Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 150P
Australian price: $799.99
What we like
Excellent optics
Accurate Go To
Freedom Find keeps alignment
What we don't like
Helical focuser rough motion
Manual doesn't cover control app
WHEN I REVIEW a telescope, I like to look at the manufacturer's ads to see what they think deserves mention. What's special about the instrument? Sky-Watcher's advertisement for the Virtuoso 150P Tabletop f/5 Dobsonian reflector leads off with “These ain't no toys”. Which (despite the double negative) started me thinking.
The past 40 years of amateur astronomy has been the age of huge telescopes — a time when a 30cm-aperture instrument is considered ‘small’ by some. When I was a young astronomer, however, the 150mm (6-inch) Newtonian reflector was the norm, and amateurs did amazing work with it. A scope of this size is both “portable and powerful,” as Sky-Watcher's ad also states.
The Virtuoso package
I hadn't used a 150mm reflector in a long time and was hopeful this one might be worth coming home to, but I was skeptical. The manufacturer makes a lot of claims about the capabilities of this fairly inexpensive scope. In addition to featuring a collapsible tube, 94% reflectivity ‘Radiant Aluminium Quartz’ mirror coatings, and two widefield ‘Super’ eyepieces, the Virtuoso is also equipped with
