Sky-Watcher Star Discovery 150

[Adamito]

Is the Sky-Watcher Star Discovery 150 telescope a good choice as the first telescope for observing the sun, moon and planets of the solar system?

[Les Ewan]

I would say yes. Even fully assembled it can be carried about the garden without much difficulty which for its sturdyness and its solid build quality of the tripod and mount its surprisingly portable.

The goto and tracking is very accurate although I struggled with the WIFI and found this aspect of it very frustrating. It has a Synscan hand controller port and as soon as I started using a hand controller (luckily I had a spare) all my troubles melted away.

The the main drawback is its short focal length (f5) so high power eyepieces are needed to be used for the planets. A bit annoying is the focuser is a bit stiff and need to use both wheels at once for precise focusing.

I use a DSLR for astrophotography and found theres not enough in focus for a DSLR however with a X2 Barlow focus is possible and even with the doubling the fl to f10 it gives  a remarkably wide field of view for DSLR imaging (as seen with the image I've included of the full Moon).

Point to note the OTA has no primary collimation adjusters and when I got mine the alignment was out,however the secondary adjusters seem to do the job by themselves OK.

So for the price I would say its worth it ,its great fun to use so that says a lot.😎

If you want to keep things simple and not in the mood for technology at low powers and with the large widefield view you dont even need to use the drive. The large altitude clutch wheel is a pleasure to use ,however the azimuth motion manually is a bit on the stiff side.

I've not used mine for solar but with a full aperture filter I cant see why it shouldnt give good results.

Hope this is helpfull.

[Zermelo]

I agree, it's a good choice.
You will probably want to spend a bit more to upgrade the eyepieces, but it will take some magnification when conditions allow. The focuser is rudimentary, but usable. The mirror is the same 6" that SW use in all their scopes. I never had a problem with collimation.

[Adamito]

@Les Ewan @Zermelo 

Thank you for your help. What eyepieces do you recommend buying for this telescope?

 

I will add that I am talking about observations of the planets of the solar system. 

So as to achieve the best possible visual effect

Edited May 12 by Adamito

[Les Ewan]

Eyepieces are largely a matter of taste ,personally I dont like high power eyepieces I prefer mid power eyepieces and use them with a good quality X2 barlow. If I didnt already have a eyepiece collection I'd go for a Skywatcher achromatic X 2 Balow  and 2 middle price range  Skywatcher 20mm and 10mm plossls. This will give powers between 35X-150X,excluding the supplied 25mm MA that gives 30X. 

Thats my just my opinion others might think I'm talking balony but I'm not overly keen on going over 1X per mm even though  its half that usually quoted for the maximum in good seeing conditions.

 

Edited May 12 by Les Ewan

[kev]

For what it’s worth, i agree with you about medium fl eyepieces. The only difference i do is i use a tele-view power-mate.  

[Zermelo]

Yes, a Barlow is a good call, as it will give you two for one on any eyepieces you get.

The 25mm stock eyepiece is usually not so bad, replacing the 10mm is usually more worthwhile. Possibly consider one of these :

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/ursa-major-eyepieces/ursa-major-fmc-flatfield-eyepiece-105mm.html

and a x2 Barlow would give you 5mm, around x250 for planets.

 

[Gfamily]

The Svbony 7-21mm zoom eyepiece is a decent performer, and gives you a range of powers at relatively low cost.