Sky-Watcher Evostar 72ED Astrophotography Review | 2 Years On Would I Buy it Again?

[@thefugel]

Nice video and a good review of the 72ED, for what it's worth I went for the Sky-Watcher 80ED because of the slightly longer focal length. I had to get a longer dove tail too as balance was trcky with the stock one with a DSLR, guiding and Raspbery Pi for control. I'm in Gloucestershire too, always spooks me when I see a map with names I recognise

[@astronebulee578]

Great video Nick I've a 72ed ds pro and absolutely love mine it's a beautiful scope

[@AstroExploring]

Thanks Lee 😃

[@paulmckeown5672]

I ordered one of these last month based on your other video (the flattener is on long back order though grrr) so I'm glad you'd buy it again!

[@AstroExploring]

It’ll be worth the wait!

[@paulmckeown5672]

@@AstroExploring It's all here but clouds....

[@greglight5808]

Just for your review the newer short tube assembly version does come with the fpl53 glass ☺️

[@bluenose8442]

Very good video. Agree with all your comments. The 72ED, although a lower cost ‘scope is an excellent performer. I live in a Bortle 8 area officially but we’re close to Birmingham airport which has, well, a few lights around to say the least. Certainly agree on the dovetail but that’s easily sorted as you have. Nice one mate, your videos are perfectly pitched to the right audience.

[@AstroExploring]

Thanks very much! 😃

[@peterlaubscher3989]

Many thanks, I am thinking of buying this scope and this was so helpful.

[@stephengill2951]

Thanks for the update. Ive just purchased a 72Ed with an OVL flattener. Looking forward for first light with it. Balancing with my ZWO2600 was a problem. For now I've strapped a wrist weight belt around the end which seems to work although it looks a bit naff!

[@AstroExploring]

If it works 😃

[@rcuevasvidea]

Great review. I have one Evostar 72ED and sadly until now I have done only a few moon photos due the bad weather in my country. However, so far all my photos have been excellents. Kind regards

[@Saxonpod]

When the manufacturers were testing this scope how did they not notice that the dovetail bar was too short to achieve balance?

[@astrotaff]

Thanks for the channel, Nick. I have recently acquired a Celestron Nextstar 102SLT, and have a lot to learn. I found your channel and it is really helpful, thank you 🙏 Last night was the first clear night, so I had my first ever bash at star gazing ✨Saw Jupiter and Vega (see my thumbnail), and see this hobby becoming addictive! 👍 I have liked your videos and subscribed.

[@Wolfie6020]

Nice review. I have the 80ED at home and two of the 72ED scopes for travel ( I travel a lot for work and spend months away from home ) One of them is on an Ioptron Smart EQ Pro + in Sydney and the other on a HEQ 5 Pro which stays in Perth. The latter is the newer shorter version. Both need the longer dovetail to achieve balance. I use the FLO OVL field flattener with a ZWO 183 MC spaced correctly for the flattener and focus is no problem with either tube. For the money I think you cannot beat it.

[@Wolfie6020]

Here is the shorter version on the HEQ 5 in Perth. Note the red dovetail - balance is easily achieved with this. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rpmZq51vatB_n9E

[@cliveroberts415]

I agree with all you have said. I changed the dovetail and get fantastic guiding. As for the camera rotator, forget it, Just check out the field in Stellarium and turn the scope in the rings.

[@astrocarone9671]

Awesome review Nick! Great images :)

[@AstroExploring]

Thanks Caleb!

[@DumfriesDik]

Nice video thank you. When I win the lotto I quite fancy a small refractor like this with an astro camera.

[@luciankristov6436]

Im running the same setup 😂 the 72ED and a zwo asi 533 mc pro. Works perfectly and very compatible. Imagine quality is actually pretty good.

[@richparsons7320]

Spot on mate, great review 👍

[@veerastro7969]

Opinion and advice needed I have the evostar 72ed, and it performs well. I am selling it and thinking it to upgrade to a 6-inch f6 newtonian, and I will be using it with a dslr and a cooled camera at times for galaxies and small Nebulae. The ioptron cem 25p will carry it. Should I upgrade it ?? Or any other recommendations

[@Age2003]

Ha, what timing! I want to use a scope with the Star Adventurer 2, and I literally decided to go for the 72ED (after considering the 80) today. Thanks for the video!

[@AstroExploring]

Great choice!

[@Age2003]

@@AstroExploring I hope so, it arrives tomorrow and i'm hella excited.

[@WanderingEclipse]

This is quite a beginner question, but do you really _need_ a field flattener with this telescope? Obviously you can can still take images without, but is it still a very capable setup? I'm hoping to image with a star adventurer and d5300. Thanks!

[@AstroExploring]

Great question! You don’t need one as such, though your image quality will suffer you can produce perfectly good images with one. You will need some sort of spacer before your camera though, otherwise you won’t be able to focus, you’ll need about 55mm between the camera and the focus tube

[@WanderingEclipse]

@@AstroExploring Very helpful, thanks. Just to follow up, I know that field flatteners bring the edges of an image into focus. If you crop in with an APS-C sensor, would the image be pretty much in focus? Thanks again :).

[@rubenmborges]

@astroexploring I'm looking to buy an apo refractor and was looking at this telescope. So the product description says it has only one ED lens (fpl-51)? So how does that work for you. I read fpl-51 is good as a triplet, fpl-53 as doublets and I have never read anything about single Ed lens designs. I'm still starting to get serious and want to get some good shots for a great value.

