Thinking of Buying a Skywatcher Evostar 120

[John P]

Evening all.

First of all, I hope the title isn't too misleading. I am thinking of buying this particular telescope, but it would be in a few months time as I need to save up for it. FLO are currently advertising it at £331.91, which I am happy to pay if it will:

Show bands and the GRS on Jupiter

Saturn's rings and Cassini division

Any sort of detail on Mars

I know a lot of people will say to go for a Dob, but to be honest I am terrified at the thought of collimating, whereas I think I am correct in assuming a refractor will not need so much attention. A refractor will probably get more use by myself if it's relatively easy to grab and go. Also (I think?) a refractor will offer a sharper view of planets.

The area I live in suffers from terrible light pollution, so faint DSO's are not a realistic expectation. I don't drive, so trips to a dark sky site will be better suited for my 15x70 bins.

So, does anyone have any experience of this 'scope that they can share? All info, good and bad, gratefully received

[GazOC]

Yes, it'll show all 3 of those things John. It won't give shaper views of the planets than the Dob though because of the false colour present in that design of scope.

You're right the refractor is lower maintenance than the Dob but collimating reall is nothing too worry about, once you get the hang of it its a 30 second job most nights.

[E621Keith]

Yes, it will show all of those. I had an earlier version without the adjustable lens cell. It was a joy to use. The optics was sharp when stopped down to f20 using the supplied cap. At full aperture, the results was ok. False colour was visible, but usually the atmospheric condition does more to degrade the image than the chromatic aberration. btw, the Jupiter on my avatar was taken through that scope. It's in black and white to hide the purple halo around it, but otherwise the scope can give some good result.

The focuser wasn't very good at first, it was stiff and sticky. Until I dismantled it and gave it a clean, it's now much better. I don't know if they still use the infamous Synta glue on the new evostar, if they do, make sure to get rid of it.

Finally, the scope is long and heavy, so it would strain the mount more than other types of scope. Personally, I think my EQ5 is marginal at best, so I'd avoid the EQ3-2 option.

[smoggy]

Once you have collimated once you will be able to do it fine again and again and again. You're bound to have an astro society near-ish you who could show you how its done if you drop them an email asking if you can come to one of their sessions. Please don't let collimation put you off, it would be such a shame if that were the case.

[Mr Spock]

I have the older Helios version. They are sharp and show lots of detail, but there is the chromatic abberation problem. A good filter helps and makes a significant improvement.

The 120 is suprisingly good on DSOs. The Orion neb looks quite extended.

It is a big scope though, the EQ3-2 mine came on is too flimsy. I use the EQ3-2 with an ED80 for low powers and put the 120 on an EQ6 Pro...

[CGolder]

the 102 version is also pretty good, for your targets it might be worth looking at. its the same length but suffers less on false colour.

The other option is a Makstov, no collimation (unless given a huge jolt, same as a frac) and will perform better on planets as they are cheaper per inch and have no false colour. they do have issues with Dew and need some cooldown. it depends on your storage and observing pattens to if it would suit.

Like this Maksutov - Skywatcher Skymax 127 (EQ3-2)

whatever you get you are looking at some great scopes good luck