I purchased this as a "grab and go" lightweight alternative for when my 10" Dobsonian would be too much - I drive a small hatchback and the dob takes over the back seat, so either my son or wife would need to travel in the boot!
My first scope was a Skywatcher 130 Heritage collapsible mini dob (a perfect beginners scope by the way) I’d given it away and immediately regretted doing so, hence the purchase of the Skywatcher 102.
It’s taken me 6 months to begin to learn to star hop, and when sharing my dob with others at high magnification, it doesn’t take long for the target to whizz through the field of view; the auto tracking is a big plus for me.
The scope was double boxed, with all the bits and pieces well protected, the fit and finish is a league above the Heritage mini dob, it feels well made.
Having never owned a refractor before, I was surprised by the size – it is larger than the photos would suggest. The instructions are okay and it did not take long before we had aligned the finder scope. The handset needs a few minutes to set up, latitude, longitude then date and time (in the US format) and you’re away.
The motors are fairly quiet when slewing, not silent, but not obtrusively noisy. The image quality on the moon and Mizar with the supplied eyepieces was good – have yet to use the Barlow; the images though were sharp and detailed. As is often the case, the clouds rolled in before we could look at Albireo and any DSO’s.
I think that the scope is excellent, robust, well made and with good image quality but deducted a star because I thought the menu system from the controller could be a little easier / more user friendly for a newbie like myself – that said an experienced observer would probably whizz thru the settings without a second thought. The purchase experience from First Light Optics is excellent; order placed on a Monday late afternoon, dispatched by FedEx on Tuesday, in my hands Wednesday - Great customer service!
