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The Skywatcher Evostar ED150 DS Pro Is Here !


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While waiting for the clouds to part ......

I've had a look at the CNC tube rings and Losmandy-compatible dovetail bar upgrade pack that FLO also supplied with the scope. I've read a few grumbles elsewhere about having to pay more for these but in Skywatcher's defence I'd say that the stock tube rings and dovetail bar do a good job of holding the scope and are certainly not flimsy items. The upgrade tube rings and dovetail bar are certainly a step up in quality and strength. Their cost is £188.00 but if you have a look around at the cost of a decent 330mm Losmandy dovetail bar and a 155mm ID CNC pair of tube rings it's a pretty good price I feel. The tube rings are the same quality as the APM ones on my TMB/LZOS which retail at £150+. Add £76 for a comparable dovetail bar and you see what I mean.

Anyway, they are not on the scope yet so here is a pic of the set:

 

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Patience has paid off and I have managed first light with the ED150 tonight (on Saturn, fittingly) and I've had a peek at a small range of other objects with it. Not much in the way of comparison with the ED120 though because the clear sky was a somewhat sudden development so most of the time I just used the ED150.

Apologies if this seems like prevarication but I'm not going to give knee jerk reactions on this scope. I've made some notes and will repeat the observations and add others too, at the earliest opportunity. My experience is that it takes time for the full performance ability of optics to emerge and hasty conclusions sometimes are not borne out by further experiences.

More in due course - thanks for your interest so far :smiley:

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Very exciting! Looking forward to the report.

I have never before owned a Skywatcher scope, still I am a bit surprised that the lens cell cannot be collimated. 

I think that the 188£ for the stronger rings and the Losmandy rail is a reasonable price. 

Best Regards,

Anders

Edited by Anderscn
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What a lovely scope! Not as large as I would have expected either, although lifting it onto a tripod plus extension probably requires a fair bit of spinach, or a platform. It will be interesting to see whether the 1.6x gain in light throughput cpd with the 120ED will make resolution of close unequal doubles easier for example?

Chris

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16 hours ago, John said:

Well, the black beast has arrived

The outer packaging is 146cm in length and the aluminum scope case is 140cm long. The only issue I have had with the shipping is that a small hole was punched in the aluminum case from the inside. Examination showed that this was caused by the camera mounting adapter screw on one of the tube rings punching through as the scope moved around in transit. No damage to the scope at all - it's looking lovely.

The finish is very good, the dew shield is metal as is the one piece dust cap (nice touch !). The dew shield is 20cm deep (to the top surface of the objective lens). No plastic on the scope at all as far as I can determine. The finder and diagonal shown are mine, all the rest arrived in the shipping carton along with a Canon EOS - T2 camera adapter and another adapter, purpose as yet unknown. The focuser is smooth yet firm.

 

 

 

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OMG those camera mounts really are more hassle than they are worth. If they aren't working loose and scraping through the finish on a scope they are poking holes through flight cases. I wouldn't mind but how many people actually use the dam things???. First thing I do when ever I buy a scope is take them off!

Have to say while others may see it as a plus I'm not particularly a fan of metal dew shields. With a huge lump of glass and a tube of steel extending past that I have always found scopes to sit right back on rings to balance and in doing so putting the observer on their knees for the best part of the night searching for night sky objects. With my EVO150 I stuck a lump of lead focuser end to help center that balance. Having a tall UNI-28 tripod really helped. Also disappointed to hear the objective cover is a single piece. Having the advantage to stop down the aperture can come in handy at times. No deal breaker as it is possible to make an aperture mask but surprising that it is included on most other scopes SW offer yet in this case they chose not to.

Is the focuser rotateable by any chance John? I see they haven't employed their usual ota/ focuser adapter despite retaining their usual white DS focuser.

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The focuser does not rotate. It seems a nice focuser in it's action and holds heavy eyepieces in a 2" diagonal when the scope is pointing at the zenith, but it does not rotate.

