William Optics 132 mm F7 vs Espirt 120 mmF7

[Avoman1 (Darryl)]

Hi all
I am starting this wonderful hobby once again after a break for many years. I have purchased a Meade XL850 mount with payload of around 40kg. Now for the scope....... If anyone has used either of these refractors I would enjoy hearing your thoughts. Both the 132 Williams and the 120 Espirt are triplets with the 132 being around $4500 and the Espirt 120 around $3500 (including hard case, sighting scope dove tail and flattener).
I do not have any experience with these better quality telescopes so would appreciate others thoughts or some other brand of similar quality. I will be using a Nikon D700 or D800 so the stronger focus mechanism in needed. I will not be moving the setup around, it will stay at the one location.

Thanks in advance

Darryl

[Somnium (Aidan)]

I can't help you with the refractors but welcome to the boards

[casstony]

The most recent versions of both scopes get good reviews; from an imaging perspective the Esprit appears to be considerably better value.

The WO R&P focuser is probably better and the Rotolock feature works well, though with the price difference one could purchase a Feathetouch focuser for the Esprit if necessary.

[Avoman1 (Darryl)]

Thanks Tony yes the price is right with the Espirt. I'm thinking for the price of the WO 132 I can have both an 80and 120 espirt. With some added extras in the box. still unsure of the optical quality difference between the two brands.

Thanks for the advice

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Welcome Darryl!

I'm not sure you can go far wrong with either scope, the WO offers larger aperture for the larger price tag.

I have the Esprit 100 and have been very impressed with it so far. The focusser also rotates and locks, although it looks like the WO design would be easier to grip in the cold. I've not had any issues with the focusser slipping, but my camera (Canon 1100D) isn't very heavy.

I'm not convinced you'd get both the 120 and 80 for the price of the WO though, unless you get a really good deal somewhere...snap it up! I originally wanted the 80 but the price jump to the 100 was less than I expected. Just bear in mind that the 80 only has a 30mm imaging circle, so with a full frame camera you'd need to crop the images some. As a result, I'm not convinced you'd gain a whole lot for, the shorter focal length scope IMO.

[casstony]

Originally Posted by Avoman1

still unsure of the optical quality difference between the two brands.

Skywatcher has a reputation for producing consistently good optics in it's higher end models. That reputation is supported by a number of interferometric tests over at astro-foren, including a few samples of the ED120.

WO has a checkered history having released some very poor Fluorostars in the past, particularly around 2008-09. Reports of more recent Fluorostars are much more favourable. I recently bought a dodgy flt132 and WO have been kind enough to upgrade me to a new objective for a modest fee; it's out of stock atm, though I'll probably have it in a few weeks and can report on its quality first hand then.

My impression is that there's little difference in the optical quality of recent scopes released by these two brands.

[Avoman1 (Darryl)]

Thanks Dunk and Tony for your knowledge and welcome. I have chosen to go with the Espirt 120 and 80 mm triplets. Now for the massive learning curve. I'm very much looking forward to the challenge and the magic in the night sky. I have the two scopes at home and on their mount and then BAM the evening sky is 8/8 cloud. Good exercise in set up proceedure I guess. All of the reviews I could find spoke highly of the Espirt range ......... They are good lookin pair of scopes which will give me years of service.
Thanks again
Darryl
Ps the Meade xl850 is a full gym session to setup and pack up.

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Congrats on your new scopes Darryl, hope you'll be happy with them

But where's the pics

[Avoman1 (Darryl)]

Hi Dunk

here are some proud photos of the gear. I have setup twice now and i am getting better at alignment and learning the XL850. It will take some more practice before I hang any cameras off the back of either scope.
My first viewing was of Saturn and the 120 did not disappoint! I have still not attached the 80 as I am tiring to setup a dovetail for it either by piggy back or to the side of the 120. The XL850 will have no trouble keeping everything steady however its the balance I am concerned with and at this stage I have not spent enough time with the complete setup to know which way to go with the 80. Any hints greatly accepted.
The pair of scopes both came with many accessories (the same in each case)
the telescope with a dew cap(with a metal threaded cover plate)
9X50finder scope with tube rings and mount
2" diagonal
a 2 element thread on field flattener 33mm imaging plane with the 80ED and 44mm imaging plane with the 120ED
2" 28mm eyepiece (average bit of glass)
and an adapter for the field flattener to be threaded on to the focusers' draw tube.
and lastly a mounting ring for the nikon D800 I will be attaching one day soon.

The focus wheel is wonderfully smooth and the fine focus control works a treat.
So far very very happy with the purchase.

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Looks awesome, isn't the 120 a beast

Might be worth trying to piggy back the 80 on the 120. The rings on the bigger scope should have a series of threads - on my 100, there are 5 iirc. A mate of mine with greater skills than I (and the tools) cut an aluminium plate to straddle between the rings and secured on the top with a screw at each corner. On that plate you could then mount a dovetail clamp to hold the 80. Having the clamp is useful as you can quickly and easily remove the smaller scope.

Depending on what you're going to image, you could use the other scope as the guide scope

[Avoman1 (Darryl)]

Yes I think piggybacking the 80 is the go. Fortunately the XL850 has a guide scope ( starlock) and weights to balance everything in both axis. So now I must learn the drift alignment method I guess. Or is starlock a good enough guiding system??
I will have work this out over time. We have an upper level trough passing over SE Queensland so for the next few days we'll have cloudy damp evenings

Just noticed your location so it wet at your place to

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

I've no idea if the star lock is any good, but regardless you need a good polar alignment before starting guiding, as guiding is most effective to correct for very slight drift and not as a substitute for poor polar alignment. In the latter case, you'd still see field rotation and bloated stars because the guide corrections would need to be regularly large.

IMO, you want to get your polar alignment to a point where you can take unguided shots of a couple of minutes and still get nice round stars before resorting to guiding to help you get longer shots.

As the curse goes, clouds are usually included in the boxes with new kit