A Sky-Watcher Evostar ED150 DS Pro lands in Yorkshire

[Owmuchonomy]

Thanks to FLO for my new ED150 DS Pro received on Wednesday. I was aware @John was down to test one so I delayed posting for a bit plus the delivery brought the clouds.  I will post my initial findings and thoughts and top up as I go. I own or have owned an ED80 and an ED 120 but I no longer have the latter to do an objective comparison.

The first feedback applies to the outer packaging.  As discovered by others it is inadequate for the item. In my case the outer packaging was ruptured at the pressure points under the narrow white plastic wrap bands. I imagine the bands are used along the supply chain to manoeuvre the package. The gross weight is 26kg so it’s difficult to manhandle for an individual. Fortunately, the flight case was in perfect condition and hopefully has protected the contents. SW could learn from Lunt and double box their items.

The flight case itself is typical SW and has considerable strength and weight. There is a lot of unused space though, with cut outs ready for a significant number of accessories which I can only assume is for another market. My version has the OTA, an M48 Canon EOS adapter (why?) and a threaded adaptor to allow connection to the draw tube. that’s it, no diagonal, EP, finder etc like other Pro offerings.

The OTA weighs just over 9kg which is the same as my SCT 9.25 but unlike the latter is much easier to handle as it’s a lot narrower. So attaching it to my AZ EQ 6 is a doddle. I have to be sure to carry it level because like every other SW I have owned the objective end cap is loose so tilt the OTA and it falls off. I usually add a bit more felt to solve the issue.

i was lucky to have about an hour of clear dark sky last night so was keen to do a star test for obvious reasons if you have read @John ‘s thread. The eagle eyed among you will have seen that the focuser is essentially fixed and has no provision for easy rotation during a session so one needs to rely on rotating the diagonal. My Moonlite which can be switched between the 80 and 120 does not fit the 150 so I eagerly await the adaptor ?.

I used my ES 82’ 4.7mm EP on Altair to run an initial star test. The CA profile has been well covered by @John and my experience is almost identical including the slight hexagonal appearance in some situations. In my case the in focus and in and out focus transitions revealed absolutely perfect collimation. A big sigh of relief there. Interestingly I had placed the scope outside for about an hour at roughly 21 degrees but the initial star test was too unsteady but 20 minutes later it was very steady.

Using in addition to the 4.7 my ES 14 and 20mm eps i moved on to look quickly at some targets such As Iota Cass which was clearly defined as a triple with distinctive colour ranges, M27 which had a typical grainy appearance very similar to the view in the SCT and M81 and M82. Considering it was not astronomical darkness the dark centre of M82 was very well defined. The best view though was of M57. The detail in the ring was dramatic and high mag was easily tolerated. I must have stared at it for 15 minutes. I tried the Blinking PN in Cygnus and although a small target even with the 4.7 the brightness was remarkable and the structures defined.

By now I was tired but tonight and tomorrow look good so I will try and post more findings from a visual perspective. Just to say that the mount had no trouble at all in swinging this beast around and I didn’t even need to do a new alignment from the last session with all targets centred in the EP when using the Synscan database.

i must say I’m quite chuffed and a big thanks to FLO for excellent communication on this item.

Edited August 5, 2018 by Owmuchonomy

[John]

I'm very glad that yours has a good star test Chris. Nice introductory report - I hope it continues to please

The 2nd ED150 that I have been sent had better packing, including no nasty plastic strapping to cut into the box, I'm pleased to say.

[JeremyS]

Thanks for the report, Chris. I'd be interested to see how the ED150 compares to your C9.25 (I have one of those), especially on the planets. 

Good luck with your observing.

[Owmuchonomy]

Just now, JeremyS said:

Thanks for the report, Chris. I'd be interested to see how the ED150 compares to your C9.25 (I have one of those), especially on the planets. 

Good luck with your observing.

I will mount the SCT to balance the 150 tomorrow. Unfortunately the 3 juicy planetary targets are all too low now for my obsy, sorry.

[Owmuchonomy]

I should have added that I used my WO quartz diagonal for the visual tests.

[FLO]

On 04/08/2018 at 21:09, Owmuchonomy said:

i must say I’m quite chuffed and a big thanks to FLO for excellent communication on this item.

It is good to hear your telescope's first light was a success ? 

