Reviews

Skywatcher Startravel 120mm f/5 Refractor      

First thing that impressed me, after the OTA colour, was how smooth everything moves. Not sure if that's a compliment for the mountings or an indication of just how crude the gubbings are on the Tal 2m we have. Perhaps the latter!! It was persistently pouring when it was all set up so I aimed it through the window at some trees to test near focus for my terrestrial viewing......about 35ft. Perfect for what I want!   Next job was to align the finder. It's a red dot finder and I was a little sceptical at first but I used the neighbouring farmer’s chimney as a guide and setting it up was purely a doddle.

Anyway.......tonight, I've decided I must be blessed because the cloud broke for an hour or so and I took the opportunity to have a play. First of all, the weight of the telescope....After trying to lug around a Tal 2m I can tell you this baby is a lightweight!! I can carry it outside fully assembled no problem. Although I keep knocking the cover off the polar scope.....but just a slight glitch!   First thing I noticed when viewing is just how simple it is to use the red dot finder. As nothing is magnified there are no extra stars appearing in the finder scope to confuse me. It really is point it, see the red dot and voila.....slap bang in centre of field! Even with a 7.5mm eyepiece! I'm truly happy with that!

I looked at Andromeda first. The 25mm plossl that came with it was surprisingly good. Been advised previously by another member at our astro society that the Tal 25mm plossl we have is good, but this has a very flat wide field of vision and more generous eye relief to the Tal. The images of Andromeda, I would say, surpass the viewing we have through our Tal 6" reflector! That's one star for the Skywatcher. Next, double cluster in perseus! Again, fantastic, two stars now! Next, Mars......the image was ok....but I got my first experience of chromatic aberration. Not pretty. Will definately need a Minus Violet filter. Although I could still see some detail and the yellow filter I used did help. Finally, as cloud was quickly filling the sky I turned to Albireo. Such a stunner through the Tal, wasn't sure how the refractor would handle the colour and splitting it....but it did, great! At 25mm. 12.5mm, 10mm and with x2 Barlow to effective 5mm the gold and blue stars were clearly separate and colour perfect. My favourite double star. That gives my new Skywatcher a well deserved third star from me!

So all in all, for a first test....I am VERY suitably impressed. The slow motions on it are very VERY smooth, got a level and polar scope as standard too.  Don't regret buying it.....well maybe a little. Hubby is green with envy and I fear that I may not get to use it much without beating him out of the way!!   

Addendum……It gets better on my second viewing session..... It's just so easy to find things with this red dot finder...who needs Go-to! I had a planisphere in one hand and thats all I needed to find things. Looked at it to see where Orion Nebula was......pointed finder to it.....and there it was!!! Perfect....so easy! Now I know just what a pain the Tal was. We never had much success because we couldn't line the finder up no matter how hard we tried and the slow motion was hopeless and crude next to this mount. Take Jupiter......put the red dot over it...thought I'd be clever and put x2 Barlow and 10mm plossl in.....I couldn't believe it when the planet was there in all it's glory slap bang in the middle of the field of vision. Could see the main cloud belts and the four moons quite clearly. Chromatic aberattion not as bad I thought it would be on Jupiter but nevertheless present to some degree. As it was getting light I could easily tell where Saturn was so I thought I'd have a quick look......and there she was! Could make out the cassini division too!!

I don't understand why I can see so much better than I could with the Tal as I would have thought it would outperform this little refractor on light grasp if nothing else. I am a little confused as to why they market the Startravel 120 as a planetary and lunar scope only as the DSO I've viewed on my first sessions  were impressive enough to merit using it for this purpose. The cradle rings have a piggy back camera bush on them which is an added bonus.....another nail in the coffin for hubby's scope....he's having tantrums over mine! 

There's just one thing I can't really do on my own and that is extend the tripod legs while it's all assembled. But it was only a slight negative point to a great evening and now mornings viewing. Who cares if you have to bend over.......I was on a box sometimes with the Tal so it makes a change to bend down not up!  Another thing to get used to is the fact that I don't have to make allowances for inverted images. Keep going to move scope the wrong way as I am used to tracking upside down with a reflector, mirror imaging is not so noticeable astro wise but may bug me terrestrially, may invest in a corrector for daytime viewing....wouldn't bother at night, not worth losing light over

Finally, a second addendum…..I am now in receipt of my Sirius MV1 minus violet filter. I decided to use it directly in the star diagonal so that I don’t have to keep unscrewing it and putting it on different eyepieces depending on what I am viewing. Although I can still see a small amount of false colour on Jupiter at maximum magnifications, at lower powers it has disappeared. I would recommend purchasing a minus violet filter if you suffer this annoying problem with your scope.

Thank you for taking the time to read my review of the Skywatcher Startravel 120mm

Clare Richardson