SingAstro

Looks good! Do check the collimation of the telescope while waiting for clear skies.

No wonder heavy rain today haha..joke.. enjoy with new toy hopefully, skies will clear tonight

Hi Mystiq. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to learn more about your telescope!

Some brief observations so far:

Some play in the focuser which cause the image to shift while focusing. If tripod legs fully extended, can be shaky and can take more than 3 seconds to stabilise the view at high magnification. The short dovetail and single fastening point on the mount may contribute to the potential stability of the scope. (Solution: don't fully extend tripod legs, use vibration suppression pads, lower center of gravity with weights, ...etc). After the view stabilises, the tracking is smooth and does not induce any shakiness to the system.

Smaller screen display on the controller. For my old pair of long-sighted eyes, need to take of my glasses to read the text clearly.

Pointing at certain position in the sky, slightly uncomfortable viewing position due to Newtonian design on dovetail - cannot rotate it to a more comfortable viewing angle if need be compared to a newtonian held by a tube ring system.

Even with the slight miscollimation, Saturn looks sharp. Really impressed with the StarSense auto alignment technology. Thought it would take much longer considering the bright local light pollution at McDonald's at Bishan Park. Definitely better than the Meade LS6's.

GOTO accuracy is good. Almost squealed like a girl when I saw it slew to NGC6231 and positioned it dead center in the FOV in a 20mm eyepiece.

Can support 2-inch eyepieces. Comes with 2-inch adapter. 2 eyepiece securing screws, no brass rings in the focusing unit. Single-speed focuser with nice large knob and rubbery skin.

Last night's session was powered by 8 C batteries. Package comes with nice black pouch for the battery unit.

Nice big collimation thumbscrew knobs for the primary mirror. Collimation screws for the secondary is positioned quite deep into the secondary holder.

Slewing sound level is acceptable to me. Not irritating loud.

The red colour and logo design gives a sexy-cool appeal. Hope it will attract more female amateur astronomers to the hobby.

For the same amount spent, some may think it is "better" to get a bigger aperture, different telescope design, different type of tracking mount ...etc. But better is very subjective. Tracking and ease of fully automatic alignment should come at a price. Faster alignment means able to react to the unpredictable skies faster and thus observing more objects in the long run. Stargazing should be first and foremost ENJOYABLE, not fighting with machines under clear skies.

I am glad Mystiq have done her homework and figure out what she wants BEFORE buying her next telescope. It certainly pays off as she was not confused by the myriad of options available in a retailer store and made the "right" decisions based on her own preferences.

This telescope should be a common sight at Bishan Park in the years to come. Should have more opportunities to do more in-depth review of this nice telescope. Time to buck up our "recruitment" drive at Toa Payoh to attract more cool telescopes.

Good first attempts! If not for the haze and moving high clouds, the telescope will be able to get better focus and a better shot. Good practice for the main Super Moon event tonight!

Thanks for the review! I had one of the earlier generation goto mounts and the accuracy was only so so. And it would have been a nice and light grab-and-go if not for the fact that it was struggling when I put my Orion ED80mm on it. But from your review, I think they may have improved the mechanical drive.

Airconvent wrote:Thanks for the review! I had one of the earlier generation goto mounts and the accuracy was only so so. And it would have been a nice and light grab-and-go if not for the fact that it was struggling when I put my Orion ED80mm on it. But from your review, I think they may have improved the mechanical drive.

Thanks! Weather permitting, we *may* see this telescope in action tonight at Bishan Park for Super Moon event. Can SkyProdigy still auto self-align in hazy star-less sky?

Nice shots! Good to know it has manual alignment option. Glad this telescope has her first taste of sidewalk astronomy.

Nice effort! Keep shooting!

mystiq: nice! rare relatively clear sky after a few overcast nights..