Steve 

[Owmuchonomy]

So @JeremyS mentioned a possible comparison between my new ED 150 and my quite old (12 years) 9.25" SCT.  The SCT is recently collimated. A bit chalk and cheese maybe but I was more than happy to comply.  I apologised above but the ecliptic is below the view from the obsy so I cannot do the much desired planetary comparison Im afraid.

I used my WO quartz diagonal in the ED 150 and the stock diagonal that comes in the ED 80 Pro set in the SCT.  I then added my TV Powermate 2x to the ED 150 which essentially meant that I had the same field of view options for both scopes.  I only used two EPs; my 14mm ES 82' and the 20mm version too.  The seeing was of average steadiness but the transparency was unusually low.  The French call it a 'veiled sky'.  I had about an hour comparing views before the high cloud became too intrusive.

I waited until about 00:30 this morning and did a comparison on some deep sky targets.  The 'live' chalked up table on the obsy wall is shown here but I will add commentary.

In order:

Core of M31: Brighter through the 9.25" but no other real differences.  Low mag stars surrounding the core were visible in both views.

M32: Equal brightness in both cases but the ED 150 revealed a more defined bright central core, almost to a point.

M101: Difficult to distinguish in both views.

Iota Cass: Obviously triple and the colours (White, blue and yell/orange) were visible in both cases.  The ED 150 seemed to have a little more difficulty with holding a steady view but I wasn't doing simultaneous observation so I cant really distinguish.

21P/Giacobini-Zinner: Brighter through the 9.25" but difficult to see and define.  The ED 150 revealed a bright pin core and apparently two distinct parts to the comet head with a dark band between them.  Has anybody imaged this lately?

M57: Brighter in the wider aperture view but just a universal appearance to the ring.  The ED 150 revealed a layered ring appearance. The mag 14 neighbouring star was obvious in both views.  No central star on view though.

M27: An equivalent view in both cases.

M13: The clouds interfered with this view so I had to call a stop.

The mount performance is perfect in this set up.  I frequently have visitors to the obsy hence the choice of Alt Az mode predominantly.  It seems this set up will work well for outreach sessions on all except wider field targets.

I will do further testing at the next opportunity and report back.  Thanks for looking.

Edited August 6, 2018 by Owmuchonomy

[JeremyS]

4 minutes ago, Owmuchonomy said:

So @JeremyS mentioned a possible comparison between my new ED 150 and my quite old (12 years) 9.25" SCT.  A bit chalk and cheese maybe but I was more than happy to comply.  I apologised above but the ecliptic is below the view from the obsy so I cannot do the much desired planetary comparison Im afraid.

Many thanks for the report, Chris. Looks like not too much difference on the targets you looked at. Will be interesting to see how you get on when the transparency is better. 

5 minutes ago, Owmuchonomy said:

21P/Giacobini-Zinner: Brighter through the 9.25" but difficult to see and define.  The ED 150 revealed a bright pin core and apparently two distinct parts to the comet head with a dark band between them.  Has anybody imaged this lately?

There is an image by Nick James taken last night.

[John]

Good stuff Chris

Did you notice the central star of M27 ? - I can get that, just, with the ED120 on a really good night.

I think that star close to M57 is mag 13:

 

[Owmuchonomy]

57 minutes ago, John said:

Good stuff Chris

Did you notice the central star of M27 ? - I can get that, just, with the ED120 on a really good night.

I think that star close to M57 is mag 13:

 

M27: not in last nights conditions. That would make sense so I think Sky Safari isn’t correct. Thanks for that.

Edited August 6, 2018 by Owmuchonomy

[DRT]

Great reports, Chris, and very pleasing to hear what this scope can deliver.

Edited August 9, 2018 by DRT

[Mr Spock]

Nice to hear you have a good one ? That packaging is shocking though 

[GordonD]

Thanks very much for taking the time to put these reports together, Chris. They are really helpful. The comparison to other scopes always makes it more concrete I think, too.

On 06/08/2018 at 17:17, John said:

I think that star close to M57 is mag 13:

 

John,  out of interest, how or where do you get that screenshot from? Looks really useful.

Gordon

[John]

11 minutes ago, GordonD said:

Thanks very much for taking the time to put these reports together, Chris. They are really helpful. The comparison to other scopes always makes it more concrete I think, too.

