So anyway, who's using a Stellarvue scope?

[Andy01]

Having ordered and paid for a WO star71 back in nov/Dec last year, and expecting delivery in 10 days- the WO factory now claim that they didn't recieve my order, sold out of all Star 71's and now it's discontinued!

Was advised that there's a new design, replacement four element model arriving in March, (maybe). But I'm done waiting after three months of lost imaging time and poor communication. Refund requested... Moving on...

I'm now looking at the new Stellarvue SV70T, f4.8 336mm fl with the .8 reducer/flattener, 2speed r&p focuser, landed here after gst etc it's around A$2k which pretty much maxes out my budget.

I shoot narrowband nebulas and am looking for a nice wide fov for my 8300 chip, so 300-400mm is ideal. Faster the better. Haven't completely ruled out Tak FS-60 but not sure as its only a doublet, is slower and would have to deal with the whole Tak adapter/spacer thing.

Thoughts? Helpful advice welcome...

[MortonH]

What about a 65mm Quad? FL is 420mm. It's only f/6.5 though.

[MortonH]

Or Skywatcher Esprit 80mm? 400mm f/5. $2199 at Bintel. Flattener included.

http://www.bintel.com.au/Telescopes/Professional-Refractor/SkyWatcher-Esprit-80ED-Super-APO-Triplet/2047/productview.aspx

[Camelopardalis]

Andy, if you're shooting narrowband then surely it doesn't matter if it's a doublet :shrug:

[Slawomir]

It does if one wants a fast refractor and would like to include rgb stars in narrowband images.

But also in case of pure narrowband imaging, even the best narrowband filters do not block 100% of light that is out of band, so bright stars tend to develop rings in long exposures through a doublet, because a fast doublet won't bring all wavelengths from a star to a small area, at least it won't focus light as well as a triplet, and as a result of that unwanted light slowly leaks through a filter around bright stars. I shoot narrowband with an ED f5.6 doublet and 3nm Astrodons I know my next scope will be a quality triplet, or quadruplet :)

[Camelopardalis]

Great stuff Suavi, thanks for the info :thumbsup:

[Andy01]

+ 1 what Suavi said - I occasionally wander over to the dark side and shoot HaLRGB as well as regularly shooting RGB stars for my NB images.

Morton, thanks but I had a Saxon once, and my skills have improved since then. I'm really after a nice quality 'scope now.

[wavelandscott]

We have (my son) a Stellarvue finder scope (Nighthawk I think) and I have been really impressed with it. Good build quality and a nice little scope. He won it as a prize at NEAF. (Vic the Stellarvue owner was dressed as Galileo, long story)..but if it is representative of their other offerings I think you will like their gear.

[MortonH]

I think you just hurt the feelings of some Esprit owners! :lol:

I've seen Dunk's Esprit 100ED in action and it's impressive. It's nothing like the standard Synta scopes.

[Kal]

I've had a stellarvue SV90TBV since 2008. It's a great scope, and the one I tend to pull out the most often as it only takes a minute to set up on my vixen porta mount. It's small enough to use as an airline portable scope, I took it to Cairns to image the total solar eclipse back in 2012.

You get great support from Vic Maris. I spoke to him directly when I got my scope (I thought the objective had a small scratch, it was just a fleck of paint that had come loose) and he gave me advice on how to fix my problem.

It will probably be the last scope that I sell if I have to sell some of my scopes :)

[MortonH]

Damn. Until I read your last sentence I was about to make you an offer! :lol:

[HenryNZ]

Watching this thread with interest...
The SW Esprit cannot be that bad?? I was about to pull the trigger for an 80...

[MortonH]

I wonder if Andy saw the words "Skywatcher", "400mm" & "f/5" and thought I meant one of those cheap achros? :question:

The current model Esprit scopes are very good. There were apparently some issues with the original version which was a 5-element lens.

Current version is a triplet with separate field flattener (included in the price).

Dunk (Camelopardalis) who posted above has the Esprit 100ED and it's very good.

[brian nordstrom]

:) Could not help my self here , many years ago I had one of the very rare SV 80mm f/6.25 Alpanets #109 of 150 ever made , using Lanthium glass and it was only a smige behind my sweet ED80 using FPL53 on CA control , the SV Alpanet showed a much better figure tho on high ( 200x) power star images both inside/outside of focus and especially in focus it was essentially perfect .

A very nice bit of glass .

This is one scope I regret selling :( .

Almost TV build quality as well .

Brian.

[Andy01]

Morton, yes guilty as charged, I did associate Skywatcher/Synta/Orion with my previous Saxon instrument, as they're all from tbe same factory- but also this feedback from Slawomir...

"I would not recommend Orion ED80CF triplet - I have one.

Although optics are very good IMO, mechanically this telescope is not suitable for astrophotography, if you are serious about it. The problem is the carbon fibre tube - the flange that holds focuser to the cf tube is attached by tiny three screws that are screwed directly into the cf tube and patched with glue. With time, these screws start moving within the tube and you will end up with flex and optical mislignment. Replacing focuser will not solve it - I even got Moonlite hoping it will fix the issue; in the end had to do a home-fix with epoxy cement and masking tape.

Otherwise, it is a fine telescope - I use it for visual observations. I bought mine over two years ago, so Orion might have changed their design since then.

P.S. I did not intend to upset anyone with my feedback regarding the scope"

So, yes, I'm very gunshy about the Synta brand/product range!

[MortonH]

That's rather disturbing about the Orion ED80CFT!

I wouldn't rule out the Esprit series on the basis of those past issues as they seem to be new and a well thought out design. Actually designs plural since the focal ratio varies between models. As far as I know the focuser is pretty good.

But I'm no imager so you'd have to ask someone that owns and uses one.

[Camelopardalis]

:lol: not me :D

I'd happily pitch it against more expensive scopes ;) if anyone happens to be in the area or star party they're welcome to stick their imaging sensor on the end :D