Skywatcher Evostar 90/660 AZ Pronto

[wibblefish]

Skywatcher Evostar 90/660 AZ Pronto

 

Introduction:

 

I purchased this telescope in Nov 2020 after a pandemic desire for a new hobby got me interested in Astronomy. I had looked at the Starquest 102mc but that was not available at the time so I settled on the Evostar primarily as it was available. It was a little bit of a punt since the only reviews for it covered the longer 90/1000 version of the telescope.

 

As I have now upgraded to a new refractor and I’ve seen this mentioned a few times recently in the beginners section I thought I would write a quick review. Though a note of caution I am still a beginner so it is just with mu novice perceptions please read up more or ask questions of more experienced members if you are considering telescope purchases to make sure they are right for what you want!

 

Package / Contents:

 

The telescope is fairly well packed and is relatively light even boxed.

 

There isn’t much in the way of guidance for putting it together but it is fairly intuitive even for a novice like myself.

 

Package contents:

 

Aluminium tripod

Tray for tripod

OTA

Red dot finder

AZ Pronto mount head

Slow-mo cables

25mm eyepiece

10mm eyepiece

1.25” mirror diagonal

 

The tripod is sturdy enough but you can improve its rigidity further by using the provided tray to support the tripod spreader and ensuring you tighten all the screws / bolts.

Later when I got heavy eyepeices the telescope was able to be rebalanced easily due to it being in tube rings which was an advantage. I also ended up improving the tripod stability and prevent overbalance somewhat by adding ankle weights above the tray on the legs but that is not needed unless you add heavier eyepieces like I did.

 

Telescope Impressions:

 

The telescope is a nice lightweight setup which puts this firmly in what is termed “grab and go”. I ended up keeping it permanently setup in my garage and could easily carry it through two doorways to my garden without having to close up the tripod (admittedly I had to wiggle it through the doors but its so light thats easy!).

 

As a refractor its pretty much ready to go as soon as it is outside though you will see more as your eyes adapt over the first 30 mins or so. Its great to throw our for 10 minutes to see the moon / planets as well as longer sessions!

 

The supplied eyepieces are ok though they suffer from a lack of eye relief. Also do note you can roll up the rubber around the eyepeice to help with this (I didn’t realise at first!). The 25mm is better than the 10mm which is likely due to the eyepiece itself and the refractor being strong at wide field. I did eventually upgrade to BST Starguiders which are fabulous but heavy which caused me some balance issues as the scope is so lightweight.

 

The AZ Pronto is great, nice and smooth with good clutches and slow motion. The only issue I had was later when adding heavier eyepieces that the clutches started to slip and overbalance aiming towards targets high up but that would be less of an issue with lighter eyepeices. 

 

The supplied red dot finder is fine and easy to calibrate during the day but I found it a bit of a faff. The telescope doesn’t really need much of a finder anyway since you can aim down the barrel. I did eventually replace it with a Rigel Quikfinder which was a massive upgrade.

 

As a classic achromatic refractor the telescope suffers from a degree of false colour around brighter targets. I only really had issues on the brighter stars and on the planets, the moon seemed fine particularly with a moonglow filter. I did eventually spend some extra on a Baader Semi-Apo filter which I felt nullified most of it but it is fairly subjective. 

 

There is also some softening towards the very edge of the view where you will see some elongated stars as well but again I didn’t find this to obtrusive for normal viewing but the sharpest part is the middle 80% - 90% of the view.

 

What can I see:

 

As a refractor this telescope is an excellent wide field performer and it excels with star clusters and brighter targets. 

 

It offers excellent moongazing and I observed good detail with minimal colour fringing.

 

I was pleasantly surprised that there was enough detail to make out the ring of Saturn and was able to make out some banding on Jupiter and faint contrast patches on Mars. 

 

It is limited in aperture which means it will struggle with faint deep sky objects and as it cannot take high magnification it can struggle with some double stars. 

 

Please be aware most of the observations below were not made with the stock eyepeices.

 

My observations over the last year should hopefully give you an idea of what might be possible though your milage may vary. I did try a number of targets and some were just to hard to find / make out but wether that was the scope, my location (light polluted bortle 5) or just my inexperience I couldn’t say for sure.
 

I did try a bit of everything and the telescope performed beyond expectations at times but it is limited in the ways noted above.

 

Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn

Orion Nebula, amazing, 4 star and beautiful nebula spreading out

Pleiades Cluster, great views, bright

Andromeda Galaxy, diffuse, non-detailed grey cloud

M37 / 36 / 38 - star clusters, one hazy with bright core

NGC1746, cluster in Taurus

Beehive cluster, amazing number of stars!

Castor, split at 6mm

Almach, split at 6mm

Bet-Mon, split x2 at 12mm, x3 at 6mm

Zeta canceri, split at 18mm

119 Taurus, amazing ruby star

Perseus double cluster, amazing 18mm best view

M3, small fuzzy globular unresolved

M53, globular cluster, unresolved grey fuzz patch

Leo Triplet, galaxies, very dim and only visible with averted vision as dim patch

M13, globular, almost resolvable but mostly diffuse large patch

M57, ring nebula, faint but discernible with averted vision at high mag

M15

M2

Edited November 13, 2021 by wibblefish

[JBadger]

Thanks for this. Considering one of these (or the longer version) for eldest daughter's Christmas present. 

[Lee_P]

Nice review! I've used this telescope as well, and think that it's an excellent choice for beginners. Here it is set up at Stonehenge for a stargazing event I was running:

[Kenneth Spackman]

I have had this scope for over twelve months and use in partnership with a maksutov 127mm telescope. This is a brilliant little scope as well as the pronto tripod and mount. I use the slokey x2 aberration free Barlow and suffer no false colours whats so ever on double stars or planets. I have observed much as wiblefish but might add that I get great views of jupiter , mars and saturn and the moon views are stunning. I can take this scope up to 220x  with a 6mm 66 degree eyepiece before running out of focus. All in all, a great little scope with wide views.