Sky Watcher Sky-Watcher EvoStar 72 APO Doublet Refractor – Compact and Portable Optical Tube for Affordable Astrophotography and Visual Astronomy (S11180)

Very crisp image. High quality optics and great value fir beginners, although you will need to buy an eyepiece and a tracker mount is highly advised. Sky-Watcher has a good one but it will run you another few hundred bucks. Anyway, I saw better images on this scope than on my old 8” Schmidt Cassegrain from the 80s. The images were crisp all around and it is lightweight enough to more or less carry easily around in the car for outdoorsy trips.My first astrophoto taken with this scope is attached (Orion nebula). This was from 31 photos, about 30 seconds ea. and roughly 100 to 5000 ISO at full aperture taken on a Sky-watcher 72mm ED doublet f/5.8, 420mm focal ratio APO refractor telescope, with a Canon EOS 5D Mk III camera (with Orion field flattener and Optolong L-Enhance filter) stacked with DSS software and post-processed in Photoshop. Still a noisy image but nice for being quite literally my first shot at at, not to mention the almost full moon and plenty of light pollution from the city.

This is a great little refractor! I bought it primarily for astrophotography. I have it paired with a ZWO ASI224 camera using ASIAir Pro. The ASI224 is an inexpensive planetary camera, but I use it primarily for taking pictures of DSO’s. I’m able to get decent pictures in about 3-5 minutes from a light polluted suburban setting using EAA (electronic assisted astrophotography).I primarily have the scope mounted on my Celestron AVX German EQ. It’s also light enough to mount on my SkyWatcher GTI with a German EQ wedge. The whole setup weighs less than 25 lbs. for easy portability.I also do visual observing simultaneously using a flip mirror diagonal, so I don’t need to swap the camera with an eyepiece. I should mention that this telescope does not come with a diagonal, eyepiece, or finderscope.Overall I’m very happy with this scope, and would recommend it to anyone interested in doing astrophotograhy without spending a lot of money.

nice 72mm scope im peased with the optics

The 72mm sky-watcher evostar is a good small refractor, really good little apo. Crisp and neat images. Light weight, and beautiful design, but it has its downside(s). First not sure what glasses are used and its price is really high for this size and quality. There are better and cheaper choices in the 80mm, F/7, ED using FKs glasses (at least you know what glass is being used and what you paying for). These alternatives come with the 2" to 1.25" reductor (the evostar does not include any accessory). These alternatives are at least 60 dlls cheaper. Given its low aperture it takes quite a bit of time to get an image clear as good as an 80 F/6 or a 102mm F/5. But it performs well, no complains there, just overpriced for its size and lack of accessories. Love it if I remove the price tag. It shows horrible elongated stars at the edges. The images have to be cropped by almost 50%. It is a mixed review for me because it is sleek and has good crisp middle and center of the images but horrible to its edges.

This is a great compact scope for travel or quick setup in the yard. Very sharp with very good color correction even through it's only a doublet. Focuser is smooth but a bit stiff (actually a good thing for heavy eyepieces or camera). The fine focus control is really nice. It's a bit heavier than other scopes of this size. This is my 4th SkyWatcher product (Esprit 150 EDT telescope, Star Adventurer tracker, and EvoGuide 50). All but the EvoGuide had some defect and needed to be exchanged. I really like their equipment, but recommend that you buy from someplace that has a generous and easy return/exchange policy like Amazon. I'm still trying to get a problem with the Star Adventurer sorted out with Oceanside Photo and SkyWatcher after almost 2 weeks - should have ordered from Amazon.

I put this on a Vixen SD115 apo refractor, and to be quite honest, this little one can give it a run for its money. Mars is clearly defined, with about the same chromatic aberation as the Vixen. Not quite as much detail of course, but not far off. Stars show a perfect airy diffraction pattern.And the focuser holds itself in place without adjusting any hold screws. The fine focuser works well too. There is not much distance to the focuser - I had to put in a 2" extension ring to use my televue 55mm eyepiece, but all smaller eyepieces worked with just a simple 1-1/4" adapter.On the whole I am more impressed that I expected, and I had great expectations to start with.One thing I hate is the screw-in lens cap - I fiddle endlessly to put it on, and it crosses the threads very easily. But I don't feel it needs a point off for 1 minute of fuss at the end of a night.Seriously thinking about getting a bigger Sky Watcher scope one day.

The telescope came packed very good with the carrying case. The ad did mention an 2 to 1.25 inch adapter which was said to be included but not with the telescope. All other ads never had the 2 to 1.25inch adapter included. It would be nice if they corrected the ad to show no 2 to 1.25inch adapter.

The telescope I received just included the optical tube - with no focuser. Completely unusable.In addition, when I tried to call I got put on hold forever. Never still able to talk to anyone about the missing vital piece.Do not buy ANYTHING from this seller.