Hi
As most know i brought a SkyWatcher 120mm F5 Refractor not long ago.
A report
Well the scope I brought from Andrews at $614.
Good price. Mount Az3 Alt/ Az. All looks nice and is very light.
So could this be my grab and go scope i was looking for and be happy with the views
Remember I have a 10" LX200.
Mite as well throw the 120mm in the deep end. Put it up against a Tele Vue 101 APO and the mighty Takahashi FS128,
(one of the best scopes I have ever used
)
Could the 120 keep up
a quick answer yes on DSO
But no on the Planets.
I used many eyepieces, 12mm Nagler, 8.8mm UWA.
Panoptic 22mm(with and without UHC filter) 20mm Nagler type 5
5mm and 7.5mm Takahashi LE's and 3 mm Radian and 14mm UWA.
All these were used in all scopes. Objects tested on Saturn Jupiter, Moon. Eta Carina Nebula NGC 5139. M104.
Now the big FS128 won hands down on everything as expected.
But the test was on the 120mm Skywatcher.
This scope did well better than we thought. On the Planets you could see the Rings and some clouds on Saturn but the image was never really sharp. Jupiter was ok Eq belts seen but small image. Views are better with some color filters and yes false was presant. But not that bad.
The Moon was about the same because the Moon is so bright detail is easy to see. Color yes but again not that bad.
Both Apo's are better
If the Apo's are 100% the 120 was around 60%. So it was ok but not a real Planetary scope.
On DSO it was a lot better it could see Objects slightly brighter than the 4" but not as good as the 5".
Stars are sharp for this sort of scope not far behind the Apo's.
%100 for Apo's %90 for the 120.
Eta carina was really nice even with bright Moon. UHC filter in a 22 Pano 2.5Deg field very nice indeed. As good as the 4" maybe even slighly better.
One really needs a dark sky night to get a real feel for this.
But on DSO this scope looks as if it will preform very well.
One needs to remember I used high end eyepieces and I think this made a real diffrence.
Who would buy a $600 scope and then buy $2000 worth of eyepieces to use with it
So as a second scope for those who have some nice eyepieces this scope could be worth a look.
Fornote, i broke the AZ3 mount, poor castings and a end ring broke off in the car. What do you expect for $99
A friend is in the process of beefing this mount up and putting a counter wheight system on it. Big eyepieces and 2"diagonal make the mount to out of balance. I still prefer the Alt/ Az as its more portable
I hope you enjoyed this small review. Happy Easter.
