Sky-Watcher Explorer 150PDS with Player One Ares-C Pro
1.03″ per pixel across a 0.86° × 0.86° field, at 750 mm and f/5.0. 15 of the catalogue's 29 equatorial mounts carry the 8.67 kg train within the imaging derate.
Every figure is computed from catalogue rows that link their maker's page. Rows marked provisional have not yet had a second, human check.
Optics
At the native focal length.
No corrector for this telescope is in the catalogue, so these figures are at the native focal length.
Sampling
Seeing divided by image scale: how many pixels a star's core spans. Each band is a tradeoff, and wide-field work is undersampled on purpose.
At 2.5″ seeing a star’s core spans 2.42 pixels on this sensor. Practical band for typical seeing.
| Seeing | FWHM | Band |
|---|---|---|
| 1.5″ | 1.45px | practical |
| 2.5″ | 2.42px | practical |
| 3.5″ | 3.38px | oversampled |
- Practical band for typical seeing.
- Oversampled: lower per-pixel signal and tighter guiding; binning recovers most of it.
Framing
The 13 catalogue targets against this field, by the fraction of the frame each fills along its tighter axis.
M31 Andromeda Galaxy fills 343 % of the frame and M27 Dumbbell Nebula 13 %. Of the 13, 5 fill the frame, 1 is a tight crop, 6 need a mosaic, 1 is small in the frame.
| Target | Size | Frame filled |
|---|---|---|
| M31 Andromeda Galaxy | 178′ × 70′ | 343%needs a mosaic |
| M45 Pleiades | 150′ × 150′ | 289%needs a mosaic |
| NGC 7000 North America Nebula | 120′ × 30′ | 231%needs a mosaic |
| NGC 1499 California Nebula | 160′ × 40′ | 309%needs a mosaic |
| IC 1805 Heart Nebula | 60′ × 60′ | 116%tight crop |
| M42 Orion Nebula | 90′ × 60′ | 174%needs a mosaic |
| NGC 2237 Rosette Nebula | 80′ × 50′ | 154%needs a mosaic |
| M101 Pinwheel Galaxy | 24′ × 23′ | 46%fills the frame |
| M27 Dumbbell Nebula | 6.7′ × 6.7′ | 13%small in the frame |
| M51 Whirlpool Galaxy | 13.7′ × 11.7′ | 26%fills the frame |
| M81 Bode's Galaxy | 22′ × 11.3′ | 42%fills the frame |
| M13 Hercules Globular Cluster | 16.5′ × 16.5′ | 32%fills the frame |
| NGC 4565 Needle Galaxy | 16.8′ × 2.9′ | 32%fills the frame |
Target sizes: OpenNGC by Mattia Verga (tag v20260501), CC BY-SA 4.0. This table is shared under the same license. Source and license
Spacing
The corrector rows this telescope links in the Backfocus Solver's catalogue, with the face each figure is measured from.
This telescope needs a corrector, and none for it is in the catalogue yet. The maker: “Even better performance for astrophotography and visual use can be achieved when used in combination with Sky-Watcher’s Newtonian coma corrector.” Source
Mounts
The catalogue's equatorial mounts that carry this train within 60 % of their rated payload, the imaging derate. The sum is the Rig Reality Check's.
On the saddle this train weighs 8.67 kg, 2.25 kg of it assumed. 15 of the 29 equatorial mounts in the catalogue carry it within the derate; the smallest rated is the Sky-Watcher HEQ5-R Pro, at 58 %. 14 more would run it over 60 %.