[@PafMedic]

If You Put A Longer Dovetail On You Should Be Ok…Right.? Im Interested In This To Pair With My Evoguide50ed,and On The SW Eqm35Pro For A Imaging Set Up,Thank You,And Clear Skies

[@AstroExploring]

Yes a longer dovetail will work. That’s what I did and I also paired it with the 50ED

[@PafMedic]

@@AstroExploring ,Awesome…And Thank You For Coming Back And Answering Me On A 2 Year Video,Im Giving High Point Scientific A Call😂

[@EvenTheDogAgrees]

One thing I didn't like is that this scope was sold as "ideal for astrophotography" by my local astro shop. Even the SkyWatcher site itself mentions photography explicitly. But unless you get the corrector/reducer, your stars are deformed when you move away from the center. But what I dislike the most about the telescope is the shoddy case it came in. You may think it's aluminium, it even says so on the site. But after packing the scope in wrong one time, I ended up with a tear in the case because it's just cardboard with a super thin layer of aluminium glued to it so that "technically" they can claim it's an "aluminium" case, but in reality, it's just cardboard cosplaying as metal. It's also too small to comfortably pack the star diagonal and eyepieces for visual observation next to the camera adapter, field flattener (0.85x reducer/corrector) and rotator. And you can forget about putting a camera in there. Currently thinking about upgrading to a larger case, made of actual metal. But it's gonna be a chore to cut out the foam to fit the scope and accessories.

[@billvinson7859]

Those Optalong filters are great.

[@dumpydalekobservatory]

I've got far to many scopes as it is but I've had my eye on one of these for a while now, I do already have an ED80 Evostar which performs really well & I'll never get rid of it plus an ED100 which for all intense & purposes is a bit slow for DSO imaging but I have achieved it & the scope doesn't do a bad job either, plus it performs really well doing solar using a Baader solar wedge I've managed some nice crisp images using it. Great review on the 72 which is making my finger twitch on the buy it button lol but I must resist so I'll probably go down the second hand route when funds allow like with 90% of my gear.

[@AstroExploring]

I buy most of my gear second hand too, the astro community know how to look after their gear!

[@1701c14]

Good video Nick! With those great samples pictures, in the description it says "DSLR" are we talking full frame or crop factor sensor size?

[@AstroExploring]

Thanks Mark! It was a crop sensor DSLR

[@leanewton1859]

Got the same setup, brilliant scope Nick 👍

[@AstroExploring]

Couldn’t agree more, Lea 😃

[@TeamGamingSWE]

The field flattener is really expensive tough which makes it more expensive than other scopes.

[@AstroExploring]

You can buy the OVL flattener which is much cheaper

[@jezrougan]

Where abouts in the uk are you based as it would be nice to meet up for a night of capturing our beautiful cosmos... as I can capture the data but just don't have a decent pc to do all the post processing etc. I use the WO Z61 mounted on a skywatcher star adventurer and have been using a stock dslr/ un guided as of yet... ping me if a collaboration sounds like a good idea...

[@AstroExploring]

I’m in Gloucestershire. Whereabouts are you? I’m always up for meeting new folk for an imaging session but Covid has scuppered most of my plans so far!

[@jezrougan]

@@AstroExploring im only down the road really, im based in Somerset... Would be great to meet up with you I've been following you since you started... we could both potentially learn new tips from each other...

[@AstroExploring]

@@jezrougan yeah totally. I’m moving house in a few weeks so it’s not a great time at the moment but I would like to put a general call out to people to arrange something when I’m more able to

[@hiden1980]

Which is better ? This one or Sarblue 60mm Maksutov ?

[@AstroExploring]

Depends what you want to do. For astrophotography you’ll want the Evostar 72

[@bushcraftandastronomer.3775]

Hi Nick. Interesting video and some reasons you don't like are the same here as original dove tail was too small and I can almost get it balanced with.meduim dove tail. With star tracker I do get a bit of wobble. Telescope looks great as it feels well made and sturdy plus in a backpack you can get even 65letre backpack and star tracker fits too. Another thing I like is that you can do observing with quality eye pieces. You can do some mods with this setup with few extras like using your smartphone as a finder scope with app like stellarium mobile and this app directs you to thousands of deep sky objects. Piggyback too with your dslr and even smartphone. Auto guiding with 50ed guidescope with this tiny scope it's suitable for deep sky imaging also. I love the evoguide 50ed guidescope on my star tracker. I'd buy another 72ed and the 50ed guidescope again. Only downfall is the weather so I can travel with this in my backpack plus travel to Spain or north Africa for darker skies. I had a plan and it's traveling to other countries where better weather is. I live in bortle 6 skies and soon I'm going to highlands with my astrophotography setup so I hope mother nature is good to me this time. Bortle 2 skies soon can't wait. At start I planned this setup with your fantastic help at the start. Now I've got it all! My next thing is I'm getting Huawei p40pro smartphone as I've seen some shots of astrophotography and it's bloody awesome this phone. Stay safe buddy and clear skies!!!

[@AstroExploring]

It’s amazing what a smartphone can do now!

[@ferenc-x7p]

I've been eyeing this telescope for months now, since the W.Optics zenithstar61 just not collimated right t after I had pinched optics and tried to repair it myself. That was actually more expensive telescope than this SW72. Unfortunately in the USA, there are still a lot of supply shortages for the 2nd year now with nearly everything, and they are all more expensive than used to be, because the stores just can't get enough in stock so the prices are artificially inflated. I've seen this telescope sold for $880, and to be realistic and honest: it's not worth that much. And it sold out within 1 day.

[@gblan]

ASTRO-TECH AT72EDII is a fair bit cheaper and def uses FPL-53.

[@tim71pos]

It sounds like you know a lot about it and have a lot to say but I stopped watching the video review because the background music wasn't background at all it was foreground music and I couldn't follow what you were saying

[@peterlaubscher3989]

PS Great images!

[@AstroExploring]

Thanks 😃

[@chrisunderhill6527]

First