Review about SV510 Solar Telescope-From Jesus Edgar Castro Ramos

Introduction

I am Jesus Edgar Castro Ramos. I received a package about a week ago. This is the SVBONY SV510 Solar Telescope! Then I test this scope.

About Packaging

The telescope came really well packed, it comes within a backpack, inside its product box inside another shipping box; everything was well protected for shipping.

The box includes:

-Backpack

-SV102 Aluminum Tripod

-SV510 60x400mm Solar Telescope

-90° 1.25" mirror Diagonal

-1.25" 20mm eyepiece

-User manual

Pictures of the unboxing.

About the SV510 Solar Telescope Details

The telescope body is extremely light, it includes a pre-installed solar dot finder, and it features a Vixen dovetail with an M4 nut so that it can be mounted on any camera tripod or telescope mount.

The focuser has a 1.25" interface so the user can use any other compatible diagonal, eyepieces, camera adapters, or dedicated astronomy cameras. This comes in pretty handy for solar imaging using the lucky imagine technique.

Once completely assembled, the whole setup is less than 2 kg, meaning it can be moved around very easily if necessary. The tripod legs extend to a height of 90 cm and its axis can extend another 30 cm, its light construction makes it a bit shaky when completely extended, but it's pretty stable with just the legs out.

It must be mentioned that this telescope is not an H-alpha specialized solar telescope like a Lunt or Coronado, it has an embedded (non-removable) certified polymer solar film similar to the Thousand Oaks filters that produce a clear orange-yellow photosphere image.

About the Testing of the Solar Telescope

I tested the SV510 Solar Telescope! I first tried using it on its stock tripod, it is really easy to assemble and move around since it's very light. This was my first time using a solar finder scope and it is very straightforward to use, I just manually centered the light beam on the finder reticle and found the sun right in my eyepiece field of view, it can't get any easier; finding the Sun through a telescope without one of these finders is not as easy as it sounds.

Visually the Sun image was bright and clear, with that distinctive yellow-orange tint that you get with this type of polymer filter. Again, this telescope is not an H-alpha specialized solar telescope, but the photosphere image is nice and clear. I was able to take a full-disc picture with my cellphone where sunspots are visible.

Next, I wanted to try the scope on my regular mount, since it has a vixen dovetail on it. My AZ-EQ6 mount was probably a bit overkill but it was what I needed for imaging. I inserted the SV305 Pro camera directly on the telescope, had no issues focusing, and was able to get almost the full Solar disc on the frame, a larger camera sensor should be able to fit the Sun with no issues. I then added a 2.5x Televue Powermate to get a larger image of a couple of sunspots, again I was able to quickly focus without issue. I really liked the results I got with both setups. Here are the images taken by the SV510 solar telescope.

Conclusion

The SV510 is intended to be a travel solar telescope, and some of its components are made out of plastic to make it light; however, its quality is pretty good, it is functional, and for its selling price it is a very good option for getting started on solar observation or imaging. 

Definitely a really good option for the upcoming 2024 Solar Eclipse!