Our view

The most economical way of obtaining an equatorially mounted 6" refractor. The EQ5 is the lightest mount we recommend for this refractor. Visually, this telescope is an excellent deep-sky instrument, and performs well as a lunar/planetary telescope. Lovely pinpoint star images and much better light grasp than the smaller Evostars mean that it has unbeatable value as a low power wide-field telescope. Try the Skywatcher 40mm Aero eyepiece or Baader Scopos 35mm eyepiece for high contrast views of the Milky Way and the Orion nebula.

Tips

Budget for an A4 sheet of Baader Astrosolar and the Baader UHC and OIII filters. Budget also for a 1.25" Baader polarizing set or a 1.25" Neutral density filter for the moon. It is also worth considering a 6mm eyepiece for the moon and planets. Consider also a Baader chromatic aberration reducing filter. At higher powers, brighter objects such as the moon and planets can show considerable secondary spectrum. The Evostar 6" is front heavy due to its 6" doublet objective and cell. This means its balance position requires the tube to be slid down in its tube rings. A better alternative is more weight at the rear as a balance. A simple weight belt around the tube near the finder works well.