These photos are more like test shots rather than final images, but the current weather in Poland don’t allow me to spend a full night entirely on one object (as I recommend in my astrophotography for beginners guide), especially when I’m testing a new piece of hardware. Indeed, we used it to take images with our Star Adventurer, and found the whole system quick and easy to set up, a great incentive to invest in the telescope. The inner surface is coated matt black which reduces internal reflections, and during our testing period the optics weren’t dewing up even after a couple of hours of use. SkyWatcher Evostar 72ED is fully capable of this. There is little vignetting, easily correctable in post-processing (I always recommend to take flat frames anyway, check out my astrophotography post-processing routine). SkyWatcher Evostar 72ED with aluminum case. In the past Sky-Watcher, like most manufacturers, went into detail about the glass being used for their scopes’ objective lenses, but the company seems to have changed its policy. Look how small this refractor is. Shooting the January 2019 Total Lunar Eclipse, Solar Imaging in Ha with small scale aperture, deep sky and planetary astrophotography with goto dobsonian and monochrome cmos, Review: Explore Scientific “Essential Series” ED80, Samyang 800mm Lens Review: A Night & Day Companion, Celestron CGX Equatorial Mount: Unboxing, Setup, & First Impressions, A Newbie’s Impression of the Astrophysics 92mm Stowaway (2018 version), Hutech/Canon Performance-Enhanced Digital SLR Cameras, Omegon Dobson telescope Push+ mini N 150/750 Pro, Light Pollution Suppression (LPS) Filters. Type: apochromatic refractor (2-element ED lens with MHC Multi-Coating)Aperture: 72mmFocal length: 420mmFocal ratio: f/5.8Focuser: dual-speed (1:10) 2” CrayfordTube weight: 4.3 pounds (1,96 kg). It’s more like a telephoto lens than a telescope. Overall, I'm more than happy with my purchase, and this Sky-Watcher Evostar 72ED telescope will serve me well in my astrophotography journey. Be the first to review “EVOSTAR 72ED REFRACTOR” Cancel reply. This telescope is not straight-from-the-box-ready neither for stargazing nor astrophotography. We took a selection of images using our Star Adventurer tracking mount, imaging M44 with 13×30-second exposures for a satisfying image. The dew shield is of the fixed variety but can be taken off for lens cleaning. The latter allows for heavy equipment such as large cameras to be attached and locked, so the focus doesn’t slip during imaging. So let’s take a look at Sky-Watcher’s latest offering in this area – the Evostar 72ED DS-Pro. Great for trips, it easily fits in hand luggage. I paired this refractor with a William Optics 1:1 field flattener (a suggested flattener by my supplier, no focal length change), and an Orion SkyGlow Imaging filter (light pollution killer). Indeed, we used it to take images with our Star Adventurer, and found the whole system quick and easy to set up, a great incentive to invest in the telescope. As for the time of writing this (November 2018), I’m just starting to use this telescope. Small apo class refractors such as the original Equinox 80ED used to be quite heavy for their size but the latest small scopes from Sky-Watcher and other manufacturers have brought the weight down considerably and the 72ED DS-Pro is no exception. So smooth and precise. Let’s find out! We used our own eyepieces which included 26mm, 10mm and 6.4mm 1.25-inch fit along with our Sky-Watcher 28mm and Ethos 21mm 2-inch eyepieces. Looking for a multitasking scope that’s as good for viewing as for imaging? I just bought my first real telescope – the SkyWatcher Evostar 72ED! The price is excellent, the build quality is fantastic, and the mobility of this instrument is unbeatable. It can be locked for secure storage. Astro Publishing Ltd, registered as a limited company in England and Wales under company number: 12023963. The supplied case is solid. SkyWatcher Evostar 72ED APO refractor telescope. As for now, I consider this refractor as a fantastic beginner astrophotography telescope due to its lightweight, wide field of view (mount forgiving), and a very affordable price. On another night, using our AZ-EQ6 mount, we imaged M81 and 82, using 12×120-second exposures showing how wide the view was. The optical tube weighs less than your