What eyepiece comes with the Heliostar 76Ha?

A 20 mm eyepiece with a 70 degree field, which gives 31.5x on the 630 mm focal length. I wanted the Sun bigger in the field, so a shorter eyepiece is the first thing I would add.

How does it compare with the DayStar Quark and the Coronado PST?

I found the DayStar Quark Chromosphere eyepiece very finicky: you plug it in and wait about 10 minutes for it to power up and reach the right heat settings, and after any minor adjustment it has to readjust again, which takes a while. I found the same with the Coronado PST. The Heliostar costs more than either of them, but it is the straightforward one.

What is the lever on the tube for?

It tunes the etalon. Sky-Watcher calls it the Trifid Tuner: it presses on the etalon plates to bring the hydrogen-alpha line in. Moving it changes which detail stands out; focusing is done on the Crayford focuser.

Can I use my own star diagonal?

No. The 11.5 mm blocking filter sits inside the supplied 1.25 inch solar diagonal and is part of the telescope's safety features, so use it only with that diagonal.

Is it safe to look at the Sun through the Heliostar 76Ha?

It is built for it: Sky-Watcher states that its permanently mounted solar filters meet the transmission requirements of ISO 12312-2 for direct observation of the Sun. Use it exactly as supplied, with its own diagonal.

What mount does the Heliostar 76Ha need?

It weighs 3.8 kg and comes on tube rings with a 45 mm dovetail. I used it on Sky-Watcher's SolarQuest, which finds and tracks the Sun on its own; First Light Optics sells the head for £269, or £355 with the extension and tripod, and rates it for 4 kg.

How long does it need outside before observing?

Sky-Watcher's manual says to put it outside for more than half an hour before every use, so the temperature inside and outside the etalon housing is the same.

Can I photograph the Sun with the Heliostar 76Ha?

Yes: the camera goes into the solar diagonal in place of the eyepiece. My capture here came from a Player One Apollo 428M MAX Pro.

Where can I buy the Heliostar 76Ha?

The prices I recorded: £2,399 at First Light Optics (UK), in stock; $3,395 at Agena Astro (US), in stock; $3,395 at Sky-Watcher USA (US), in stock.

What have I not tested on the Heliostar 76Ha?

I did not measure the bandpass or the sharpness across the field, and I have not compared the Heliostar 76Ha with another hydrogen-alpha telescope on the same day.

Sky-Watcher Heliostar 76Ha review: expensive, but worth it

Where does it rank on our leaderboard

Nine of the 42 telescopes on my board, against price
Rank	Telescope	Stars for Your Buck	Recorded UK price
1	Askar 50P	95 out of 100	£299
2	ToupTek Hope D60	93 out of 100	£749
3	Sky-Watcher HAC125DX	92 out of 100	£589
12	Askar SQA55	82 out of 100	£795
19	Sky-Watcher Heliostar 76Ha	74 out of 100	£2,399
25	Askar 185APO	71 out of 100	£5,049
39	Celestron C5	49 out of 100	£850
41	Celestron 114 LCM	42 out of 100	£361
42	Celestron AstroMaster LT 76	13 out of 100	£200

Contents

01 Where does it rank on our leaderboard
02 Specifications and features
03 In the hand
04 How good is it? Here's what I captured
05 Raw against finished
06 The rig on the mount
07 What is it for
08 Should you buy it?
09 Questions and more about this review

In 30 seconds

Stars for Your Buck 74/100

Reviewed 22 Sep 2026 Updated 26 Sep 2026

Rank: #19 of 42 telescopes
Verdict: Worth a look

Written by Damon Scotting 4 min read

Buy it if

You want to see prominences, filaments and surface detail on the Sun, not just sunspots.
You want a complete hydrogen-alpha telescope that is light and quick to set up.
You want to watch the Sun by eye as well as photograph it.

Skip it if

You only want sunspots: a white light filter on a telescope you already own shows them for far less.
You want one telescope for the night sky as well as the Sun.
You would rather not spend £2,399 on a telescope for the Sun alone, before a mount.

“It is incredible what you are able to capture with it.”

