My first Magazine Sky & Telescope - 02.2019 | Page 60

S&T Test Report by Richard S. Wright, Jr.
Sky-Watcher
AZ-GTi and
Evostar 72
Refractor
This duo brings new meaning to
the old saying that good things
come in small packages.
Sky-Watcher AZ-GTi
U.S. Price: $379
Evostar 72 APO Refractor
U.S. Price: $465
skywatcherusa.com
What We Like
Ultra-portable combination
Intuitive mobile apps
Reasonable color performance
for a budget APO
What We Don’t Like
Equatorial mode not completely
thought out p The Sky-Watcher Evostar 72 APO Refractor combined with the AZ-GTi Go To mount is an excel-
lent grab-and-go observing package.
I’M A FAN OF Sky-Watcher’s Star to fi t in airline carry-on compartments.
Enter the Sky-Watcher AZ-GTi
mount. It’s small and lightweight,
weighing just 8.6 pounds including its
surprisingly sturdy tripod. The mount
runs on 12 volts DC and can be pow-
ered by eight AA batteries housed in
the mount body or by an external DC
power source.
The AZ-GTi is rated to carry an
11-pound payload, which is suffi cient
for a small telescope. You can buy the
mount separately, but there are two
Adventurer mount, a small, portable
sky-tracker designed primarily for use
with DSLR cameras and lenses. For
its stated purpose, it works great. But
some of the advertising shows it with
a small telescope attached, and I’ve
found this confi guration to be less than
optimal. Immersed in the world of large
mounts and high-end imaging, I often
fi nd myself yearning for a small Go To
mount that can hold a small telescope
for visual use but is also small enough
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FE B RUA RY 2 019 • SK Y & TELESCOPE
packages that include optics: one with
a 102-mm f/13 Maksutov-Cassegrain
($555), and one with a 127-mm f/12
Maksutov-Cassegrain ($725). For this
review, however, I paired the mount
with Sky-Watcher’s new Evostar 72
APO Refractor. This affordable 72-mm
ED doublet has a focal length of 420
mm, producing an f/ratio of f/5.8. It’s
potentially a very nice grab-and-go
combination.
The Evostar 72 comes with tube rings
and a Vixen-style dovetail plate, as well
Requires two devices on iOS for
planetarium app control