200 mm Slywatcher triplet

[xelasnave]

Saw it on their weekly web cast.
$10k US.
Just imagine an eight inch triplet.
The link is on my other phone if I can find it ...anyone know more?
Alex

[Hans Tucker]

I am a Brand snob .. TEC or nothing even if it is three times the price of a Slywatcher (Skywatcher) :P

[xelasnave]

You have a TEC???

Alex

[Hans Tucker]

I have a TEC160FL .. but I want a TEC200FL :D

[xelasnave]

Well if you are happy with the brand gained from personal experience via ownership and you want it get it if its available ..you seem like a decent sort of a chap so I venture that you deserve it. ...however have you any information on the new Skywatcher 200 mm ...I cant find the link and I realised I don't even know the focal length...I like it so far and I expect it would be an excellent scope and maybe two to make some nice binos...or a few for a dragonfly set up.

Alex

[Hans Tucker]

You sparked my interest by starting this thread so I went searching for some information. Couldn't find anything yet but if they model it after their SkyWatcher Esprit 150mm Super Apo then it will be an interesting scope that may break my Brand snobbery.

[xelasnave]

To be fair to your past as well as the future you should get a 200 mm from each brand and enjoy a balanced approach.

I haven't been looking but have been flat out with the angle grinder shortening some tube extenders in my optical path..what could go wrong?...I thought it was a radical approach but everything seems to have worked ...I only hope it is enough to reach focus.
After taking off a couple mm with the grinder I then used a smoothing file and two small grades of sanding type paper...not a plug and play unit is the RASA.

From what I have seen the 200 mm triplet seems the perfect scope...I will ask Bintel how much.
Alex

[MortonH]

So a 200mm Slywatcher is for seeing Sylvester Stallone from really far away?

[xelasnave]

I should not comment on his stature but you probably need one when relatively close.

I cant stop thinking about one.

I was listening to something on plate tectonics and the presentor mentioned that glass "flows" such that old church windows one finds the glass thicker at the bottom..so I guess you would have to rotate such a scope to minimise glass flow.
So far that is the only draw back.
Alex

[Peter Ward]

P.T. Barnum is oft' quoted "there's a sucker born every minute"

Skywatcher 200EDT for $10k ?? April 1st is a good hint ;)

[raymo]

I wonder what price an Esprit quality 200 would have to sell for to make it a viable proposition for the manufacturer? Or come to that even something a bit larger than that, say 225 or 250. In this day and age of instant gratification, I imagine the lead time would need to be much shorter than it is currently
[forgetting covid] for premium scopes.
raymo

[xelasnave]

10 k US...

Mmmm I will check the date of the web cast if I can find it....they showed what was supposed to be the scope .. I will look later as still too busy actually doing stuff...but if so I am not particularly amused given it was a Skywatcher web cast.

April 1st is now a very special day for me.

It was April 1st last year that I had my operation to remove the thiroid cancer and so far it seems a sucess or at least I did not lose the ability to talk and can swallow real food now and the thiroid cancer they found in my lungs seems to be under control but most of all I am not dead...been a tuff year in some respects.


Alex

[strongmanmike]

Given their ESPRIT 150MM SUPER APO is already $10K, heck, a 200MM would have to be 3X that, at least...? but heck, it'd be cool to have one :D

I've always thought, if money was not such a significant stumbling block :question:.. man!.. I'd love to have a 12" F11 APO (https://www.widescreen-centre.co.uk/user/products/large/apmlzos3043600.jpg) in a 5.5m dome at Eagleview :D...the ultimate visual telescope, both to look at and through :eyepop:...imagine reclining back on a leather observing chair, tube pointing up near the zenith, peering up through the eyepiece, at a razor sharp image of Mars or Saturn, way up on a mountain top, like an old time astronomer...aaah sigh..Nirvana!

Mike

[xelasnave]

Why should it not be possible to produce such a scope for what seems crazy money?
These days you can buy an excellent Chinese guitar for around $300 which really is as good as a $5000 US guitar.
Alex

[xelasnave]

It is 10k US dollars not 10k Australian dollars..

[AdamJL]

got a link so we can read about it, Alex?

[xelasnave]

This is what I saw.
https://youtu.be/MtVWfzqoyVU

[AdamJL]

haha Alex, did you miss this bit a few seconds later?

[raymo]

If you were trying to pull an April fools' day stunt Alex, it failed miserably,
as in the video he tells us its not real.:):)
raymo

[xelasnave]

I was not trying to fool anyone ... I watch stuff whilst doing other stuff and I missed seeing the April fool confession...I decided to watch the web cast hoping to learn something and I suppose disengaged when they started announcing new products as I guess at that point I was disappointed that I had been conned to watch a commercial.
However I reported it here as I took it to be news that members would be interested in...ordinarily I would provide a link ..but I am busy doing stuff and I thought that others would know more... and I am sorry that others also have had their time wasted as well as myself.
I feel annoyed that they wasted my time...I watched their web cast to be informed not have my time wasted...and certainly I could have been less gulible but I dont expect such nonsense from what I thought was a serious astronomy web site.
My time is very precious and I really resent it being wasted.
Alex

[raymo]

I'm sure that at least some of us thought it amusing, so be glad you made some people happy for a little while.
raymo

[rustigsmed]

Go for 14" Mike https://www.apm-telescopes.net/en/apm-aries-lzos-telescope-apo-refractor-3564270-cnc-lw-ii only a 9-15 month wait too!

[strongmanmike]

Yep, that'd be ok too! :thumbsup:...need a bigger dome though :question:

Mike

[glend]

Darn, you had me going Alex, so much that I posted a rumour thread here to investigate.