Specifications and features

Sky-Watcher Heliostar 76Ha reviewed #19 of 42
Recorded UK price	£2,399
Aperture	76 mm
Focal length	630 mm
Focal ratio	f/8.3
Optical design	Achromatic doublet with an internal, pressure-tuned Solis etalon: hydrogen alpha under 0.5 angstrom, 11.5 mm blocking filter in the diagonal
Image circle	1 inch (25.4 mm)
Back focus	58 mm or less, for a camera on a 1.25 inch adaptor
Focuser	2 inch dual-speed Crayford
Weight, tube	3.8 kg
Length, tube	590 mm
Dew shield	not recorded
Bandpass	Under 0.5 angstrom
Blocking filter	11.5 mm, in the 1.25 inch solar diagonal
Tuning	Trifid Tuner, pressure on the etalon plates
Eyepiece supplied	20 mm, 70 degree field, 31.5x
Finder	Built-in solar finder
Filter standard	ISO 12312-2 transmission requirements
In the box	Tube with rings and a 45 mm dovetail, 1.25 inch solar diagonal with the blocking filter, 20 mm 70 degree eyepiece, sun shade, smartphone adapter, hard case

In the hand

Six frames from my 4K footage

How good is it? Here's what I captured

One target

The Sun, Player One Apollo 428M MAX Pro, Hydrogen alpha

Integration: 6.1 s (299 x 20.3 ms)
Field: 0.70 x 0.48 degrees
Telescope: Sky-Watcher Heliostar 76Ha
Camera: Player One Apollo 428M MAX Pro
Mount: Sky-Watcher SolarQuest
Target: The Sun
Type: The Sun in hydrogen alpha
Location: Bortle 6.8 (in my garden)

Raw against finished

The rig on the mount

The 1 target, the unprocessed side against my finished image, each with its integration, the camera and the palette:

The Sun: 6.1 s (299 x 20.3 ms) of light, Player One Apollo 428M MAX Pro, Hydrogen alpha, the stack of the best 299 of 1,199 frames, before any sharpening

On the JUWEI-17, then on six other mounts

What is it for

Four things it is for

The view through the eyepiece

The images impressed me, but the view through the eyepiece is what stays with me. I have used the Coronado PST and the DayStar Quark Chromosphere, and the Heliostar still gave me that feeling of seeing something extraordinary.

One lever, a different Sun

Watching the Sun change as I moved the tuning lever was fascinating: it goes from a fairly plain view dominated by sunspots to an incredibly detailed, violent-looking landscape.

A camera in place of the eyepiece

Swap the eyepiece for a camera and the same telescope takes the images on this page. It is so quick to take outside that I would love it making regular time-lapses of solar activity.

On the SolarQuest

I normally reach for mounts like the TeSeek 11 and the JUWEI-14, but the SolarQuest is built to find and follow the Sun. I found the pair easy to use and the tripod sturdy, and I can see the appeal of buying them together.

Should you buy it?

74/100 Stars for Your Buck

Pros

Very light and very simple to use.
It does the trick: straightforward to use, and the image is fantastic.
Simpler to use than the DayStar Quark Chromosphere eyepiece and the Coronado PST, both of which I found finicky.
The view through the eyepiece is the highlight, and it impressed me even more than my images.
One small lever tunes the etalon, and the Sun changes from a plain sunspot view to a detailed, violent-looking surface.
With a camera in the diagonal it records the whole disc, prominences at the limb and fine surface detail.

Cons

It is very expensive: £2,399 for the telescope alone, and the mount is extra.
With my Player One Apollo-M MAX, parts of the Sun overexpose as it drifts across the field, so the framing has to be bang in the middle or the image looks a little odd.
The supplied 20 mm eyepiece gives 31.5x, and I wanted the Sun bigger in the field: a shorter eyepiece is an extra.
It must be used with its own diagonal, because the blocking filter lives inside it.
It shows the Sun and nothing else.

Yes, it is expensive, but it's a welcome addition to my arsenal.

Who the Heliostar 76Ha is for

Wants to see prominences for themselves

Buy

Hydrogen alpha at 76 mm shows prominences, filaments and the surface of the Sun, and the view by eye is the best part.

Coronado PST owner wanting more

Buy

76 mm against the PST's 40 mm, and a bandpass under 0.5 angstrom against its 1.0.

Solar imager

Buy

At 630 mm the whole Sun fits on a 1.1 inch sensor, and the camera goes straight into the diagonal in place of the eyepiece.

Only interested in sunspots

Skip

My pick is a white light filter on a telescope you already own, or a Herschel wedge on a refractor: sunspots do not need hydrogen alpha.

