That New Quattro 150P - What's it like?

[Skyline]

Well, let's start with the appearance first. I was initially thinking to invest in one of those GSO variants but did not take a liking to the primary mirror collimation design at the rear of the scope. I did notice this scope at the time when I was buying my Evolux 62ED but held back a little bit. As, I was also wanting to replace the 130PDS with something faster than f5 but with a similar focal length. I also do own a Celestron OMNIXLT150 f5 Reflector and the StarBright XLT coatings are wonderful.

What appealed to me was a Modified Aplanatic Coma Corrector was included with a reducing factor of x0.9, f/4 becomes f/3.5 at the focal length from 600mm to 518mm and one element is of an ED element.

I have in the past owned a couple of f4 Quattro's one being the Carbon Fibre 8" which is no longer available. The scope being F4 you would expect the mechanics of the telescope and the mirror cells to be well made and stable, especially when temperature changes happen throughout the night.

Also, I had read from the Skywatcher USA website the mirrors offer "Parabolic borosilicate mirrors utilizing Sky-Watcher’s proprietary Radiant ™ Aluminum Quartz (RAQ™) coatings designed for imaging with 94% reflectivity". What is that I do not know? Is it better than the coatings of my previous 130PDS? or better then StarBright  XLT coatings on my XLT reflector I don't know.

My collimation tools are a TS 2" Concenter sight tube and flo's premium chesire. Unfortunately, a laser does not cut it nor has it for a long time for me. I have found this method of collimation to be reliable then buying laser tech. The secondary size is 64mm wide and central obstruction is 42% or 18% of area. The rear of the primary mirror is exposed, if you find the need you need to cover it, a simple black showering covering cap from the local pound shop would do the trick.

On the European models the stock quattro dual speed focusers are included with the two locking knobs without any eyepieces. On the USA versions they are equipped with stock Dual Speed focusers with an eyepiece from what I am hearing.

In relation to some mods needed, would be a slightly longer dovetail for better balancing, replacing the focuser collar as it introduces tilt (as seen in image) with just having two thumbscrews and a black covering cap for the rear of the primary mirror.

The scope itself is shorter than the 130PDS and stubbier weighing around 6kg with tube rings and dovetail fitted. Overall, it is a nice finish and made well.

Now for the eye candy....

 

I did manage to get a short session last night, seeing was good initially then turned fair, after spending over 1 hour fixing an issue I had with my capturing software, I only managed to grab 30mins worth of data on double cluster, I can say for sure I found the tightness of the stars a lot better and cleaner compared to my 130PDS and just with a short amount of data, the star colour is looking good and better defined. The following shot was taken without calibration files on a 600D.

 

Edited October 7, 2022 by Skyline

[alacant]

1 hour ago, Skyline said:

GSO variants but did not take a liking to the primary mirror collimation design

Not so much the primary mirror, rather the silly backfocus; more that half the focal length comes after the secondary. Imagine trying to hold a camera, no matter how light at this distance from the tube, let alone balance the same!

Hopefully the sw doesn't have this problem.

Yours is looking promising. Good luck and do report back.

 

[RolandKol]

I am sitting on the fence, - thinking to upgrade my 130PDS to 8 or 10",

Quatro is on the list, but the only thing I afraid is Focuser... PDS had a such a cheap, wobbly and unreliable one, I guess Skywatcher has not upgraded much on Quatro also as the price is kinda cheap anyway.... You wrote, you had few Quatros, - any comments about their focusers?

[Skyline]

I can tell you the Quattro is focuser heavy 2 locking knobs and zero shift or at least I have not noticed. I would say they are better than the standard dual speed skywatcher focusers, but if you want creme de la creme expect to pay more. I am currently using a DSLR, I cannot comment on if you were using a filter wheel as well and nor does the draw tube intrude into the light path as the 130PDS is prone to do.

I was out last night dealing with the Ekos problems I was having after I updated the program. I do seriously love how Ekos is setup, but there seems always a problem with it after you update it, I think I will just defer back to windows - even though I do not want to.

I have managed the balance better of the scope by using a 11" ADM Dovetail, but due to the above problems could not get any images off.

@RolandKol What focusers would you expect on Skywatcher Offerings on 8" and 10" Newts? If you follow that path.

