Celestron are a company that excel in optical quality, due in part to their superior starbright XLT lens coatings that cover all their hand figured lenses. The coatings drastically improve light transmission meaning that even the faintest objects are as bright as possible through the scope.
As with the large majority of their other telescopes the 6inch reflector performs very well, the thin spider vanes supporting the secondary limit diffraction spikes, optically this reflector is a real treat.
It performs excellently on the moon as well as the planets and if taken to a relatively dark site it can handle deep space excellently. Transporting the scope is easy as the ota is only 26 and a half inches (measured).
Due to it’s fantastic contrasty images and excellent light transmission the 150mm can easily pluck out faint details from a wispy and elusive galaxy or the subtle nuances of fine filaments within an emission nebula.
The tube is very light and as such it is more than accommodated by the CG-4 mount and tripod it is sold with. The CG-4 is a mount that gets a lot of use from me as it’s low cost but excellently constructed. With over sized slow motion control knobs in right ascension and declination that make it really simple to track objects through the night sky (providing reasonable polar alignment has been performed first). Although the mount is made from solid metal it still is light enough to transport easily.
The finder scope that is sold with the scope is adequate for solar system work (it’s a standard Celestron 6×30). The 6 pertains to the magnification whilst the 30 correlates to the amount of light the finder scope gathers when compared to the human eye.
For deep space work it may be necessary to upgrade to a 9×50 finder scope to help track down those ethereal fuzzies.
With a focal length of 750mm and superior 6inch optics the omni XLT 150 is excellently suited for deep space photography although for best possible results an upgrade to a sturdier mount maybe required (such as a CG-5 or EQ-6). The CG-4 is excellent visually for the price but won’t provide the ridiculously high level of accuracy required for steady shots.
There is know doubt that visually the XLT 150 takes alot of beating especially when you consider it’s £350 price tag. Photographing the solar system will be instantly within your reach without the need to upgrade the mount (although as the scope is only F5 you will need a high magnification Barlow to get a decent image scale, a x5 would be ideal).
With an upgrade in mount, deep space is waiting to be captured by the top quality optics of the 150. An absolute recommendation for it’s optical quality, low cost and versatility.
