OrionAW120ST vs Skywatcher120F/5 vsAPM102Trip.Ref.

Hi!
I would like to know what u know and think of this scopes, witch one is the best all around scope, mechanics and optics and easy of use and setup. I'am looking for a scope with a wide field. I like to view most DSO and some planets and moon.

/ Anders Asp

The 120mm F5 are both made by the same company and areopes are definitely not planetary scopes, lots of false color.

jon

Anders,

I have the Orion ST120. It excels at wide field views. Any of the Televue Panoptic eyepieces will work well on this scope. I use a 27mm Panoptic which gives almost 3 degrees. However you need very dark skies to really see everything, otherwise you will just have a bright background sky. I use it on a heavy duty photography tripod, and it sets up very quickly. Top end power for this scope is around 75X-100X. Not really enough for planets and moon though.

David Simons

David Simons

In my humble opinion, none of the scopes you mention are "best all around scopes". For best "all around achromat", I would look into something with longer focal ratio. Even with DSOs, you'll need high magnification for many of the GCs and PNs.

Ron B[ee]