| Mount | Rated | Used | Band |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sky-Watcher HEQ5-R Pro | 15kg | 58% | Workable; more sensitive to wind, little room to grow |
| Sky-Watcher Wave 150i | 15kg | 58% | Workable; more sensitive to wind, little room to grow |
| ZWO AM5N | 15kg | 58% | Workable; more sensitive to wind, little room to grow |
| Celestron CGEM II | 18kg | 48% | Comfortable |
| iOptron CEM40 (with tripod) | 18kg | 48% | Comfortable |
| iOptron HEM44 | 20kg | 43% | Comfortable |
The other 9 mounts that carry it
| Mount | Rated | Used | Band |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pegasus Astro NYX-101 | 20kg | 43% | Comfortable |
| Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro | 20kg | 43% | Comfortable |
| WarpAstron WD-20 | 20kg | 43% | Comfortable |
| ZWO AM7 | 20kg | 43% | Comfortable |
| Losmandy GM811G (LW tripod) | 22.7kg | 38% | Headroom for a future upgrade |
| Celestron CGX | 25kg | 35% | Headroom for a future upgrade |
| iOptron CEM70 (iPolar) | 31.8kg | 27% | Headroom for a future upgrade |
| Sky-Watcher CQ350 Pro (with tripod) | 35kg | 25% | Headroom for a future upgrade |
| Sky-Watcher EQ8-R (head with counterweights) | 50kg | 17% | Headroom for a future upgrade |
What the 8.67 kg is made of
| Component | Mass | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| OTA: Sky-Watcher Explorer 150PDS | 6.00kg | maker’s figure |
| Rings and dovetail | 0.90kg | assumption |
| Camera: Player One Ares-C Pro | 0.42kg | maker’s figure |
| Filter drawer and filter | 0.20kg | assumption |
| Guide scope and guide camera | 0.80kg | assumption |
| Cables, dew strap, focuser motor | 0.35kg | assumption |
| Total | 8.67kg |
Assumptions are the Rig Reality Check’s round placeholders, not measurements; replace them with your own figures there.
Run the Rig Reality Check with the Player One Ares-C Pro as yours, then give it your budget, sky and targets.
Sub length
The shortest sub at which read noise adds no more than 5 % to the stack's noise, from the Exposure Planner. Each figure opens the planner with the same inputs.
At gain 125 (high conversion gain on, 1.376 e⁻ read noise), 150 mm at 750 mm. Under a Bortle 6 sky it is 5.5 s with no filter and 101 s through a 7 nm dual-band filter.
- This design has a central obstruction, which the catalogue holds only in prose. The figures are computed unobstructed, so each is a floor: the obstruction lowers the sky signal and lengthens the shortest sub. The planner takes the obstruction as an input.
- Under 30 s, download and dither time dominate, so the planner raises shorter results to 30 s. The dual-band column uses the reference’s approximation: Dual narrowband 7 nm (Ha + OIII).
Prices
Dated readings from the maker's store or a major US retailer, with the page each came from. A first-year total needs a mount and the essentials, which the Rig Reality Check adds.
| Part | Price | Read |
|---|---|---|
| Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer 150PDSProvisional | no dated price | |
| Camera: Player One Ares-C ProProvisional | $799 | manufacturer, 2026-09-27camera only (the page's 'Camera' option); import tax may be extra |
Provisional rows have not yet had a second, human check against their source. The Rig Reality Check prices whole builds, essentials included.
How this is computed
scale["/px] = 206.265 × pixel[µm] / focal length[mm]
field[°] = 2 × atan(sensor side[mm] / (2 × focal length[mm])) × 180/π
sampling = seeing FWHM["] / scale["/px]
frame filled = max(major axis / field width, minor axis / field height)
utilization = Σ imaging mass[kg] / rated payload[kg]
shortest sub = R² / (e_sky × ((1 + p)² − 1)), p = 5 %Focal length is the telescope’s, times a corrector’s factor only where its maker states one. The image scale and field use the exact forms; the worked example shows the arithmetic. The sampling bands are the physics reference’s presentation choice, and every band is printed so the tradeoff can be read in full.
The payload sums every part on the saddle, the way the Rig Reality Check does, and the bands encode the 50 to 60 % imaging derate, which is forum practice rather than a maker’s figure. Spacing figures are the Backfocus Solver’s rows; sub lengths are the Exposure Planner’s.
Source: docs/03-physics-reference.md §§ 1, 3 and 4. Implemented in packages/physics (optics.ts, payload.ts, exposure.ts, scoring.ts), each with the reference's worked examples as unit tests.
Last updated Computed from the catalogue when the site is builtEvery camera on the Sky-Watcher Explorer 150PDS