Moving on from the SW 80ED. Esprit or Sharpstar?

[AdamJL]

Hi all

It's time to start planning my first telescope upgrade. I've loved learning on the SkyWatcher Evostar 80ED but it's got some shortcomings and I feel I'd like to upgrade the optics.

To that end, I've been looking at staying in the SkyWatcher camp and getting an Esprit 120 or switching over to a Sharpstar 121SDQ Quintuplet

Note with either option, I'll likely also be getting a Sesto Senso 2 focuser*.

The benefits of the Esprit
- comes with a dedicated 1x Field Flattener. Essentially, it's a Quintuplet.
- slightly faster at f/7 than my 80ED (f/7.5)
- Triplet design
- decently priced dedicated 0.77 Field Flattener/Reducer ($549)
- 120mm aperture, big upgrade
- increase in focal length to 840mm native vs 600 on my 80ED. And with the FF, I have an option to drop down to 640mm, not much different to where I am now. Good flexibility
- bigger focuser

Downsides
- needs a Field Flattener

The benefits of the Sharpstar
- Top notch glass! Likely better than the Esprit
- Petzval Quintuplet design. I don't have to worry about distance from sensor to last element. BIG plus. It means if I ever switch to Mono, I only need the camera and filter wheel (and filters!) of my choice.
- Native f/5.6. Nice and bright for a refractor.
- Massive 4" focuser
- *Because of the quality of the focuser, possibly allows me to use a ZWO EAF

Downside:
- Price!
- I'm stuck at a specific focal length. That means less targets to play around with.

Now the focal length thing is interesting. Yes I'd lose out on two focal length options with the Sharpstar, but there aren't too many targets that I want to frame at 840mm with the Esprit with the one exception of the Tarantula nebula (which is my all time favourite nebula).

So, any thoughts?

Cheers
Adam

[Constant]

The Sharpstar is technically described as "sex on a stick". I've paired mine with the Senso and in every way it fulfills it's technical description.
Jokes aside, you'll also be getting Testar service, invaluable!

[AdamJL]

HAHA! Yes I'm a huge fan of Adriano and his business, and believe me that is swaying me a lot as well :)

Did the Senso work out of the box or did you have to get an adapter?

[Constant]

Adrianno fitted the adapter, it was an absolute delight to receive a complete scope.

[Wilsil]

If you keep your ED80, you will have two focal lengths if you go with the Sharpstar

[AdamJL]

True but not much difference between them.

With the Esprit, there'll be 3 focal lengths:
600 (80ED)
647 (Esprit + .77 Reducer)
840 (Esprit Native)

With the Sharpstar, 2 focal lengths
600 (80ED)
678 (Sharpstar)

The difference between 600, 647 and 648 isn't much. It's the 840 that's appealing.

[multiweb]

I've seen some terrific pictures again and again taken with Esprit refractors.

[Wilsil]

Cheers Adam, I had a quick look at the Sharpstar. $5,999!

[AdamJL]

Right, I don't doubt the potency of the Esprit line. They are fantastic telescopes indeed!



Ha, yes it's not nice. That said, here's the breakdown:

$4,599 - Esprit
$549 - 0.77 reducer/flattener

Total $5,148

That's a decent saving of $851, no doubt. I guess I have to weigh up whether the benefits I mentioned above are worth the added cost with the Sharpstar.

[Wilsil]

I am looking at going up as well.
But not sure which way to go.
At least you have the bigger mount as I have the HEQ5.

[AdamJL]

Maybe for you the choice would be between the Esprit 100 triplet and the Sharpstar 100Q-II Quad. They're the same price as well. Likely an easier choice to make

[AdamJL]

Adriano might have solved the problem for me... no stock until next year :D
I was going to buy something next month.