I finally got to use it last night. Iv gone from a 300mm lens to this and all i can say is you cant compare the 2. The 72ED is amazing. Stars were sharper, picture was clearer and the focus wheel makes life easier. I took i picture off the orion nebula and it is by far the best picture i have done. So happy i bought this

Stunning, the scope, the service and the clear night the weekend I got it.

I approached FLO to help fill the gap I had with my skymax, seeing DSO with a focal length the length of a small country - they suggested this and straight away it was obvious they advised me well, I could fit the whole of m31 in the field of view with the reducer + a dslr, fits the bill perfectly... thank-you for the great advice Chris + FLO.

Pros
amazingly clear optics
Truly grab and go
so light I printed a handle for it
focuser is fantastic
came with rings!
carry case with lots of space for extras
no useless accessories gathering dust that I don't need
So easy to balance for visual

cons
Impossible to balance with such the included short dovetail with a dslr camera attached (back heavy) which seems like a weird oversight because it seems aimed at that sort of thing? You have about 200mm of space to spread out the rings so it's an easy fix with a longer bar so I'm mentioning it for other people but it's not really affected my view of the scope.

This scope is capable of capturing fabulous images. Clarity is good, construction is very good for the price point, focus is easy to find and doesn't slip (even with heavy image train when I forgot to put the lock on) and the weight is fairly low.

I have used this on 2 mounts (az-gti in EQ and heq5 pro), both with 50mm guidescope, DSLR, dew heaters etc. The scope is light enough that the whole setup guides well even on the az-gti.

If you are planning on imaging and don't have a suitable flattener, then you absolutely will need one, and will have to budget for it. Without one, not only will you have edge of field distortion but you won't be able to reach focus unless you use the star diagonal.

I use the Stellarmira version also available from flo, the 0.8x reducer/ flattener m42 to be specific. It does a good job of speeding up the scope and widening the field as well as giving sharp stars to the edge of the field. It is considerably cheaper than the Skywatcher version and performs very well, so basically a no brainer to buy with this scope.

So in conclusion, this is a great value scope. Cheap, well made and capable, not often a combo found in this hobby 😁. Don't forget to budget for a flattener and you'll have many good nights spent under the stars with this scope.

I decided to buy the 72ED to use for astrophotography with my self modified Canon 650D instead of my f5.6 400mm lens. I also bought the StellaMira 2" Flattener and Wow! a single 10 second exposure on Orion nebula is so rich in detail. A stacked image of 75 shots is extremely rich in detail. There's absolutely no Chromatic Aberration and every single star is round edge to edge. All I need now is an equatorial wedge for my AZ GTI and then a finder scope and ASI120MM for better tracking.

The ONLY negative is the dovetail is way too short for balancing purposes and I've just bought a longer one from FLO. I'd also like to thank FLO for answering all my many questions.

Five Stars for FLO ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The scope itself is excellent, good quality and very well packaged in its foam filled case.
The true value here is the service from FLO. Chris answered each of my questions via email and very quickly, and still continues to do so when I need advice.
Ordered mid morning and in my hand next day. Brilliant service, good product, made better by customer service.

Thanks to FLO for the fantastic responses (and response times) for helping me choose a first scope, providing me with various other options to work with the Star Adventurer, before deciding on the 72ED.
The scope looks great and even came with 2 nights of clear skies to test it out!

The Crayford focuser was easy to use, but I also purchased a Bahtinov mask to assist with this on my DSLR and it worked really well. Also purchased the StellaMira field flattener for no loss of focal length and easily pulled in 2 minute guided subs on M51 and the Leo Triplet, with pinpoint stars and only 3 out of over 100 frames were unusable, probably due to wind more than anything else.

I actually managed to *just* balance this on the Star Adventurer with the short dovetail that comes with the 72ED, without the longer dovetail that I also purchased just in case. But to do so, I had to mount my ZWO guidescope on a ballhead onto the bottom thread of the DEC bracket on the Star Adventurer. No different to my 300mm canon lens setup, but I suspect this may need to be altered if/when I get a red dot scope to help with lining up the target and potentially a filter.
Overall, a superb first scope and amazing service from FLO to deliver on a day when I was at home. Thank you very much!

As always, first class service from FLO. Not only was this order and delivery fast and efficient they also kindly gave advice on all the associated orders on what I needed for my set up. The extra advice was AS GOOD as the order and delivery process. Top marks and thank you

My 1st "proper" scope for Astro photo's having used a number of prime and zoom lenses, i also bought the Flattener to go with it, it mounts on my Star Adventurer easily, i had to add an extra weight to help with balance, did around 1 hour of imaging M33 last week just before the clouds rolled in, Focus was spot on, the focuser was a breeze to use along with a Bahantov mask. Great fast service from Flo

After reading a lot of opinions/reviews on to quality and built of the scope, I decided to order it and change my astrophotography setup I had, replacimg my Teletokina f800 lens. Best choice, indeed iI haf yo tweek a little the focuser because it was as with all Skywatcher products, they are great, but you need to tweek them for optimal results. From the first try, very clear images and easy to focus, I recomend changing the dovetail bar with a longer one if you have a dslr on it. Thank you FLO for your fast and profesional manner.