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Sky Watcher Evostar 150ED Pro.


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Ok I was asked to give my first impressions on my Evostar 150ED Pro.

First off I don’t have a great deal of knowledge on telescope or in fact viewing the night sky, I just know I like what I see.

Some of the first reports told accounts of the damaged good arriving due to poor packaging, well Sky Watcher have addressed this problem, the huge cardboard box contains an inner resilient sponge type protective container in side of which is a large aluminum case, with handles at each end and also one central handle.

Beware this is a heavy object.

The Evostar 150ED Pro is a big lump of telescope, already owning the Helios 120mm it is a big step up in size and weight, so be prepared for that.

It has an aperture of F8 so a fair amount of light enters the eye piece.

You might be a bit disappointed in that you don’t get a finder or diagnol in the £1800 price tag, the adaptor fitting on the focus tube is cheap budget at best.

Also the clamp rings on the current batch of telescopes will NOT hold the weight scope by that I mean they spin freely on the tube, why this wasn’t picked up before they left the factory by a simple Quality Control inspection beggars belief.

I replaced them with a set of More-Blue rings and now all is secure.

I swapped the cheap adaptor for a Baader Click lock which is excellent, I also purchased a William Optics dielectric, I also purchased my first Baader Morpheus EP a 12.5mm which is amazing, when available I will also buy the 9mm & 17.5mm.

The massive dew shield which can be unscrewed has for some reason an aluminum end cover, it does have a felt inner protective sleeve but it is inset from the edge of the rim so had taken some paint of the dew shield on arrival.

I rolled some electrical insulation tape around the edge to allow future protection.

Setting up the telescope isn’t too difficult, I’m lucky in being able to walk out of the conservatory double doors straight on to our patio which is were we will be viewing from, Tripod and mount first, I have an Altair Saber Mount sat on top of the Sky Watcher EQ6 tripod which is excellent and more than capable to hold the 150ED.

Holding the scope in my arms it easily rolls into the Vixen dovetail clamp, tightening the screws is an easy task, I have ordered a Losmandy Dovetail Bar which will give a larger and more rigid clamping area.

I also purchased the Geoptic padded bag which makes moving the telescope around so much easier, it is well padded and  fit's the scope perfectly but you do have to remove the diagnol.

Using a Bahtinov mask finding focus was easy, the dual speed focuser being positive with no slippage and a has a god positive feel to it.

Typical I didn’t have long before the clouds moved in so I snapped of a few photos of the moon using my standard Canon 60D.

I processed the pictures in Photoshop C6 merging 3 images together, the other photo is as it came, the most noticeable being there is no Chromatic Aberration which I was well impressed with.

So for the first time setting up despite it’s weight it all went straight forward, sits nicely balanced on the Altair Sabre mount and is so easy to move around, I have ordered the extension tube to lift the whole scope clear of the tripod legs and to prevent me having to crawl on my hands & knees when getting close to the Zenith.

 

 

 

 

 

17th May1.jpg

17th Mayscripts.jpg

Edited by Soligor Rob
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  • 1 year later...
On 18/05/2021 at 12:57, Soligor Rob said:

Ok I was asked to give my first impressions on my Evostar 150ED Pro.

First off I don’t have a great deal of knowledge on telescope or in fact viewing the night sky, I just know I like what I see.

Some of the first reports told accounts of the damaged good arriving due to poor packaging, well Sky Watcher have addressed this problem, the huge cardboard box contains an inner resilient sponge type protective container in side of which is a large aluminum case, with handles at each end and also one central handle.

Beware this is a heavy object.

The Evostar 150ED Pro is a big lump of telescope, already owning the Helios 120mm it is a big step up in size and weight, so be prepared for that.

It has an aperture of F8 so a fair amount of light enters the eye piece.

You might be a bit disappointed in that you don’t get a finder or diagnol in the £1800 price tag, the adaptor fitting on the focus tube is cheap budget at best.

Also the clamp rings on the current batch of telescopes will NOT hold the weight scope by that I mean they spin freely on the tube, why this wasn’t picked up before they left the factory by a simple Quality Control inspection beggars belief.

I replaced them with a set of More-Blue rings and now all is secure.

I swapped the cheap adaptor for a Baader Click lock which is excellent, I also purchased a William Optics dielectric, I also purchased my first Baader Morpheus EP a 12.5mm which is amazing, when available I will also buy the 9mm & 17.5mm.

The massive dew shield which can be unscrewed has for some reason an aluminum end cover, it does have a felt inner protective sleeve but it is inset from the edge of the rim so had taken some paint of the dew shield on arrival.

I rolled some electrical insulation tape around the edge to allow future protection.

Setting up the telescope isn’t too difficult, I’m lucky in being able to walk out of the conservatory double doors straight on to our patio which is were we will be viewing from, Tripod and mount first, I have an Altair Saber Mount sat on top of the Sky Watcher EQ6 tripod which is excellent and more than capable to hold the 150ED.

Holding the scope in my arms it easily rolls into the Vixen dovetail clamp, tightening the screws is an easy task, I have ordered a Losmandy Dovetail Bar which will give a larger and more rigid clamping area.

I also purchased the Geoptic padded bag which makes moving the telescope around so much easier, it is well padded and  fit's the scope perfectly but you do have to remove the diagnol.

Using a Bahtinov mask finding focus was easy, the dual speed focuser being positive with no slippage and a has a god positive feel to it.

Typical I didn’t have long before the clouds moved in so I snapped of a few photos of the moon using my standard Canon 60D.

I processed the pictures in Photoshop C6 merging 3 images together, the other photo is as it came, the most noticeable being there is no Chromatic Aberration which I was well impressed with.

So for the first time setting up despite it’s weight it all went straight forward, sits nicely balanced on the Altair Sabre mount and is so easy to move around, I have ordered the extension tube to lift the whole scope clear of the tripod legs and to prevent me having to crawl on my hands & knees when getting close to the Zenith.

 

 

 

 

 

17th May1.jpg

17th Mayscripts.jpg

I appreciate this is an old post, but I was wondering what your opinion of this scope is after a year?

Or does anyone else have any thoughts?

I am considering one for galaxy imaging as it is a lot cheaper than a 130 - 140mm triplet and will cool quicker. I have an RC8 but the idea of a no maintenance refractor does appeal.

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I've had my ED 150 Pro a few weeks now and have no issues with any of the mechanical fittings. SW must have made some improvements.  It is a big scope but not as heavy as it looks.  Works well on an EQ 6, but better on the AZ-EQ6 which is more sturdy.  So far I have only used it to view and image the moon and the results are really impressive.  I also intent to use it for medium angle deep sky imaging, but at the moment the skies are just not dark enough.  My other SW ED's (72, 80 and 120) all have no trouble covering a full frame sensor using a decent field flattener (TS 2 or 2.5), so I have no doubt that this 150 ED will do so as well.  Optically it appears to be noticeably superior to the SW 120 Equinox, and I have yet to see any traces of false colour - at least on the moon.

Originally I wanted an Esprit, but this scope is so good for 1/3 the price, that I am glad I made the choice to go for the 150 ED.

Hope this helps.

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