[Peter Ward]

Geeez...it took a while for the penny to drop.

But for a mere kilogram of gold bullion, I'll swap you this complete AP system :D

[doppler]

Here's what a 8.5 inch f12.5 would look like, you would need a pretty beefy mount.

[xelasnave]

At f12.5 it is going to be huge..something f5 perhaps.

I wonder if the builder ever got it mounted...one thing for sure there is no way I would put it on the stuff he used to get a photo of it...crazy.

I have found a manufacturer of 200 and 230 mm but you order and they build it. I don't have time for that and they want near 30000 u $ ..I can't see the value no matter how sharp the image given I have the eyes of a 75 year old... plus it is my personal opinion folk get a little carried away over image quality which I find perplexing ....

So I think I will just buy a staradventurer and build up a little travelling rig...heck the money saved by not getting a 30,000 u $ will pay for a decent second hand four wheel drive as well and motel fees for as long as I will be travelling.

I would love to compare one of these expensive refractors with my good old Newtonian eight inch to see if with my eyes I could notice the difference.

The other problem buying a 200mm is I would need yet another observatory which would be great if I thought the rain may stop ...

Alex

[mura_gadi]

If your wondering what the scope would look like, George Clark's amazing spaces Series 9, Episode 5, about 28minutes in.

E8 mount with extended legs, looked very useable for such a monster and fitted into the back of a small station wagon.

[Hemi]

What a nice thread. So many tangential thoughts.

It maybe “blasphemous” to say this Peter but I always feel that its such a complete and tragic waste to put a camera at the focal plane of such a beautiful set of optics, instead of letting that precious starlight imbibe my retina and have a final resting place in my limbic system.

[mura_gadi]

Rick -
Think the caption for that shot should read "So, this is my guide scope..."

Alex -
Don't waste money on a 4x4 with the MX calling, think of the places and payloads you could have if you allocated 30k to helicopter transport instead...

[xelasnave]

True and I just remembered I have a good 4x4 it is just unregistered cause it was for me to look around the place but with all the gates I have not done so yet.

I have hired a helicopter once for a day (for business reasons) and I must admit they are rather neat ...

It is this continual rain and cloud that is getting to me, I have practiced the guitar so much I believe I can now actually play not too bad and have played with every song in my stack and after hours that would add up to days on the microscopes I need to give that a rest.

Actually I could have a helicopter land on my block here and drop me somewhere...I just want a couple of decent nights imaging.

And I cant get out again and coming in last night near lost the car in the trees, slow but 45degrees slide into the real boggy part how it got out I really dont know..that was in the white car as the red one seems to handle that part ok..maybe rear wheel drive gets it thru.

I have sortta run outta projects plus I cant walk really..

Alex

[Peter Ward]

Ah...a purist.

But the AP155 (that superseded the AP152), was first and foremost an astrograph...to quote AP:

"The 155mm f7 StarFire EDF (6.1" aperture) was designed to be the ultimate
astrograph while providing uncompromising visual performance"

i.e. that visual stuff came in second :)

[Hans Tucker]

Ahh but did the AP160EDF usurp the throne ;)

[Peter Ward]

A point of contention?

The 155 was oil spaced, had a faster F-ratio and designed as a five element astrograph system that produced a 4" image circle.
The 160...also awesome...but had an optional corrector that was good over a 3" image circle.

Would I swap my AP155 for a AP160? Maybe not.

Moot in either case, as sadly both are no longer in production.

[xelasnave]

I was rather surprised by this comparison posted on Cloudy Nights as I thought the difference would be much much greater...

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/478771-ap-160-vs-sw-150-esprit/

[Peter Ward]

Yes, I recall that CN post. The CA, FWHM and contrast is superior in the AP, but it does indeed come with considerably more expense.

My understanding is with most engineering, getting the first 87% spot on is
no too difficult or expensive.

At the other end, the last 3% to perfection is difficult and expensive.

And for many that last 3% simply doesn't matter.

[evltoy]

Correct. It was a April fools ad. They say it in the webcast

[xelasnave]

Certainly for me it is entirely un necessary given my age and ability...

What is wonderful is that the lesser options are not that much of a compromise.

I mentioned guitars coming from China that are on the same level as guitars coming from the US for ten times the price...once in the past the difference was really obvious but these days it is really difficult to pick on a good Chinese guitar and find any fault at all...I have an excellent guitar out of the US and certainly it is a wonderful instrument but I also have a Chinese guitar that I bought second hand that seems, to me at least, just as good...I purchased a small fender strat copy from kmart once for $75 which I converted to a three string slide guitar..the quality was flawless except for the pick ups ...it as perfect..On my Chinese standard guitar it has one flaw.. one fret which is a little too high now that I have dramatically lowered the action ..however I am sanding it down a little each time I play so as to get it perfect...it is the 17 th fret so it really does not matter for the stuff I play...which is sortta the point with scopes I guess..

But I am one of those folk who will not pay multiple times the cost of a unit that will do the job simply to get, what we can identify it seems, 3% better...when racing you do that sort of thing however...just look at the speed difference in any racing..not that great but from first place to last place could be hundreds of thousands difference in the cost of parts.

However I would rather buy a cheaper scope and another sports car...and I can afford any of these scopes but I simply dont see the point.

Like I could buy a 24inch flash set up and spend ten fold my current involvement but I cant use what I have to the limit of the gear...spending a couple of hundred grand wont make my colour blindness go away and let's face it
you do need to be good with colour in astro photography.


However it is good that there are humans who demand better and better as that is of course what carries things forward...


Alex

[Hans Tucker]

$67K ... there about .... mmm ... nah