[RolandKol]

3 hours ago, Skyline said:

I can tell you the Quattro is focuser heavy 2 locking knobs and zero shift or at least I have not noticed. I would say they are better than the standard dual speed skywatcher focusers, but if you want creme de la creme expect to pay more. I am currently using a DSLR, I cannot comment on if you were using a filter wheel as well and nor does the draw tube intrude into the light path as the 130PDS is prone to do.

I was out last night dealing with the Ekos problems I was having after I updated the program. I do seriously love how Ekos is setup, but there seems always a problem with it after you update it, I think I will just defer back to windows - even though I do not want to.

I have managed the balance better of the scope by using a 11" ADM Dovetail, but due to the above problems could not get any images off.

@RolandKol What focusers would you expect on Skywatcher Offerings on 8" and 10" Newts? If you follow that path.

I quit ekos.. sadly ..

I used raspberry pi for astro for quite a while.

Ended up back on win10+Nina =no headache.

As per setup, l am on Asi1600+EFW(7)+Zwo EAF.

From pics l kinda noticed Quattro has a monorail or something similar in the focuser... Need a bit more investigation if it's able to carry my toys.

I am not very bright in this field, but l look for scope which wouldn't need any upgrades or tinkering, especially for focuser.

I played quite a lot with PDS Time to settle down

Edited October 9, 2022 by RolandKol

[Skyline]

I do fully understand, ideally you want something you will not need to fiddle with too much. I used Ekos quite a while on Ubuntu on a Mele PC, it worked well until recent upgrade with ekos then after that everything started to go wrong. I will look into NINA or go back and use Stellarium and backyardeos again.

Maybe @RolandKol look into the TS range of premium newts or move onto ed refractors.

However I will update this thread as I progress.

Edited October 9, 2022 by Skyline

[Skyline]

Nearly a year is approaching, since buying this scope, apologies to everyone who read this short review and was expecting me to feed back much sooner.

Due to a very busy year due to a house move and personal/work commitments, I was only able to get out on a few occasions, but not enough to warrant any proper imaging with the scope.

However since purchasing a new cooled camera, I have been using the scope more often lately.

Taken with a SVBONY SV405CC Camera inconjuction with the SVBONY SV220 Dual Band Filter I imaged the Veil Nebula a couple of nights ago. A quick process as I am playing with data of  36mins and some darks at f/3.5, I hope you like?

 

Edited August 12, 2023 by Skyline

[Ratlet]

That's a nice image.  Stars are looking good.  I'm also trucking with the sv220.  Been very impressed with its performance.  Doesn't seem plagued with bloat like some dual band filters.

[Skyline]

The SV220 is touted to be the L-eXtreme equivalent but priced more reasonable. Some report it as 6nm Ha. But officially it is 7nm.

Edited August 13, 2023 by Skyline

[Ratlet]

44 minutes ago, Skyline said:

The SV220 is touted to be the L-eXtreme equivalent but priced more reasonable. Some report it as 6nm Ha. But officially it is 7nm.

I think the initial prototype was marketed as a 6nm but they opened it up to 7nm.  Not sure if they changed anything in production or just changed the blurb.  As with most of these filters it's pretty difficult to determine exactly for the amatuer and even then there can be large variation even from manufacturers with high quality control.

Great filter though.  Very happy with mine.  I use it instead of an O3 filter for visual and it worked pretty well.

[Whistlin Bob]

Short review it may have been, but it helped me decide to pull the trigger- and I'm very happy with the decision. Hope you don't mind me adding to your thread, but I thought it would be more helpful than starting a new one. 

Interested to know whether your experience matches, this would be my summarised view. The good:

- f3.45 is terrific, really noticeable step up from my f4.5 130pds

- Optics in general are really good.

- I'm impressed with the included coma corrector stars are a good shape to the edges of a 4/3" sensor and no chromatic or spherical aberration to speak of.

- focuser is better than the 130pds too, and can hold a mono asi1600 + filter wheels with no tilt.

The bad:

- chronic light leaks from the bottom (fixed with a shower cap)

- internal reflections galore (fixed with blackboard paint on all non black internal surfaces)

- noticeable diffraction from the mirror clips (fixed with a primary mirror mask)

Others also report huge difficulty in getting the secondary collimated, and staying collimated, but that hasn't been my experience. 

