Sky-Watcher Mercury 707 vs Celestron LT70 - Unboxing & Setup

[@Astrolavista]

A big thanks to my Patreon and Channel Members - Steve Etches, TheFourGrapples and Dan the man! www.patreon.com/user/membership?u=85055123 The telescopes in this video were on loan curtesy of First Light Optics: Celestron LT70 AZ f/10 Refractor Telescope (Affiliate links) www.firstlightoptics.com/celestron-astromaster-series/celestron-astromaster-lt70az-f10-refractor-telescope/ref/astrolavista/ Sky-Watcher Mercury 707 AZ Refractor Telescope: www.firstlightoptics.com/evostar/sky-watcher-mercury-707-az-telescope/ref/astrolavista/ Any questions let me know below:

[@lornaz1975]

Those 5x24 finders can be fixed by removing the stop and drilling three holes in the front of the finder bracket and adding three screws to stabilize the finder in the front. You then can adjust the finder from the back. Kudos to your wife for being patient so you could finish the vid!

[@MountainFisher]

I had a building inspector ask me what to buy for her son who loved astronomy after she saw my scopes. I asked how much she had to spend and those telescopes were what I told her to avoid. I sold her a 4.5" Orion tabletop for what I paid and added some decent eyepieces and a Barlow. I took him out to my Club's Star Gaze and bought him a membership.

[@Astrolavista]

That was nice of you :)

[@nekite1]

I recently bought a TS Photon 6" reflector from FLO for the princely sum of £266 including delivery. Good optics, good build quality and a nice crayford focuser. No eyepieces included. I would like an inexpensive f10 refractor, but minus the mount.

[@thefourgrapples2810]

It was nice to see the family, maybe you might include them in future videos. Given the choice, I would go for the Celestron at this point. I'm looking forward to see the views from both.

[@Astrolavista]

Hey Kevin! I certainly will as and when I can persuade them : ) I suspect the views will be similar with them using the same objective lenses, but you never know! I hope there is a difference. I'm mainly trying to determine which is the least annoying telescope to use for a beginner; I don't want people to be put off the hobby because of equipment choice. Thanks as always for watching!

[@Tony-Elliott]

Nice video Chris looking forward to seeing your overall reviews on these scops

[@Astrolavista]

Thanks Tony! Looking forward to pitting them against each other. Thanks for watching :)

[@smalloptics753]

Hello Chris hope you're well pal, two nice little scopes for the money, I just wish they would have away with those almost useless little optical finders Celestron definitely win on that one with the red dot... The Sky-Watcher star diagonal does look a lot better than the Celestron but at least they are both mirror which is a little surprising at this price range because they usually provide the prism correctional diagonals so def points for that.. Looking forward to the shootout. Take care bud :)

[@Astrolavista]

Hey Jason mate :) I genuinely didn't realise they would stop down a 24mm finder! that took me by surprise lol I'm trying to keep an open mind but such things make it difficult. The main goal is which £100 scope do a recommend to customers if they don't want a table top Dobsonian? I have a feeling we will get the answer fairly soon :D I was pleased they both had mirror diagonals, I know some of the Astromasters have that ball shaped little prism which takes away from the quality of scopes optics - E.g. big diffraction artefacts from the prism edge. Thanks for dropping by buddy! :)

[@Vic-pz5oh]

Great to see a budget friendly unboxing Chris. My vote would be the celestron due to the better finder, dovetail mount. Atm flo is selling the celestron at the same price as the sw. I started of with a tasco 4vte and both these scopes are superior.

[@Astrolavista]

Many thanks Vic, very true, these are only budget scopes by todays context. I've just taken a look at the Tasco 4VTE and it's a cute little scope. I think my 80's scope was a 60mm Tasco. I think Tasco may have had the Monopoly back then. Thanks for watching Vic!

[@ThePieSnatcher]

Vic, trust me, the mount on the Celestron is actual shit. It is possible the hardest to use mount in astro. Good for terrestrial but when accuracy is needed. The yoke mount is a much better choice

[@Astro.Q]

Hay Chris, this is a lovely idea for entry-level scopes. I think getting the kids involved for the testing is a nice idea. I'm guessing the moon will be the primary target I noticed on the skywatcher end cap. can be stopped down so may have the edge form an observing point of veiw as it could reduce aberration if any. Cheers Ryan 👍🏻

[@Astrolavista]

Hey Ryan! Yes the Moon, and hopefully Jupiter, maybe a cluster or two :) Hopefully getting the kids involved will be handy to see which is the most user friendly from a beginners perspective. I will try the Sky-Watcher on the Moon full aperture and stopped down and see what happens :) Cheers!

