Litescope portable 12" telescope

[mbaddah]

Came across this while reading latest issue of "Sky at Night" magazine...

http://www.litescope.eu

Anyone seen, used, reviewed it? Looks extremely tempting and practical :D

[Chippy]

First I've heard of it. It looks great! Would love to hear more about it and a full review!

At F4 they are fast, so collimation would need to be very accurate. That's one possible concern, and would be interesting to hear how well collimation is adjusted and held.

[Kevnool]

Sorry fella,s not sure about this one.
Cheers Kev.

[Starkler]

Seems a paracorr or any heavy eyepieces are way out of the question.

[Chippy]

True, but that might be a small price to pay for the portability if other aspects are well engineered. The helical focuser is a bit of a concern I'll agree. You could get that scope out to a lot of places more easily than oh, say... an SDM :-)

Coma would be an issue, but I'd take darker skies and quicker setup over less coma most of the time.

Interesting product if it performs as described. Not saying it would compare with a premium dob, but I'd still love to have a play with one!

[micko]

they look very expensive, but having seen the website I RRREEEAAAAALLLLYYY would love one to have a play with !

[jayscheuerle]

Looks like a bit of an inferior knock-off to Ross Sackett's award-winning Moonsilver IV from a couple of years ago. Still, nice to get this direction out in public. - j

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8315630@N04/page2/

[Paddy]

Looks impressive to me - I note that they recommend a paracorr for the f3.6, so I'd hope the scope can handle the weight

[anj026]

There is mention of a "virtual bungee" counterweight system which may help accomodate paracorr etc. Interesting new scope.

[tnott]

It states that the scope is actually balanced for a Parracorr plus up to a 600gram eyepiece. Pretty easy to make the adjustment in design simply by adjusting the diameter of the altitude bearing.

Plus it has a bungee and a bladder to fill with water for counterweight.

It also has 2 cables to stabilize it, so it is more of a "string scope" then a 1-pole only design. Should be pretty stable and hold collimation well by the look of it. Interesting to see any reviews.

Looks interesting - has lots of high-tech lightweight materials that might be hard for most ATMers to work with, making copying the design difficult.

Also, because it is a "travelscope" that fits into a backpack, you need to assemble many parts with a multi-tool on setup - I wonder how long this would take?

Because of the single pole design, the eyepiece would poke out directly to the side, making viewing at lower elevations perhaps a little uncomfortable.

I like the included stool.

[Discocactus]

Just a thought. Is it now possible with ultralight materials to marry a GEM to a single arm scope with big aperture?

[tnott]

Yes. If it is designed for such a purpose. There is someone making such a scope in Italy but I have lost the link, sorry!

[scopemankit]

The Italian scope is the Gladius 315 by Lazarotti optics. See also unitronitalia.com There are two mdels, a 10" and a 12". Quite the sopes.

Chris
Cape Town

[tnott]

Ahh, there it is! Thanks Chris.

Links: http://www.lazzarotti-optics.com/main.html

http://www.unitronitalia.it/gladio.htm

[cvdarias]

Hi , you have a litescope review here
http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=2442
hope have mine soon ;-)
Regards

Carlos
www.loscielosdetenerife.es (http://www.loscielosdetenerife.es)