My verdict would be that it's a good scope and with a bit of tinkering (which you shouldn't really have to do) it becomes superb. 

Here's a couple of pics from mine.

 

[Skyline]

8 hours ago, Whistlin Bob said:

Short review it may have been, but it helped me decide to pull the trigger- and I'm very happy with the decision. Hope you don't mind me adding to your thread, but I thought it would be more helpful than starting a new one. 

Interested to know whether your experience matches, this would be my summarised view. The good:

- f3.45 is terrific, really noticeable step up from my f4.5 130pds

- Optics in general are really good.

- I'm impressed with the included coma corrector stars are a good shape to the edges of a 4/3" sensor and no chromatic or spherical aberration to speak of.

- focuser is better than the 130pds too, and can hold a mono asi1600 + filter wheels with no tilt.

The bad:

- chronic light leaks from the bottom (fixed with a shower cap)

- internal reflections galore (fixed with blackboard paint on all non black internal surfaces)

- noticeable diffraction from the mirror clips (fixed with a primary mirror mask)

Others also report huge difficulty in getting the secondary collimated, and staying collimated, but that hasn't been my experience. 

My verdict would be that it's a good scope and with a bit of tinkering (which you shouldn't really have to do) it becomes superb. 

I share your thoughts and you have some wonderful images you have produced with this scope. I believe the Quattro 150P will become another winner like the 130PDS, with the improvements.

Just to add further comments:

- The tube is rigid and and components are pretty stable, however I have not had the opportunity to use the scope in the winter months as yet to comment further.

- The upgrades which are available from  Backyard Universe I have held back on as I do not think it warrants me as yet to change anything I need to. However if i do change something in the near future possibly the CNC machined secondary spider which is offered by them.

There is a carbon fibre tube available, but I cannot see me buying unless the tube temperature fluctuations really are noticeable.

- As mentioned before in my short review and from your experience. You need to cover the rear with a shower cap or in my case I 3d printed a cover which clips into rear mirror cell.

- I have not needed to flock or paint the inner tube, not to say it will not be effective. But not experienced any reflections as such or that I have not noticed.

- Maybe you have noticed the secondary spider assembly seems to be a better improvement over what generally is offered. I always seem to have a problem with slightly twisted vanes but I have found the vanes on this scope a fraction slightly better/stronger, which is a good thing. Maybe to a square secondary holder instead of a circle perhaps?

- Secondary collimation, no problem there as well, once set, hardly need to touch it, same with the primary. If need be a tweak now and again on the primary, but otherwise very stable. Laser collimators  do not cut it for me, nor have they for a while. I use a 2" Concenter Sight Tube for any secondary adjustment and Cheshire Tube for the Primary.

I think people just see its like any fast newt but they are not appreciative that you need to take time in collimation and understand the change of dynamics of a newtonian anything faster then f5, dramatically changes.

The mirror cell is better then the GSO variants and also I have noticed the mirror cell springs are better.

- Newts always need tinkering, a short travel focuser, which the draw tube does not intrude in the light path. So no hacksaw needed. Even the premium newts you will need to tinker to some degree.

- For better balancing definitely upgrade the dovetail, balancing on a HEQ5 Pro I am using a 11" ADM Vixen Dovetail.

Just a few updated thoughts.

[Whistlin Bob]

Good point about the balance- I'd forgotten about that, but I can't quite balance mine properly with the vixen- however it's on a solid old eq6, which is guiding at around 0.6-7 RMS, so I haven't worried about it, but it's not ideal. 

I'm also glad I didn't need a hacksaw on the focuser! 

I guess you're right: fast newts are always going to need a little tweaking- hopefully now it's bedded in, it'll only be small adjustments.

[Skyline]

Another interesting note is the quality improvement of the optics. Don't get me wrong Sky-Watcher has still got to improve on their QC. One thing I did notice, there is no Spherical Aberration appears around the stars, which I noticed on the stars when used with previous Sky-Watcher Newts which I owned. However my Celestron OMNI XLT 150 Reflector does not exhibit any Spherical Aberration as well, I would say the coatings have improved.

[Skyline]

Last nights work: