Megrez 80 II ED Triplet

grandpanancy · #1 21-04-2005, 10:26 AM

Hi Everyone,

I'm new around here and from what I can tell evryone is fairly interested in checking out new equipment.

Here are some pics of my new Megrez 80 II ED. The sope is mounted with a Manfrotto 055 tripod and microstar basic head mount from universal astronomics. It wasn't exactly cheap to put together but the results so far have pleasing. It's all just so easy to use.

The only thing I'm really disappointed with is the WO Swan 33mm ep. There is a substantial amount of blur around the outside third of the field which is proving to be really distracting. I'm waiting on some hopefully much nicer eyepieces.

Cheers,

Dan

BTW, sorry about the poor image quality.

grandpanancy · #2 21-04-2005, 10:27 AM

And another...

iceman (Mike) · #3 21-04-2005, 10:29 AM

Interesting piece of gear! Will you put it on an EQ tripod/mount at some stage?

Did you get any other eyepieces with it? What's the focal length of the scope?

[1ponders] (Paul) · #4 21-04-2005, 10:31 AM

I'd be really interested in you apraisal of the Megrez Dan as its one of the scopes I'm considering as a guide/widefield scope for mounting on my 8" Meade or (should I bite the bullet hard enough) a new larger Meade on an EQ mount.

[1ponders] (Paul) · #5 21-04-2005, 10:33 AM

Gee mike even my eyes aren't that bad

check out the mounting ring around the objective

iceman (Mike) · #6 21-04-2005, 10:35 AM

ah there it is, thanks Paul.. shows how much attention I paid to the pretty pictures

You'll need to get yourself a barlow and some shorter focal length eyepieces soon.. Looks like a great scope.

grandpanancy · #7 21-04-2005, 10:55 AM

I'm actually waiting on a 9mm University Optics HD and a x2.5 barlow. Should arrive in a couple of weeks.

I will play around with these for a while before I figure what to buy next on the ep front.

I think the 33mm swan will make an ok finder piece as it does give quite a wide view -- it just isn't that nice to look at around the outside third of the field.

Unless I get into astrophotography (which I don't intend to at this stage) I will remain with the altaz setup. Light, portable and very easy to use which is what I was after.

As for an appraisal, I'm relatively new to astronomy so if you haven't already, I would read the review on cloudynights. I will definitely let you know how it goes as I use it more though.

Dan

ving (David) · #8 21-04-2005, 11:48 AM

looks like a fine scope

look farward to hearing about the views with better EPs

Starkler (Geoff) · #9 21-04-2005, 12:47 PM

I like the alt-az mount.

My Orion ED80 is currently on an eq mount and I'll like it much better once I get an alt-az

Striker (Tony) · #10 21-04-2005, 04:27 PM

Here's more....

http://www.william-optics.com/wowebs.../features0.htm

atalas · #11 21-04-2005, 04:55 PM

Very nice scope Dan,It would look good on top of my FS102 for guiding!

Louie

beren · #12 23-04-2005, 06:24 PM

Very nice Dan ,shes a beauty, team it with a 13 mm nagler ooh baby....look forward to your celestial adventures with it

PS: saw on the WO yahoo group a 100m ed variant is in the pipeline plus a hyped up Zenithstar , WO is a company on the move

grandpanancy · #13 23-04-2005, 07:18 PM

A 15mm panoptic would also be well suited I think. It is actually taking a great deal of constraint not to buy one!

grandpanancy · #14 23-04-2005, 07:23 PM

Starkler - If you haven't decided on an altaz mount already the unistar or microstar from universal astronomics would work very well with the ed80.