Australian Sky & Telescope - May 2018

66 AUSTRALIAN SKY & TELESCOPE May | June 2018

S&T TEST REPORT by Dennis di Cicco

ALL PHOTOS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR

Sky-Watcher’s Stargate

18-inch Dobsonian

The Stargate truss-tube Dobsonians are billed as the largest mass-market telescopes

available. Is the 18-inch model worthy of the hype?

W The Sky-Watcher Stargate 18-inch with

SynScan motor drives for Go To pointing and

tracking is a big telescope, standing more

than 2.1 metres tall when pointed at the zenith.

While the author set up the telescope by

himself, the process would be far easier with

two people.

AFTER TESTING SKY-WATCHER’S

18-inch (45.8-cm) Stargate truss-tube

Dobsonian for several months late last

year, it’s easy to understand why deep

sky observers proclaim that aperture is

king. Objects that appear faint and ill-

defined through smaller scopes take on

a whole new dimension in an 18-inch.

Many globular clusters are transformed

from small, fuzzy glows into brilliant

spheres of sparkling stars. Lots of

planetary nebulae appear large and

bright enough to show structure not

seen with smaller apertures. And the

fields surrounding many familiar deep

sky objects are filled with a multitude

of faint background stars lending

3D-like perspectives.

It was apparent how much I liked the

Stargate when I quickly found myself

looking forward to each clear night

as an opportunity to observe rather

just one to work on a product review.

While the telescope ended up being one

I truly enjoyed, and one I can strongly

recommend, the review process didn’t

start out that way. But let’s save that

part of the story for later in this review

and begin with the good stuff.

Although I’m no stranger to using

large telescopes, especially at star

parties, my own recreational deep sky

observing is usually done with a 30-cm

f/5 Dobsonian. As such, the 18-inch

Stargate was a significant step up. In

Stargate

18-inch Dobsonian

US price: $5,999 ($6,999 as tested

with Go To motor drives)

skywatcheraustralia.com.au

What We Like

Excellent optics

Optional drive offers accurate

pointing and tracking

Overall performance

What We Don’t Like

Abysmal instruction manual

for telescope assembly