average Chihuahua, just 1,955g. I have never had such sharp pictures before using lenses without micro focusers. There are keys included, so you can safely secure your astrophotography gear. Plus, it’s only 42cm long, so it’s a very short tube system, and the dew shield is removable, all of which adds up to a great get-up-and-go-anywhere telescope, perfect for taking on holiday for viewing and imaging under far-flung dark skies. Microfocuser works perfectly. I will update this review in the future, so if you are interested in a long-term review of the SkyWatcher Evostar 72ED, subscribe to my astrophotography newsletter to get notified about the update (and grab a free eBook)! An interior of the case. Be aware, though, it doesn’t come with an eyepiece, finderscope or star diagonal – great if you own them already as it keeps the cost of the 72ED down, but if you don’t, it’s something to factor in to your buying decision. So how well the SkyWatcher Evostar 72ED telescope fits my needs? Don’t judge this scope by those pictures finally; better ones are coming in the future. One thing to note: the standard 9mm Sky-Watcher 1.25-inch fit eyepiece often supplied with many of the company’s scopes would not come to focus but we had plenty of other options and all our other eyepieces focused fine. The objective lens has Sky-Watcher’s Metallic High-Transmission Coatings on all optical surfaces for good control of colour correction, giving a greenish hue to the front surfaces. - The Star Adventurer comes equipped at an ST4 guide port to use with an auto-guider. All below pictures were tracked with Fornax Lightrack II on the dedicated wedge, unguided. Inside is plenty of room and cut-outs for other equipment such as diagonals and eyepieces. Choose your book when you subscribe to BBC Sky at Night Magazine today! We found we had to use a spare extender when we tried to attach our DSLR, otherwise we couldn’t achieve focus. It seemed a better option, as I do have a couple of rather heavy lenses. SkyWatcher company doesn’t give us a specification for the glass they use for this telescope, so I don’t know if it’s FPL-53 or not, yet I don’t see any signs of chromatic aberration or other color-correction imperfections on astro-pictures I take. The focuser has 38mm of travel with a 12mm thickness adaptor at the end while our own adaptor added another 47mm giving us more leeway for focusing. We also used our GPCAM 290C, which gave a closer view of M82 and took 90×40-second exposures showing pleasing detail. Sky-Watcher Evostar refractors provide the finest images obtainable in their design class. Sky-Watcher Evostar 72ED is a fantastic APO refractor telescope for astrophotography beginners, and I'm delighted with my purchase! Helpful. Sky-Watcher's Evostar 72ED is a good bet. You must be logged in to post a review. Short-focus ED refractors are a highly popular and versatile class of telescope that can be happily used in a variety of roles from the purely visual through to wide-field imaging purposes. The bar can attach to a standard telescope mount via a Vixen saddle or, for lightweight tracking mounts, the bar has two 1/4-20 tripod threads giving flexibility for mounting. FACEBOOK: LINKEDIN: TWITTER: INSTAGRAM: ©2019. The front lens element consists of a doublet objective lens with extra-low dispersion (ED) glass and a crown element composed of Schott glass. This setup gives me a corrected field of view (not 100% flat, but close to it), and allows me to take longer exposures in my light-polluted location. The 72ED DS-Pro is also an ideal companion to Sky-Watcher’s Star Adventurer travel mount that we’ve reviewed in the past (see issue 113 and issue 143 for the mini version). The counterweight option is available on the SkyTracker Pro, but the Star Adventurer has a maximum payload of a full 2kg more. The tube is attached to a mount via two tube rings and a short Vixen-style, dovetail bar. For this model we only learn that the doublet objective lens has one Extra-Low Dispersion (ED) glass element and that Schott glass is used for the crown element. SkyWatcher Evostar 72ED is a fantastic APO refractor telescope for beginners! We approached the review in two stages, with a visual performance test and tour first, after which we did some deep-sky imaging using both a Canon EOS 50D DSLR and a GPCAM2 290C camera.