wooden base? Is the padding a similar thickness? They are a different design with a zip around the whole top surface which looks like it would be a bit easier to drop your scope into but do the unsupported sides maintain their shape or do they flop down making it more difficult to put the scope inside? Do you have a preference between the 2?

And @Alan White it’s been a few years- do you still rate the quality of this bag? It looks a bit roomy for your scope in the pics- I guess it’s good they left room for sticky out bits like the focuser. Has the velour lining ended up annoying?

Mark

Edited August 19, 2022 by markse68

[Alan White]

1 hour ago, markse68 said:

Hi Garry, how do the artesky bags compare? I read they have a padded wooden base? Is the padding a similar thickness? They are a different design with a zip around the whole top surface which looks like it would be a bit easier to drop your scope into but do the unsupported sides maintain their shape or do they flop down making it more difficult to put the scope inside? Do you have a preference between the 2?

And @Alan White it’s been a few years- do you still rate the quality of this bag? It looks a bit roomy for your scope in the pics- I guess it’s good they left room for sticky out bits like the focuser. Has the velour lining ended up annoying?

Mark

The bag did develop the slight fur loss, but the bag and scope went to fund aperture fever at the time.

Aperture fever has since passed and presently settled at 103mm for now.

[garryblueboy]

2 hours ago, markse68 said:

On 02/02/2018 at 20:33, garryblueboy said:

 

Hi Garry, how do the artesky bags compare? I read they have a padded wooden base? Is the padding a similar thickness? They are a different design with a zip around the whole top surface which looks like it would be a bit easier to drop your scope into but do the unsupported sides maintain their shape or do they flop down making it more difficult to put the scope inside? Do you have a preference between the 2?

It depends on the bag you select the CPC series has a hard plastic base and extra foam supports for the arms the refractor and Newtonian are just padded sides etc 

[markse68]

10 minutes ago, garryblueboy said:

It depends on the bag you select the CPC series has a hard plastic base and extra foam supports for the arms the refractor and Newtonian are just padded sides etc 

Thanks Garry- is there any noticeable quality difference between the Artesky and Geoptik that you have owned?

Thanks Alan too- i have a geoptik for my 8” f4 but it’s nylon lined- I’ll have to email them and ask what the current linings are.

[garryblueboy]

It depends on what bag really the CPC series I prefer the Geoptics also the Oklop bags are very good 

[markse68]

4 minutes ago, garryblueboy said:

It depends on what bag really the CPC series I prefer the Geoptics also the Oklop bags are very good 

Thanks Garry, what’s CPC series mean?

Mark

[garryblueboy]

The Celestron CPC series of scopes 

[markse68]

Ah ok ta- i’m looking for one for a newt

Mark

[markse68]

Just got a reply from Geoptik about the current design which has changed- it is smooth nylon interior (not velour), 12mm padding and the zipper is a quality YKK, in case anyone is considering a Geoptik bag. I'll probably go for theirs over the Artesky as it's cheaper, available here and I like the red..

Mark

[markse68]

For completeness, Artesky replied to my query:

yes it has an hard padded base made by wood

The padding is 10mm thick

It has a normal but sturdy zipper

Mark