[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