John,  out of interest, how or where do you get that screenshot from? Looks really useful.

Gordon

I found it laying around the web somewhere

I've no imaging abilities at all I'm afraid

[Owmuchonomy]

14 hours ago, GordonD said:

Thanks very much for taking the time to put these reports together, Chris. They are really helpful. The comparison to other scopes always makes it more concrete I think, too.

John,  out of interest, how or where do you get that screenshot from? Looks really useful.

Gordon

More to come I think.

[Owmuchonomy]

Last night I set up the ED 150 and the SCT 9.25 again on my AZ EQ 6 in Alt-Az mode.  I spent some time manipulating the cone error adjustment on the ED 150 (the SCT doesn't have that provision) so that the views through both scopes were perfectly aligned this time.  Once completed I moved on to adding to my list of targets to compare in both scopes.  Here is the extended 'live' list I added to.

In addition to the viewing equipment I used last time I added my Lunt zoom EP to the list mainly because I wanted to 'fine tune' some of the views.  I am still aware of the problems encountered by @John so I wanted to conduct a star test again.  Unfortunately the shortest EP I have without using my Powermates in the train is a 4.7mm ES 82" to give 255x.  I would prefer to use a 4mm but don't have access to one.  The seeing was not great I think partly due to windy conditions.  The transparency was ok and I could clearly make out the Cygnus rift and the Milky Way from Perseus to Aquila.  This is not quite the best that can happen here but it was ok.  It was hard to hold an in-focus star test view but under the prevailing conditions the collimation still appears ok.  I would like to stress this test though to be absolutely sure.

So onto the views.

M13: A virtually identical view in both scopes of a bright core and beautiful jewel stars surrounding it.  Very sharp.

M51: Spiral structure was immediately obvious through both scopes for M51 and a bright core of NGC 5195 presented.  There was no difference in brightness for the main galaxy, subjectively perhaps extra contrast in the ED150 compensating for the smaller aperture.

Western Veil: Here the ED 150 gave an instant and remarkable view of the area North of 52 Cyg.  I have never seen such a contrasty and dense view of this area.  The SCT revealed the area too but it was more diffuse to my eye.  It was easy with the ED 150 to navigate the length of the nebulosity.

Eastern veil: The SCT revealed a 'blotchy' appearance to the nebulosity whereas the ED 150 revealed a sharper view.  Of course the shorter FL of the ED 150 enabled a wider view so I could enjoy the extent of this area.

I can't wait to try my OIII filter in this set up but that will have to wait.  I also want to comment about the focuser hardware but I am dashing out now so I will get to that later.

Edited August 11, 2018 by Owmuchonomy

[John]

Good stuff Chris

The O-III works wonders on the Veil - I was observing it last night with my ED120 and a 40mm SWA eyepiece - 3 degree true field and some superb views of the E & W Veil and Pickerings Wisp.

Big refractors are really good DSO scopes.

[Owmuchonomy]

1 hour ago, John said:

Good stuff Chris

The O-III works wonders on the Veil - I was observing it last night with my ED120 and a 40mm SWA eyepiece - 3 degree true field and some superb views of the E & W Veil and Pickerings Wisp.

Big refractors are really good DSO scopes.

I’m interested how you get on with such a wide field. Until recently I owned an ED 120 and the wide field view using my ES 24mm 82’ was nice but the field curvature was quite apparent. So it was necessary to adjust focus for the outer parts of the view. The ED 150 behaves identically to that using the same EP. Is this normal in your view for a doublet?

[Owmuchonomy]

I should have added to my viewing notes that I searched for some time with averted vision for the central star of M27 to no avail in either scope.

[John]

28 minutes ago, Owmuchonomy said:

I’m interested how you get on with such a wide field. Until recently I owned an ED 120 and the wide field view using my ES 24mm 82’ was nice but the field curvature was quite apparent. So it was necessary to adjust focus for the outer parts of the view. The ED 150 behaves identically to that using the same EP. Is this normal in your view for a doublet?

I was using the Aero ED 40mm (or a clone of it at least). It works really well in my refractors and seems to have quite a flat field. Much lighter than my Ethos 21 or Nagler 31 too.

