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Skywatcher ED72


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Okay, first the "caveat" to this story as I appreciate that these scopes are scarce. A while ago, when the first shipment had been sold and I placed a pre-order for the ED72, I was lucky enough to speak to Steve at @FLO and had the offer of the last model they had, then one they had used for photos on the site.. I had originally planned to wait for the next shipment as I was in no rush but the low stock and vague arrival date had me worried and I took first refusal on the last ED72 Steve had....hence having one to play with. 

Anyway, it is a lovely little scope. I have not had much chance to play around with it properly, but have it mounted with the EvoGuide 50mm guidescope and it looks very nice, albeit dwarfed a little by the NEQ6!

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Out of the box it just looks and feels great - a premium feel to it, despite its diminutive price. Obviously it isn't going to compete with "real" premium scopes of this size, but it is solidly built and certainly doesn't feel cheap. The only issues with it really were the finder shoe screw being a little lose and the screws on the mounting plate for the EvoGuide were also a little loose - but nothing that couldn't be solved with a screwdriver and 20 seconds.... The cap on the ED72 is a screw in cap which I don't really like as I am fairly cack-handed it would seem and often struggle to get the thing back on the scope! It may just be me, but I had a similar problem with my old Altair Astro 70mm ED scope.

It is as light as a feather even compared to the relatively small ED80 it has replaced, even with the EvoGuide on the side. The dovetail is short though, and I can see me needing to get a longer one (which I have, even if I now have the battle of the bolts on my hand) to allow a bit of adjustment to get the balance right. With the EvoGuide in place and a camera/filter wheel, the scope is going to be very much rear heavy, so balancing will be tricky....although maybe it is not as important for such a small scope?? I don't know.....discuss?

There is no diagonal/EPs so I stuck in my Skywatcher diagonal and looked to see what I could see. And that was, mostly, very shapr, crisp views across most of the field. The first thing I looked at, because I could find it easily (I haven't sorted out my finder yet) was the moon and I think the views I had through the 18mm EP were crisper and sharper than my old ED80. I don't have much to compare the views against, having only ever owned and ED80, 70mm Altair scope and a C9.25, but the views were very nice and I wasn't disappointed. There was some CA on the edges of the moon, which increased the closer it got to the edge of the FOV, but not enough to make it a problem visually (for me) and easily ignored. The definition of the craters was great and I can see me using this scope a lot to look at the moon, which you can never really get tired of!

I also turned to Jupiter as it was favourably situated when I was playing and again, I got nice crisp views at just over 20x magnification and, by upping it with my 10mm and then 8mm BST, could determine the bands on the planet clearly and with nice, pinpoint moons. Obviously you are not going to get great, close-up views of the planets with this scope, but It will be interesting to see how it fares on Mars/Saturn when I get a chance to play. I am hoping to get some Ha mono imaging done on this set-up so the CA shouldn't be a problem here.

Generally stars are clear and crisp.

The focuser is nice and smooth and, although it slips a little with my DSLR, I am sure it can be tightened slightly, just like the ED80 focuser to solve that problem. It wasn't slipping under the weight of the DSLR but would move if I was touching the DSLR while moving the scope - which is a fairly unusual situation and you wouldn't really do that under normal circumstances.

It has been mentioned on another post that the focuser lacks travel. All my EPs worked from 8mm up to 18mm and the 2" 28mm. However, slip a barlow in (a 2.25x) in this case, and I couldn't reach focus; there wasn't enough outward focus. This isn't the end of the world as I have bought this for imaging, but it may be a problem for others depending on the plans for the scope. For basic visual work though, I don't see it being a problem.

Imaging is another thing altogether.

I am waiting for my funds to improve before I get a new camera for it (tempted by the ASI1600mm or the Atik 490 if the NHS payrise is as good as it looks ?) but I had a play with my DSLR just to see if it worked!

My DSLR with a T-Ring and nose-piece would not reach focus  when put directly into the scope. I can't quite remember now, but I don't think it  did with the diagonal either but, as I don't want the diagonal in for imaging, I am not too bothered about that. The DSLR was an easy fix though and, with my Baader extension tube to add around 10-12mm it did reach focus, so it didn't need much. My ZWO ASI120mm was a different matter, I struggled to get focus on that and it needed a couple of tubes attached to it it reach focus. Again, not a major problem as I am not going to use that camera for imaging (unless I have a go at the moon) and hopefully the focusing issue wil be mitigated by the Reducer/Flattener when it arrives.

The ZWO did reach focus in the EvoGuide though and I managed a nice little shot of the moon from a 300 frame video I shot quickly just to test it out.

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So can't imagine it will be a problem working with the EvoGuide when I come to guiding the scope! I haven't tried this yet as I just haven't had the chance with various other commitments at home but will have a go asap.

Overall, from someone who is not an expert in these things, the ED72 seem to be excellent value for the money giving nice, crisp views across the majority of the field. Some may be disappointed with the focuser travel but I haven't found it to be a major issue yet, able to solve the issues with the cameras with a few strategically placed extensions. Let's hope the reducer/flattener comes soon! ?

I can't comment on it for DSO/Ha work yet as I am working up to getting a camera for it, but I suspect it will all work every well and I look forward to trying it out.

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