Skywatcher 6" refractor, same as Celestron CR150?

It is supposed to be identical (same factory) to the Celestron CR-150 HD 6”. Is that true?

In any case, I know it's not an APO, it's not a Tak, but is it as good as a Achromat is going to get at that price? Or should I say, what price is a good price for it and is it worth adding as a second scope to my great bang for the buck Orion XT8? The XT8 I have is actually a Guan Sheng direct scope (no orion sticker on it) as many of you know they made the xt8 and xt10 for years (all the years that those scopes won all the s&t shootouts) then synta started making the xt8 for orion and g.s. still did the xt10, now orion has completely moved to synta. So i know my scope is one and the SAME as the old school XT8, but is the sykwatcher 150 the same as the Celestron CR-150 HD 6” refractor?

Is it good? Strengths/weaknesses? How is the mount? WHAT is this mount?

TomL.

Attached Image:

The CR150 or 6" skywatcher is worth the price but it is not diffraction limited optics at 6" but stopped down to 112mm it is. False color is not going to be as good as a Pronto or a Vixen 4" achromat, these scopes will have much less.

Let me throw-in my own comments on the CR-150 HD 6".
I've got two of these OTAs. They are both diffraction
limited in yellow-green light, I would say. The earlier
pre-collimation-screws OTA is about 1/7 wave P-V under
corrected, and the newer one is about 1/10 wave P-V
over corrected. I think they are quite good for what
you pay.

The main issue is the false color. Its not bad, but
its fairly noticable on Jupiter and bright stars.
You can get these Chromacor devices to correct most of
the color, and they work quite well, if you can get a
good match between the OTA and Chromacor. On Jupiter my
CR-150 HD + Chromacor is extremely close to an AP155
Triplet APO from side-by-side testing. Details visible
are more-or-less identical. Thats alot to say for a
one of these scopes. If you remove the color issues,
they are really quite excellent optically.

I will agree that they are closer to optical
perfection if you stop down to 4.5" (less color,
less wavefront error), but this is probably true
of most scopes. Its a trade-off between resolution
and optical perfection (a 6" scope will usually see
finer details than a 4.5" unless its really bad).

The CG-5 mount is fine for visual use. You'll want to
get an electric drive on the RA axis. Wood tripod
legs help alot in damping vibration.

- John B.

I had one of these for about 3 weeks. It drove me nuts. The image it thru up was decent but its such a monster to use. You are either on your knees or standing on your toes about 50% of the time. The focuser is barely adequate. It doesn't take heavier EP/diagonal combos well.

The mount is inadequate (to be kind).Even with heavy duty oak legs, the image bounces after each refocus or aim adjustment. If you are considering one of these, don't get one with the CG5/EQ4 mount that comes standard. Go for an EQ6 or G11.

My opinion: stick with a good quality 4" refractor and upgrade the dob to a 12.5" or 14". You'll never regret the investment (until aperature fever demands a 20" that is).

Good Luck - Rob Elgert