There are 6 hex screws around the focuser mounting adaptor (the black bit) which might allow the focuser to be rotated and then locked in a new position. I've not experimented with this yet.

There are no instructions with the scope so I'm being cautious about "playing" with stuff at present !

The dew shield is aluminum rather than steel on the ED150 and the overall balance of the scope is pretty reasonable for a tube with 2 large bits of glass up the front end. Having had a Meade AR6 in the past with a plastic dew shield and plastic objective counter cell, I'm happier with aluminium / CNC I think.

Thanks for all the feedback and encouragement folks :smiley:

 

 

 

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17 hours ago, John said:

 Both the ED120 and the ED150 are handled smoothly by the Ercole mount and the Berlebach tripod. I can pick the whole lot up and move it around the garden too !

That sounds impressive, and it looks a great set up.. I tried to pick up my 4.5Kg 100m frac, skytee2, extension and wooden tripod the other night to get at mars from round a tree and that was hernia territory right there, so I guess @John must have been working out to pick up that little lot.

Just want to say the scope looks great, and it's has certainly spiked a lot of interest...   credit to John and FLO for arranging this review.

I wonder if another recent releases have owed so much (potential) success to early reviews like this.. Especially with the mystery around the lens.. I think it's great that as a forum and sponsor so much knowledge can be imparted relatively quickly through these collaborations.. Well done both for taking this on.

Looking forward to the conclusions..

Ta

Fozzie

PS forecast looks good for North Somerset until Saturday.. so no rest bite their then! x

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17 hours ago, John said:

The only issue I have had with the shipping is that a small hole was punched in the aluminum case from the inside. Examination showed that this was caused by the camera mounting adapter screw on one of the tube rings punching through as the scope moved around in transit. No damage to the scope at all - it's looking lovely.

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Sorry to hear about the case, we will arrange a replacement. It must have been quite an impact. 

We have also added a note to our inventory system so Evostar 150ED scopes dispatched from FLO, from here onwards, will be opened and more packaging added. 

Steve 

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Random wibble: I'm often wary re. *substantial* (weight) scopes on "side-mounted" 
alt-azimuth dovetail clamps. Many here may well be stronger than I (lol!), but there
seems to be a specific "cringe moment" while ensuring the scope is firmly located in
the jaws of the clamp before screwing it home! Me? I use a dovetail etc. "handle"...
screwed to the other side of the scope rings for safety. Averted "disaster" once! ?

Aside: Although initially disconcerting, one gets used to the "Bobdignagian" Astro
World! But my question is often: "How much does it weigh"? Not always stated. ?

Edited by Macavity
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42 minutes ago, Macavity said:

Random wibble: I'm often wary re. *substantial* (weight) scopes on "side-mounted" 
alt-azimuth dovetail clamps. Many here may well be stronger than I (lol!), but there
seems to be a specific "cringe moment" while ensuring the scope is firmly located in
the jaws of the clamp before screwing it home! Me? I use a dovetail / random "bar"
screwed to the other side on the scope rings for safety. Averted "disaster" once! ?

Aside: Although initially disconcerting, one gets used to the "Bobdignagian" Astro
World! But yy question is usually"How much does it weigh"? Not always stated. ?

Putting a handle onto the other side of the rings with larger scopes is a good idea. A 2nd dovetail bar would be a good substitute.

The ED150 weighs 10.5 kg in full trim (excluding eyepiece) and is quite a long tube so some care is needed lifting it into the dovtail clamp on the mount and removing it. Especially in the dark when you are tired !

Another way is to leave the tube rings attached to the mount and lift the scope in and out of them before clamping them shut. This can provide more support for the scope tube as the tube rings, even when open, form a sort of "shelf" which will take some of the tube weight while the clamps are fastened.

Care is always needed with big, long scopes though, including care of the astronomer :smiley:

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8 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

The location of that screw is asking to damage the case. Either remove it, rotate the OTA or put so,me sort of cap on it.

I agree. If the screw had been removed or even if the tube rings had been rotated so that the screw was sideways rather than upright, the damage to the case would not have occurred.

