NEW Sky-Watcher StarQuest Telescopes

[FLO]

Sky-Watcher have released their new Sky-Watcher StarQuest family of compact, affordable easy to use 'Grab & Go' telescopes 🙂 

From tomorrow they will be in stock and available for overnight delivery. 

 

[FaDG]

Wow, that's a minimal design for the mount... Take the front of the Star Adventurer (removing the polarscope), add a slightly modified L bracket and turn it into a manual EQ on a tripod.

I don't see a way to couple a motor drive (maybe one the opposite side)?

I hope this simplification leads to a real saving.

[FLO]

16 minutes ago, FaDG said:

Wow, that's a minimal design for the mount... Take the front of the Star Adventurer (removing the polarscope), add a slightly modified L bracket and turn it into a manual EQ on a tripod.

I don't see a way to couple a motor drive (maybe one the opposite side)?

We can't make any promises but we did recently notice this in the new Sky-Watcher catalogue 🙂 

 

[FaDG]

1 minute ago, FLO said:

We can't make any promises but we did recently notice this in the new Sky-Watcher catalogue 🙂 

 

Yes, it seems the answer. Quite ugly, though... 

[FLO]

They will have designed the motor assembly to sell at an affordable price, like the mount. Affordable motor assemblies are functional. They are rarely attractive 🙂 

[Stu]

That looks a fun range, I would think they could be quite popular 👍👍

[John]

Good selection of apertures with some decent potential - should prove popular at those prices

The mount design is interesting - looks as if it could be used in alt-azimuth mode as well as EQ mode  ?

[Chris]

The white with green accents livery looks great, and I dare say that mount and tripod must be the lightest from SW yet? I especially like the look of the 130p variant. I would be interested in this one especially if it had the motor drive. These could be very nice grab n go's indeed,

[Ricochet]

2 hours ago, Lockie said:

The white with green accents livery looks great, and I dare say that mount and tripod must be the lightest from SW yet? I especially like the look of the 130p variant. I would be interested in this one especially if it had the motor drive. These could be very nice grab n go's indeed,

Looks like one for your review list then.

It would be interesting to see how these compare side by side with the az-eq Avant line. They've combined a couple of the same telescopes with the same mount head but changed the tripod, added longer slow motion controls and added a dovetail clamp. It seems like a difficult choice between the two.

[Chris]

11 hours ago, Ricochet said:

Looks like one for your review list then.

It would be interesting to see how these compare side by side with the az-eq Avant line. They've combined a couple of the same telescopes with the same mount head but changed the tripod, added longer slow motion controls and added a dovetail clamp. It seems like a difficult choice between the two.

They are probably quite similar other than to say If you want the flexibility of switching between AZ and EQ then the Avant would be better. I'm guessing both ranges would perform equally in many ways as an entry level or grab n go scope, and a lot will come down to what the buyer prefers aesthetically. 

I know what you're saying though, you can pick out a lot of telescope foibles when you have them in front of you to play with, but I do need to be careful of reviewing too similar products I guess is what I'm trying to say. 

But yes, I would like to review one at some point. I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here lol to summarise  

[Grant]

We've just set one of each of these up at FLO HQ - first impressions, these are so much better than a wibbly wobbly EQ1!

The new white / green OTA colour scheme looks great and it's nice to see the high quality dovetails and rings being used on these beginner scopes as well.

Eyepieces and accessories as you would expect are average but enough to get you started. All have a red finder.

I'm not a fan of the tripod - it's OK but I would've preferred they had bundled it with the Star Adventurer type round leg tripod with the clip in tray rather than having to use the little thumbscrew things.

Looking forwards to seeing a tracking drive for these to see how that works.

Initial impressions though, I think these are going to be new favourites for beginners who want an EQ mount...

[Alan White]

Nice to see kit that encourages new entrants on a budget.
Even nicer to see SW using white on more scopes.

[peterjudge]

On 18/06/2019 at 22:20, John said:

The mount design is interesting - looks as if it could be used in alt-azimuth mode as well as EQ mode  ?

Wait - Is that a possibility?  On another thread, I just had the alt-az versus EQ decision re-opened.
Could one really have both and not have to decide? (yes, I'm that kind of person) 

I can sort of see how that might work. but.,..'