Skywatcher Evostar ED150 snaps the Moon

[Owmuchonomy]

After a couple of weeks of testing and visual play here is the very first image taken through my SW Evostar ED150.  As you may imagine the visual experience is marvellous. The image was taken in the early hours of the 1st October along the terminator.  The field of view ranges from the North polar area as far south as crater Eratosthenes.  The second image is just me doing a crop because I prefer the framing of Mare Imbrium and crater Plato in the North.  I need to experiment with the camera settings somewhat but I am very happy with the performance of both scope and camera.

Thanks to @FLO for the M56 Baader Click-Lock to test.

Camera: ASI290MM at f/8.  Captured with OAcapture by @JamesF

Crop:

 

 

[tooth_dr]

Stunning.  You must be delighted with the scope. 

[JamesF]

That looks excellent.  Well done.  One of my favourite areas of the Moon, too.

James

[des anderson]

Looks like the scope is going to be a winner on lunar and the planets, and the images stunning. Des

[Moonshane]

Pretty good going to capture Alpine Valley.

[bish]

Fantastic.  I used to spend hours as a kid looking and drawing the craters etc as a kid. It was one of the things that really fuelled my interest.

[F15Rules]

Lovely image, also one of my favourite lunar views.

There is a review of the ED150 in Sky at Night this month.

It's actually not a bad review compared to their often very superficial ones..they took some nice images with the scope. They did say that the focuser was prone to slipping under heavy load though.

Overall they felt this scope could be a game changer "at that price".. let's hope that OVL can get a good sample to FLO for John to review soon!

Dave

[Owmuchonomy]

21 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Lovely image, also one of my favourite lunar views.

There is a review of the ED150 in Sky at Night this month.

It's actually not a bad review compared to their often very superficial ones..they took some nice images with the scope. They did say that the focuser was prone to slipping under heavy load though.

Overall they felt this scope could be a game changer "at that price".. let's hope that IVL can get a good sample to FLO for John to review soon!

Dave

Yes, I saw that review but I found the stock focuser to be very good, even better than the one on my ED80.  I could not get it to slip even loaded up with some hefty kit.  Also, whilst using a Bahtinov mask I didn't get any movement in focus when using the locking screw at all.  See more detail here:

 

[Stormbringer]

awesome

[william123]

How is the Evostar 150ED on the Moon visually?  Does it seem really, really sharp and contrasty, as the images above suggest it might?  Thank you.

William

[wouterdhoye]

Lovely images. Well done.

Wouter.

[Pete Presland]

Very nicely captured.