ZWO Lightweight Newtonians due in July

[glend]

If anyone has noticed the Lightweight Newts that ZWO has been developing, shown here on their website:

http://www.zwoptical.com/Eng/Optics/305/

Scroll down to where the scope photo is located.

They look a bit like they are made from Mechano sets but if they are truely light, and the optics are good enough and assuming they will have a shroud available they could break some new ground in the market.

I emailed them about availability and this is what came back:

"Hi, our 12" newtonian will be available at july I think
our 10" newtonian will come at first
yes, you can buy directly from us
but shipping cost maybe a lot
I am not sure our Australian agent will get in stock or not".
Best Wishes
Sam
ZWO Co., Ltd.
Tel: +86 18914084791 (tel:%2B86%2018914084791)
Phone:+86 512 65923102 (tel:%2B86%20512%2065923102)
Web: http://www.zwoptical.com
FB:http://www.facebook.com/ZwoDesignAstronomyCameras
Yahoo Group:http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ASICamera/


So I guess we need to know what Optics Central's position is going to be on making these available. How much could shipping be from China? All the weight looks to be in the mirror. You could always throw away or sell the mirrors and replace them with high quality if your keen for the framework.

As a bolt together kit the package should be fairly small.

[rustigsmed]

Fairly interesting stuff there Glen. 12kgs is really quite light might put 12" DS imaging more solidly into NEQ6 territory , in comparison my 12" bintel (GSO) solid tube steel newt is 18.4kgs. hopefully they are sturdy. no details on the 16" weight as yet.

[clive milne]

There is something about the geometry of these telescopes that elicits a state of cognitive dissonance within my psyche.

[Slawomir]

And the spelling induces harmonic mental disturbances...New-To-Ian?

[Camelopardalis]

Boy, is that gonna need a dew heater or 10 or what :lol:

[glend]

Plus a shroud, dew shield, and a couple of well placed boundary layer fans.

[raymo]

What they need is two large lightweight needle roller bearings around
the OTA, so you could rotate the eyepiece into a convenient position,
like I do with my 8"Newt. Price is going to be interesting; breakthrough
or not, I wonder.
raymo

[MortonH]

Looks like it's made from Meccano.

[silv]

Thanks, glend, for posting!

I got interested and googled. Found a review for their 153mm f/6, 3kg (but Zwo also has faster newts):
http://escope.de/english/zw153/2/
he speaks of probably not being able to mount heavy photo equipment rigidly enough.
now, this model in the review apparently was bought 3 years ago.
Possibly, Zwo has altered their design.

*****

Clive :D

****

[acropolite]

The square section around the mounting dovetail looks dodgy to me, no diagonal bracing in that area, big potential for flex.