The last telescope you will ever need to buy - Svbony SV550 122mm Full Review

foreign [Music] is always a big commitment and more often than not also a sizable investment since our telescope is the underlying foundation for any Astro equipment there are a lot of things that need to be taken into consideration when choosing the right one for their needs with this in mind today we are going to see if the brand new sv550 122 millimeters upper chromatic refractor from swiveoni really has all the right ingredients for it to become the centerpiece of your Astro setup so without any further Ado let's get this started Damian and welcome to video Observatory created in 2008 spiboni is a relatively young company based in Hong Kong that is specialized in not only rebranding Optical equipment but also in designing and Manufacturing their own devices such as telescopes ipcs and other accessories for visual observations and astrophotography one of their more popular telescope models is the upper chromatic refractor sv550 80 millimeters with a focal ratio of F6 and a triplet objective lens design that telescope is well suited for everyone wanting to start with astrophotography one of the limiting factors however was always the small aperture especially when considering visual observations as well in order to improve this aspect srivoni set out to design a bigger triplet refractor with an aperture size of 122 millimeters and a focal length of 854 millimeters the second telescope in the sv550 lineup was entirely designed and manufactured by fiboni and represents a direct upgrade to its smaller 80 millimeter brother besides the wider aperture and a few other features it promises to deliver considerably improved views both for astrophotography and for visual observations at least on paper that is luckily swiveoni was kind enough to send me a pre-production unit for the purpose of this review and I want to thank them for this this way I can tell you guys all about it so in theory the slower F7 focal ratio alone should be able to deliver better color correction when compared to its smaller version in addition the new design also features an objective consisting of three elements that are all made out of FPL 51 Ed glass instead of only the center element being made out of low dispersion glass here it's also important to note that all lens elements are fully multi-coated to improve contrast the large aperture allows for a resolution of 1.15 Arc seconds and a maximum magnitude for visual observations of 12.3 size wise in its most compact configuration without any accessories and with a fully collapsed douche it the OTA is 72 centimeters long 16.2 centimeters wide and 6440 grams heavy making it a fairly compact telescope that is relatively easy to transport around while almost 6.5 kilograms might not sound like much you need to keep in mind that as soon as you start loading up the OTA with different accessories and eyepieces or cameras the weight will go up very fast so make sure your Mount can support the extra weight surrounding the front part of the optical tube is an aluminum dual Shield which can slide out smoothly thanks to the fact that the inside is padded to prevent scratches also made out of aluminum and padded on the inside is the protective cover that goes over the new Shield to help attach the OTA to the tripod two solid ring clamps also made out of aluminum are being used this also feature a lot of mounting holes for all kinds of different accessories and just like all the other parts of the telescope these two are padded on the inside to increase grip on one hand and to avoid scratching on the other hand both ring clamps are connected to each other via a 30 centimeter long dovetail bar that attaches to the underside of the clamps the position of the back clamp on the dovetail bar can be adjusted by as much as 65 millimeters for a better compatibility with different mounting systems and other accessories moving over to the back of the telescope we find a 2.5 inch rack and pinion focuser with a 10 to 1 reducer which I found to be precise and very smooth the draw tube is Painted Black and features markings in millimeters it can also be extended up to a generous 86 millimeters allowing almost any accessory to reach focus without the need of a reducer I did however run into some problems here which I will tell you all about it later one last thing to note about the focuser is that it can be turned 360 degrees in a smooth and stepless way to accommodate for any observing position this isn't something every telescope has to offer and it's definitely a handy feature to have at your disposal all right so on paper the new sv550 looks to be very promising but how does it perform when taken outside well let's break it down and first start with the testing conditions for this review I wanted to only focus on its Optical performance partially because I believe that upper chromatic refractors can be excellent instruments for visual observations not only for astrophotography and partially because I couldn't get my hands in time on an appropriate to go to mount and a dedicated camera so for this review I tested the sv550 on multiple nights with decencing conditions from my backyard underwater Force kites during my tests I used it in combination with the sv-188p dielectric mirror diagonal from swiveoni as well as with a prism diagonal from butter Planetarium the eyepieces I used were a 24 millimeter panoptic a nine millimeter Delight both from teleview and the sv215 and sv171 zoom eyepieces both from siboney as a mount I use the AZ Pronto Mount from skywatcher which isn't at all the rated for such a telescope but surprisingly it got the job done all right now this is where things become really interesting because as soon as I pointed the telescope