For several months, I have been the owner of my first ever telescope - the Sky-Watcher Evostar 72ED. I have been looking for a beginner astrophotography telescope for a few months (as an upgrade from a Rokinon 135mm F/2 telephoto lens to a longer focal length), and when the time to choose finally came, I went with the Evostar 72ED. There were two deciding factors to determine when picking up a telescope for me: optical quality and weight. The glass quality is crucial for astrophotography in general, and the weight aspect is significant to me because I wanted to use the telescope on my portable equatorial mount (Fornax LighTrack II), which has a rather small load capacity. So how well the Sky-Watcher Evostar 72ED telescope fits my needs and what
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Specification
| Telescope | Sky-Watcher Evostar 72ED |
| Type | Apochromatic refractor |
| Construction | 2-element ED lens with MHC Multi-Coating |
| Aperture | 72mm |
| Focal length | 420mm |
| Focal ratio | f/5.8 |
| Focuser | Dual-speed (1:10) 2” Crayford |
| Tube weight | 4.3 pounds / 1,96 kg |
What comes in the box
Aluminum case
The supplied case is solid. There are keys included, so you can safely secure your astrophotography gear.
Refractor (OTA)
Dovetail bar, support rings, and finderscope holder
What comes not
There is no finderscope included, no eyepieces, no diagonal, and no field flattener. This telescope is not straight-from-the-box-ready neither for stargazing nor astrophotography. You have to buy some additional accessories on your own (more on that later).
First impressions
It's tiny and lightweight
Look how small this refractor is. It's more like a telephoto lens than a telescope. You can take it outside and photograph nature (birds, animals, etc.) with ease.
The focuser is ultra-smooth
Using a Bahtinov mask, focusing on this telescope is a breeze. The micro focuser works perfectly. I have never had such sharp pictures before using lenses without micro focusers.
Optics quality seems to be great
The Sky-Watcher company doesn't reveal a specification for the glass they used for this telescope, so I don't know if it's the FPL-53 or not, yet I don't see any signs of chromatic aberration or other color-correction imperfections on my astrophotography done with this telescope. There is little vignetting, but easily correctable in post-processing (I always recommend taking flat frames anyway).
Equipping Sky-Watcher Evostar 72ED for astrophotography
As I wrote earlier, this telescope needs some additional accessories to be 100% ready for astrophotography. 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). 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.
Astrophotography results with Sky-Watcher Evostar 72ED
All the below pictures were tracked with Fornax Lightrack II on the dedicated wedge. The camera I used was Fuji X-T20, and the telescope, of course, the Evostar 72ED.
Orion Nebula (M42)
Andromeda Galaxy (M31)
California Nebula (NGC 1499) in H-alpha
Pleiades Star Cluster (M45)
Horsehead (Barnard 33) and Flame (NGC 2024) Nebulae
Whirlpool Galaxy (M51)
My verdict
Sky-Watcher Evostar 72ED is a fantastic APO refractor telescope for astrophotography beginners, and I'm delighted with my purchase! The build quality is excellent, the mobility of this instrument is phenomenal, and the quality to price ratio is unbeatable. I'm going to use this telescope for years to come, and I will probably upgrade only for longer focal lengths in the future. I consider this refractor as a fantastic beginner astrophotography telescope due to its lightweight, wide field of view (it forgives much of tracking imperfections of an equatorial mount), and because you don't have to rob a bank to afford it. And it looks cool.
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More Evostar 72ED pictures on AstroBin
woodpecker says
Orion Area my favorite place on the sky.
Great Tube, best i ever seen!
Good Job mate.
Paweł Białecki says
Thanks Dzieciol!
John Doyle says
Judging by the images you have up there then the new purchase was definitely a great idea
Paweł Białecki says
Thanks John! I'm definitely happy with this telescope.
Alejandro Sanchez says
Should I invest in a Mount for this scope? I've heard issues to focus fue to the short lenght in the focuser, how are you handling this?
Regards from Monterrey, México.
Paweł Białecki says
Hey Alejandro,
An equatorial mount is a must if you want to use this telescope for
deep-sky astrophotography. According to the "500 rule", at this focal length (420mm), your non-tracked exposures should be no longer than one second. And that length of exposing will not give enough light for your camera sensor to reveal something interesting. But without an equatorial mount you can photograph the Moon - just set short exposure time and stack multiple sub-exposures into one final stack to improve final quality.
In my setup, I don't have any issues with focusing the ED72. I attach my camera (Fuji X-T20) via adapter (T-2 ring) to a field flattener, and I can freely focus past infinity, no problems with it at all. Generally, with a problem like this (inability to focus because of the short focuser length), you can use extension tubes as a solution. You just mount an additional pipe to your imaging train, and then you are able to focus.
Regards from Bogatynia, Poland!
Mike says
Cheers Pawat
Isn't the internet great when its used to help and advise people by people like yourself. Every one should have one of these especially at the great price. Manchester UK is crxxp with cloud, and on a clear night the sky is obscured by constant contrails spreading out, and neighbours with stadium "security lights". Rural Spain is where I am heading.
Regards,
Mike.
Paweł Białecki says
Hey Mike,
I agree with 100% - the Internet is a great thing for the people!
Do you own an Evostar 72ED? Show some pictures captured with it.
Winter this season is really hard for astrophotography, the same situation here in Poland. If you want to beat this light pollution coming from your stadium, try some narrowband astrophotography. This greyscale California nebula picture in the article was captured from my balcony in the city center with a 7nm H-alpha filter.
Jakub says
Hey, which tripod do you use with Lightrack?
Paweł Białecki says
Hi Jakub,
now exactly this one:
https://amzn.to/2Wjbqnh
A little pricey, but it's worth every cent. It's fully stable even on a high wind.
Earlier I used to use a smaller Benro tripod, and without wind, it was good too.
https://amzn.to/3aWbPjB
Manuel Ll. says
Hi! Could you explain your entire set-up? I can see you are using auto-guiding but I don't know if you use a laptop or an automatic one... I'm planing to mount the same elements (with a T-10) and I'm thinking about auto guiding options...
Thanks!
Jean98 says
Hello, what a very nice portable setup you have here. I have a similar one too ! Just one question, which adapter are you using to attach the guidescope to the tube rings of the Evostar 72ED ? Can you send me the link or the exact model ? Because my finderscope holder doesn't fit (the hole in the center hasn't the right diameter to the bolt of the Evostar 72ED tube rings)... Thanks !