Skywatcher StarTravel150 Experience

[Chris M48]

Since I bought the ST150 refractor last year I've noted the poor press on this scope. Mainly down to the Achromatic Aberration that is inherent with it.

So I bought the Baader Semi-apo filter to go with it after receiving good advice from this forum. A couple of months ago I tried to sell it to make way for a 150 Mak but couldn't get a sensible offer. I'm so glad that I did as it compliments my collection nicely.

Oh yes, I bought the Mak anyway.

Here's an example of the Eagle nebula taken a couple of evenings ago from my back garden.

Camera T3 Rebel on CG5 goto with Altair GPCAM guiding. Processed with DSS and StarTools.

 

[domstar]

Beautiful. What would you say is the difference between your 100ed and st150 with visual observations? 

[Red Dwarfer]

1 hour ago, Chris M48 said:

Since I bought the ST150 refractor last year I've noted the poor press on this scope. Mainly down to the Achromatic Aberration that is inherent with it.

So I bought the Baader Semi-apo filter to go with it after receiving good advice from this forum. A couple of months ago I tried to sell it to make way for a 150 Mak but couldn't get a sensible offer. I'm so glad that I did as it compliments my collection nicely.

Oh yes, I bought the Mak anyway.

Here's an example of the Eagle nebula taken a couple of evenings ago from my back garden.

Camera T3 Rebel on CG5 goto with Altair GPCAM guiding. Processed with DSS and StarTools.

 

That  Baader semi-apo filter is high on my to-do list for an ST 120 -  can you recommend them , especially for double stars ? I'm a visual observer only .

[mikeDnight]

That's brilliant Chris.

I've had quite a lot of experience over the years with the ST150, several of my friends bought them when they first came out. With the exception of one poorly figured specimen they were all terrific. The trouble is people moan at length about chromatic abberation without ever using a scope. The ST is an amazing rich field refractor, and when used for what it was intended for, its a truly stunning instrument. I'd love to get my hands on another one someday, as it would make the perfect companion to my 4" apo. 

[nightfisher]

I had the old helios branded ST150, and it was a nice scope, very front heavy though, CA was an issue with Luna and planets but thats not what the scope is about

[parallaxerr]

I can only speak for the ST120 and Mike is dead right, people moan about the CA without ever having looked through one, often posting the CA "acceptability" chart we've all seen a million times.

That's a great image, I'd urge you to try a Ha narrowband filter, my 120 produced fantastic images with one and I bet the 150 would better it.

[John]

These F/5 achromats are great for low to medium power viewing. Their CA does impact high power performance and many have a degree of spherical abberration too. The filters can remove quite a bit of the CA (thats remove rather than correct) but the SA can remain a hinderance at high powers.

 

[Stu]

3 minutes ago, John said:

These F/5 achromats are great for low to medium power viewing. Their CA does impact high power performance and many have a degree of spherical abberration too. The filters can remove quite a bit of the CA (thats remove rather than correct) but the SA can remain a hinderance at high powers.

 

I agree with that John, it is the SA thatvis a killer at high powers if the scope has it at the worse end of the scale. CA is not something I enjoy, but at low to mid powers I’m sure a decent ST120 or 150 would be give excellent views.

[Chris M48]

The 100ED was one of my first scopes and is my preferred scope I suppose. It’s as happy to give great clear and crisp views when observing or imaging but In recent years I’ve been largely hooked on AP. That’s about to change, however, as I’ve just purchased a CG5 mount for sole purpose of observing at home and in the field.

I can’t tell yet how much of a difference the Baader Semi-apo makes but if it’s anything like during AP it’ll be considerable. For the moment it’s a must. Maybe I can give it a back seat in favour of my H-Alpha 7nm filter when I try it.

I consider myself a shoestring enthusiast but after quite a few years of trying just about everything I seem to have settled on my 4 varied telescopes to enable me to get decent results on whatever I choose to do.

The main thing is there’s so much to learn, so much yet to do.