up and looked through the eyepiece I noticed that there was something wrong with the view the telescope didn't seem to focus correctly no matter how much I pulled the draw tube out mixing it at 86 millimeters The View didn't come into focus it got sharper the more the draw tube got pulled out but ultimately it failed to achieve Focus before reaching its maximum extension which was very disappointing the first setup combination was with the original srivony one and a quarter inch adapter the prison diagonal and the 24 millimeter panoptic with this combination it seemed that the focuser's draw tube needed another 10 to 20 millimeters to reach Focus so next I swap the panel with the Delight but the problem still persisted swapping the prism with the dielectric mirror didn't help either only when trying out the sv-171 zoom eyepiece set to 24 millimeters the telescope was barely able to focus and this was with a draw tube pulled out to the 85 millimeter Mark so right at the limit for the extension this was a breakthrough because it proved that a telescope could focus the Optics were fine it only needed more length so I was looking for a way to extend the light path so that other ipcs could focus as well for this I used a different one and a quarter inch adapter I had lying around one that is 33 millimeters longer than the one I've been using before hoping that it would be enough and it was finally I was able to reach focus with all my eyepieces after reaching out to sviboni and explaining to them what the issue was they immediately responded and told me that this definitely isn't normal and that by the looks of it only the telescope I received was suffering from this problem I think it has something to do with the fact that the unit I got is a pre-production model and it just wasn't calibrated correctly once the telescope goes on sale this shouldn't be an issue anymore alright now that the focusing problem got sorted out I could move forward and actually observe the night sky with a telescope which I did and I can tell you that the views through the sv550 were excellent Once In Focus everything was very sharp using the 24 millimeter panoptic as a reference eyepiece for broader views of the sky I really liked how sharp the objects in the field of view were right up to the edge the views were also bright helping a lot with retrieving details for example on smaller craters on the moon while using higher magnifications such details were visible also thanks to the excellent contrast levels the sv550 is able to produce going back to the aforementioned craters on the moon especially the ones near the Terminator line I really love how the Shadows were visible when casted by the elevated surrounding rims during another session for example where I focused on Saturn I was able to clearly see the planet's rings and also distinguish them from one another I'm not talking about the difference between the Cassini Division and the rest but the A and B Rings the color differences between these were definitely noticeable but what struck me the most was how little chromatic aberrations were visible at any point in time during my observations even in high contrast situations like when looking at the moon's Edge to the space or at Venus I struggled to see color deviations due to Chromatic aberrations regarding the build quality the sv550 doesn't disappoint either the OTA is very well put together looking and feeling undoubtedly premium what I found to be very nice is that everything and I mean everything apart from the glass lenses is made out of metal either aluminum or steel and this makes the whole housing very sturdy there is no flex rattle or anything it just feels very solid if I were to make a small objection though is that sviboni doesn't offer a handlebar big enough to be able to attach and connect both ring clamps for this telescope like they make for the 80 millimeter version I find picking up the relatively heavy OTA and attaching it to a mount without some sort of a handle is a bit difficult and somewhat risky I always felt that I needed to be extra careful not to drop the telescope while holding it with both hands and at the same time trying to secure it to the mount having the possibility to grab it by some sort of a handle and simply picking it up would really make this process so much easier and safer the handle doesn't even have to be included with this telescope but at least give us the possibility to buy one this would be really great definitely an aspect that can be easily improved in the future so apart from the whole focusing issue which as mentioned earlier I blame on the unit that I got being a pre-production model the new sv550 is a great telescope for visual observations and I'm sure for astrophotography as well with a price tag of 1600 US Dollars this telescope is definitely not cheap but in my opinion still worth the money because with an excellent Optical system and top of the line build quality the sv550 122 millimeters definitely has the potential to be the Cornerstone of any capable astronomy setup anyway that's been it let me know what you think about this telescope do you think it's worth its asking price I'm curious to read your opinions on this one in the comments below I hope you all enjoy this video please don't forget to like And subscribe before you leave also make sure to check out the links in the description below as there might be deals on this telescope and other items as well thanks for watching and catch you guys in the next one [Music]

Channel: Bogdan Damian

Views: 14,923

Keywords: Svbony SV550 122mm, Svbony SV550 122mm review, SV550 122mm apo, SV550 apo telescope, Svbony SV550 122mm telescope

Id: ooAcTf76nNg

Length: 15min 13sec (913 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 14 2023