 

[Owmuchonomy]

In case anybody following this thread is wondering why I have gone quiet then it's all due to ☁️ in their abundance!  I did observe a little last night but the Moon and then the drizzle was interfering too much with the deep sky views.  I did check on Comet 21/P and this time there is a hint of a tail showing but it's hit and miss with averted vision.  I did pursue Almac once it had risen above the obsy roof.  In the ES 82' 20mm the pair were so bright they washed each other out.  With a 15mm Cel plossl and then my ES 4.7mm though, the colour contrast was excellent.  The view was a bit unsteady but still enjoyable.

I am waiting for a good waning Moon early morning session to report back on what I expect to be a spectacular view so more reports to come.

[Owmuchonomy]

A lot of Moon penetrating the obsy tonight so I positioned the 150ED on the Double Double Epsilon Lyr 1 and 2. There is a recent thread dedicated to this target and the ability to split them. I used my WO quartz diagonal and the Lunt 7 to 21.5 zoom EP so I could challenge the limits of detection.  The transparency was quite good but the air was a little unsteady even overhead.  Manipulating the EP zoom a few times I would conclude that my eyes struggled to split either double at more than 12mm so that’s exactly 100x. I tried my closest single fl EP which is the 14mm ES 82’ but I couldn’t safely say I could discern a split double just a kidney shape. The best views were at about 9mm so around 130x.

@Johnhas on his target list for testing this scope lambda cyg.  I tried that at 7mm and 4.7mm but struggled to see a double, the airy disc was just too apparent. I don’t really know what I was looking for and although there were flashes of what could have been a fairly bright partner due West I’m not really sure.  Sky Safari Pro doesn’t show a partner star position on the live view. I will go and read up on this double.

Each time I use this scope I run a star test (tonight on Deneb) and I’m still getting a perfectly concentric set of rings at focus and either side of that point. The CA is so very well controlled too.

The focuser leaves me a little bit flat though. To have to loosen the diagonal to rotate the view or position the EP is not great especially when  the other Evostar ED focusers have a nice rotating facility. What I find is that the diagonal has to be perfectly seated on the draw tube end to avoid strange star shapes and this in turn means the grip screws, of which there are two, become difficult to reach and manipulate. Not so bad in August but just wait until January! Roll on the Moonlite adaptor!

[John]

Nice further installment Chris

I've got Lambda Cygni with my 130mm triplet and, when the seeing is very good, I have done it with my ED120. When it's not quite split the effect is rather like a tiny snowman with the dimmer secdondary star appearing like a dimmer, smaller, spot stuck on the side of the primary.

It will be high on the list when I get my next example of the SW ED150.

I agree with you re: the non-rotating focuser being an annoyance, especially when the scope is equatorially mounted.

[Owmuchonomy]

@John I’m hooked on splitting this target now so I will set up the ED150 and 9.25” again soon and give it another go. I think the seeing will have to be very steady though.

[Owmuchonomy]

Another instalment for you. I managed an hour or so on Friday night. The sky had a thin veil of cloud in places but the seeing was very steady in fact almost scarily steady. The cloud became too thick about 11:30.

First target was Izar just before it passed behind my Neighbour’s roof. This was probably the best I have ever seen a colour separation. It’s not a particularly difficult target and is easily split with a 14mm ES 82’, but the colours were magnificent and rich especially the greenish/blue tinge of the smaller partner. The primary star is usually a rich yellow ochre colour and whilst this was apparent, the centre of the star was so bright it washed the colour away a little.

Second target involved the much awaited installation of my 2” Baader 10nm OIII filter. Using my ES 24 mm 82’ I was literally stunned by the view of the Cygnus Loop and W Veil. I was able to pick out clear streams of nebulosity, vivid structure and almost a haunting glow in the brighter parts. Remember, this is with a veiled sky. Manually moving the scope to the W Veil was easy as the nebulosity was so obvious and it truly looked like a ‘witches broom’. I got a real sense of gases flung away from a central region. I stared at it for about 30 minutes. I checked M27 with the filter in, which as usual revealed a view not unlike a ‘prune’; a very mottled undefined region of OIII.

Because the seeing was so good I removed the filter and checked on the epsilon lyr double double again using the Lunt zoom EP. This time it was easy to split them both at 14mm, confirmed by using the ES 14mm too. So that’s much better performance than under the poorer conditions previously.

So safe to say, good seeing revealed more of what this scope can do and I look forward to using it more.