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39 minutes ago, FLO said:

 

Sorry to hear about the case, we will arrange a replacement. It must have been quite an impact. 

We have also added a note to our inventory system so Evostar 150ED scopes dispatched from FLO, from here onwards, will be opened and more packaging added. 

Steve 

Thanks Steve. No hurry though with the replacement case. The original still works fine.

 

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1 hour ago, John said:

The focuser does not rotate. It seems a nice focuser in it's action and holds heavy eyepieces in a 2" diagonal when the scope is pointing at the zenith, but it does not rotate.

Does the diagonal/eyepiece holder have one of those clamping rings on that some Skywatcher Crayfords employ? Not ideal but sometimes can use them to rotate gear through 90° or so without fiddling with the two main locking screws, which nearly always end up too close to the diagonal to be readily adjusted with cold sausage fingers.

There is talk in the US of a DX version, upgraded for imaging, anything we are likely to see here @FLO?

Cheers

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57 minutes ago, Tim said:

Does the diagonal/eyepiece holder have one of those clamping rings on that some Skywatcher Crayfords employ? Not ideal but sometimes can use them to rotate gear through 90° or so without fiddling with the two main locking screws, which nearly always end up too close to the diagonal to be readily adjusted with cold sausage fingers.

There is talk in the US of a DX version, upgraded for imaging, anything we are likely to see here @FLO?

Cheers

The 2" visual back of the scope has a locking ring which can be loosened, allowing the visual back to be rotated, and then locked into the new position with the locking ring. Not quite as nice as being able to rotate the whole focuser but easier than fiddling with the set screws that hold the diagonal in place.

 

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4 hours ago, John said:

Care is always needed with big, long scopes though, including care of the astronomer :smiley:

 

I'm sure I lose a few weeks of my lifespan every time I lift my Esprit 150 onto the mount. So nerve wracking, and not easy for anyone else to help really.

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4 hours ago, Tim said:

There is talk in the US of a DX version, upgraded for imaging, anything we are likely to see here @FLO?

The DX version is supplied pre-fitted with the optional larger dovetail & rings and has a similar focuser to that supplied with the Sky-Watcher Esprit. Currently we are advised there are no plans to import that version to the UK.

I think It is only a matter of time before the likes of Baader, MoonLite and Feathertoutch release focusers to suit. 

HTH, 

Steve 

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30 minutes ago, FLO said:

...I think It is only a matter of time before the likes of Baader, MoonLite and Feathertoutch release focusers to suit. 

 

Looking at the stock focuser fitted to the ED150 that I have, I would say that the above companies just need to produce a revised flange to enable their current focusers to be used.

The white secttion of the ED150 focuser is simply screwed into the black tube connecting section using a thead around 100mm (not measured !) in diameter.

 

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Ok, the issue of scope balance has been raised quite a bit.

The photo below shows the scope (minus an eyepiece and the dust cap) at perfect balance on the Giro Ercole mount with no tension on the altitude axis. The dew shield unscrews quite easily so I was able to weigh it on it's own at 950 grams. Apologies for the cluttered photo - life goes on here despite the large refractor taking up most of the dining room !

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Here are some more pics of the objective and it's cell. The dew shield unscrewed easily so I was happy to take it off for a few minutes. Beneath the felt tape I can feel two sets of 6 holes, presumably with hex screws in them to hold the lens elements in position. No foil lens spacers visible so I assume that the air space is maintained with a thin ring between the elements.

The coatings seem really nice quality with that strong purple tinge previously described. There seem to be 4 knife edge baffles in the scope tube. The focuser drawtube is matt black and has micro grooves along it's interior.

I've checked the objective tilt using a cheshire eyepiece and it seems spot on with just the single reflection of the cheshire face bang in the centre of the objective (you get 2 over lapping images if the tilt is out, 2 separate ones if it is very much out). A collimated laser beam shone down the tube exits the centre of the objective so the central axis of the focuser seems to be in line with that of the objective.

 

 

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