Has anyone used a SW esprit 150mm apo?

[rustigsmed]

Hi,

I am thinking of giving up on the cheapie 12" astrograph and going for a good refractor. But I am a bit so so on giving up focal length.

Has anyone used the SW 150mm esprit? it has obviously got some good aperture for the price but is it good enough?

Cheers,

Russ

[Atmos]

I've heard nothing but praise for these refractors. Never seen one close up but optically they appear to be excellent by all reports.

[Camelopardalis]

I know two owners of these, codemonkey (Lee) has the 120, and I have the 100. The 150 and 100 are excellent in my experience, I don't believe they give away anything to their competitors. If I ever have that sort of money, I'll not hesitate in supplementing my 100 with the 150.

Just be aware the 150 is f/7 and is therefore not exactly a small scope...and at 1050mm focal length, you're not really giving up much focal length. I'd put money on you getting better results out of the box with the refractor :P

[scagman]

Hi Russel,

I've been looking at getting one of these myself. All the reports I've come across sound like its a very nice scope.

Here is a report on CN https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/478771-ap-160-vs-sw-150-esprit/ comparing one with a AP160 and the results are good.

The only negative thing I've heard, is that the spot size is too large but can't find any thing confirming this.

Cheers

[casstony]

Teleskop Austria have tested 5 samples of the 150 with strehl ratios varying between 0.9 and 0.95, suggesting your new Esprit 150 might not be as good as a TOA but will be plenty good enough for imaging.
http://interferometrie.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/1501050-esprit-4-samples.html?view=sidebar

[rustigsmed]

thanks for everyone's input / feedback. seems the optics are very good especially for the price.

I would want to have an autofocus setup Dunk/Lee have you upgraded the focuser?


cheers

[codemonkey]

Hey Russ,

I've been pretty happy with my Esprit 120 - I honestly don't know how similar the optics are between the 120 and the 150 though so I'm hesitant to draw any conclusions there, having not used the 150 myself, but I would expect them to be of similar quality.

The focuser was a weak point on my 120. It was very poorly adjusted when I received it and wouldn't take close to the advertised payload without slipping quite quickly. It was also missing a bolt, and the locking lever thread was a bit busted, which meant it was never screwed in all the way, which in turn meant it fell out. Tasco sourced the bolt, a new locking lever and instructions on how to adjust the focuser, but to be honest I was a bit disappointed after spending that kind of money.

I spent quite some time adjusting the focuser and got it performing better. I sold it to someone here (sorry, can't recall who), who also spent a bunch of time tweaking it further and apparently finally got it working reasonably. I replaced it with a Moonlite, which I've always been happy with. I then motorised the Moonlite DIY-style, whilst definitely harming the aesthetics of the scope, performs pretty well.

Still, I'm very happy with the performance of the scope, without doubt the best scope I've had.

Cheers,
Lee

[casstony]

The focusers are a good design but difficult to adjust because Synta use red Loctite on some of the components. I tried to fix the microfocuser on my esprit 80, buggered it up and had to pay for a new one. If you buy a new scope and the focuser doesn't work as advertised, send the focuser in for warranty replacement.

[codemonkey]

I didn't see any Loctite on mine; perhaps they started adding it to address an issue with the focusers retaining initial adjustment.

The problem with a warranty replacement is turnaround time. I personally didn't want to wait for that. Good advice though, definitely better to send it back under warranty than risk breaking it, especially if they're using loctite on them now.

[Camelopardalis]

No glue on mine either...I'm pretty happy with the stock focuser, it's rack and pinion and holds good weight without slippage. I've fitted the Sharp Sky motorised focuser and it works nicely. Even at f/5.5 the motor has loads of steps in the critical focus zone.