Already owns a small refractor

Skip

My recommendation is the DayStar Quark Chromosphere, a hydrogen-alpha eyepiece for the telescope you already have.

Wants one telescope for day and night

Skip

It is a dedicated solar telescope: it shows the Sun and nothing else.

Three alternatives I have reviewed

Questions and more about this review

Reviewed by

Damon Scotting

The Telescope Man Verified

BSc (Hons) Physics with Astrophysics and Cosmology, Loughborough University PGCE / QTS, University of Nottingham

About Damon About Damon Damon Scotting is The Telescope Man. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Physics with Astrophysics and Cosmology from Loughborough University and a PGCE with QTS from the University of Nottingham, and taught physics in secondary schools before becoming an astronomy creator. He is a contributing writer for BBC Sky at Night Magazine and the author of 42 Wonders of Our Night Sky, and his photograph of the galaxy M100 with the dwarf planet Ceres was Highly Commended in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2024 competition run by Royal Observatory Greenwich. He has appeared on the BBC's Blue Peter. More than 750,000 people follow his astronomy channels on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, and he has reviewed more than 140 telescopes, mounts, cameras, filters and accessories hands-on for this site. More about Damon · How I test · Damon's book

I review all kinds of gear: most of it I buy, some is gifted and some is loaned, and all of it is reviewed the same way. How this site is funded

Ten questions, answered

Questions about the Sky-Watcher Heliostar 76Ha

Reviewed 22 September 2026 ·Updated 26 September 2026

I review all kinds of gear. Most of it I buy, some is gifted and some is loaned, and all of it is reviewed the same way: no company sees or approves a review before it is published. Shop links marked Ad are affiliate links: I earn a commission when you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. How this site is funded

What eyepiece comes with the Heliostar 76Ha? A 20 mm eyepiece with a 70 degree field, which gives 31.5x on the 630 mm focal length. I wanted the Sun bigger in the field, so a shorter eyepiece is the first thing I would add. The specifications ↓
How does it compare with the DayStar Quark and the Coronado PST? I found the DayStar Quark Chromosphere eyepiece very finicky: you plug it in and wait about 10 minutes for it to power up and reach the right heat settings, and after any minor adjustment it has to readjust again, which takes a while. I found the same with the Coronado PST. The Heliostar costs more than either of them, but it is the straightforward one. What is it for ↓
What is the lever on the tube for? It tunes the etalon. Sky-Watcher calls it the Trifid Tuner: it presses on the etalon plates to bring the hydrogen-alpha line in. Moving it changes which detail stands out; focusing is done on the Crayford focuser. What is it for ↓
Can I use my own star diagonal? No. The 11.5 mm blocking filter sits inside the supplied 1.25 inch solar diagonal and is part of the telescope's safety features, so use it only with that diagonal. The specifications ↓
Is it safe to look at the Sun through the Heliostar 76Ha? It is built for it: Sky-Watcher states that its permanently mounted solar filters meet the transmission requirements of ISO 12312-2 for direct observation of the Sun. Use it exactly as supplied, with its own diagonal. The specifications ↓
What mount does the Heliostar 76Ha need? It weighs 3.8 kg and comes on tube rings with a 45 mm dovetail. I used it on Sky-Watcher's SolarQuest, which finds and tracks the Sun on its own; First Light Optics sells the head for £269, or £355 with the extension and tripod, and rates it for 4 kg. What is it for ↓
How long does it need outside before observing? Sky-Watcher's manual says to put it outside for more than half an hour before every use, so the temperature inside and outside the etalon housing is the same. The specifications ↓
Can I photograph the Sun with the Heliostar 76Ha? Yes: the camera goes into the solar diagonal in place of the eyepiece. My capture here came from a Player One Apollo 428M MAX Pro. What I captured ↓
Where can I buy the Heliostar 76Ha? The prices I recorded: £2,399 at First Light Optics (UK), in stock; $3,395 at Agena Astro (US), in stock; $3,395 at Sky-Watcher USA (US), in stock. A record, not a live price The verdict, the readers and the sellers ↓
What have I not tested on the Heliostar 76Ha? I did not measure the bandpass or the sharpness across the field, and I have not compared the Heliostar 76Ha with another hydrogen-alpha telescope on the same day.