[@Astro.Q]

@Astro La Vista looking forward to seeing the video, mate. It's been so cloudy here. I wish you clear sky's

[@robi4514]

“Telescope invasion” 😂 Brilliant! My telescopes are safely imprisoned in my garage, I just pray they never escape. 😊

[@Astrolavista]

Hey Rob! I hope you're well mate. If I remember rightly you have quite the collection of scopes, so it really would be an invasion if your army of scopes escaped :)

[@sjpp71]

Thanks for the video. I wonder if at that price range perhaps it would be better getting a small reflector, like a 4.5" or even the 114/900 (while avoiding the one that comes with the barlow embeded in the focuser... nooo!). I particularly like refractors, but I think the small, affordable reflector should give a best image of the moon and planets than the cheap refractor? Would be nice to see a showdown between the two scopes, how the moon, jupiter, star clusters look through them. I saw the Skywatcher has baffles, couldn't see any in the celestron, maybe this make the image better contrasted in the SW?

[@Astrolavista]

Hi Sergio! Yes I agree the Moon, Jupiter and clusters will be the best targets. Maybe split a double star or two as that can be quite telling. The objective lenses are off the same production line but the Celestron only has the one baffle versus the Sky-Watcher's three, so we will see if that makes any difference or not. Normally I recommend table top Dobsonians in this price range such as the Heritage 100p which is of course a reflecting telescope on a simple to use AZ mount. The tripod mounted reflectors we sell at First Light Optics start around the £200 mark, so maybe for another video. Yes! Noooo to Bird-Jones reflectors with the inbuilt Barlow lens, not good! What I'm trying to find out is the best option in and around £100 when a customer would like a tripod mounted telescope. I have bad memories of the Yoke mounts, but want to check which is better out of the yoke mount or pan head? I want to give customers the best advice possible. Thanks for watching!

[@3dmachine]

awesome as usual ❤ cant wait for part 2

[@Astrolavista]

Thank you! :)

[@AmatureAstronomer]

Excellent reviews!

[@BurningFlame1999]

Which one would have a better image quality, a 70/700 mm refractor or a 100 mm newtonian ? It would be nice to see a side by side image comparison :)

[@Astrolavista]

I think that would depend on several factors; the focal ratio of the Newtonian, what magnification you're using, plus the target you're looking at. I'm guessing the 70mm f/10 frac is a bog standard achromat in this scenario?

[@BurningFlame1999]

@@Astrolavista yes, a cheap 120 $ achromat 70/700 mm. I owned such an achromat until recently and I wondered which newtonian would be it’s equivalent in image quality and resolution :)

[@hakman239]

Could you compare a refrigerator to a reflector and show the observable differences scope I have is a 6 inch Sky-Watcher dobsonian it was a bargain £150 like new

[@nekite1]

@@Astronurd You open your fridge door and instant light pollution makes it impossible to use 🤣

[@avt_astro206]

Nice Unboxing! The Sky watcher scope looks Great, But what about the Tripod? I have heard from some people about that Fancy tripod being Awful and Shaky, On the other hand It might help to view objects in Zenith more comfortably!

[@Astrolavista]

Hey mate, it will be interesting finding out the pros and cons of both scopes. We'll see about the tripods :)

[@amarbirk8987]

Why did the astromaster line get such bad reviews? I own the 120/660 frac (same as other synta achros, but terrible mount) and 127 mak both astromasters,mak is actually only £250 with a eq mount compared to sw mak which is £326 for ota only & they are the same optically and both synta

[@hakman239]

Iv used a celestron az 60 on a yoke mount and celestron az90 on a pan handle mount the pan hand mount is much better and only paid £15 for the 90 with a broken focuser fixed it and worked not perfectly but was usable

[@Astrolavista]

That's a good bargain! and nice to give an old scope a new lease of life :)

[@hakman239]

@@Astrolavista I sold it after a while for £40

[@seanchristie9146]

long time no see how you doing

[@Astrolavista]

Good thanks Sean, still making videos when time allows :)

[@seanchristie9146]

@@Astrolavista glad your still about m8 allways good stuff keep it up