First Light - Skywatcher Esprit 100 ED Quad

[Interested]

I was going to post pictures of opening up the new scope and first light images but thought members might like to see the first light image first. I have posted 2 images, both of M 51. Both used the Atik 314L+ guided with PHD (with a very flat graph!) are the same duration of exposures (6x5 minutes in RG&. The image with round stars was taken with the ED 80, the other image was taken using the Esprit. The scope has been returned to Ian King and the images sent to the Esprit optical designer. I hope this shows that I can take an image (though my processing skills leave a lot to be desired!).

Even on the screen before I recorded the image I could see the stars in the Esprit image were not round.

I performed a star test and the diffraction(?) image going binto focus was very unstable. Going through focus the star appeared ok and passing through focus the diffraction image was spot on.

Ian King bench tested the scope on it's return and said he could see nothing seriously wrong except a "slightly strange artifact in the diffraction image one side of focus".

I will let you all now what comes back from the optical designer but in the meantime - would any one like to guess what the outcome will be?

I have not ruled out that it might be something I am doing wrong!

[Nadeem Shah]

Im just wondering did the espirit come with a flattener or is it built into the scope, just in case it's a spacing issue...

[Interested]

Hi Nadeem,

The flattener is built into the scope.

Pete

[Nadeem Shah]

It might be even that your camera might not have been square on the focuser properly, wait & see what Mr. Skywatcher says....

[harry page]

Hi

This a shame

It is the second bad report of this scope I have seen , was thinking of getting one

Harry

[melsky]

Maybe it's the missing element; I thought this was supposed to be a Quintuplet

It looks like Greg Parker is testing one http://www.newforestobservatory.com/2012/03/12/first-light-for-the-sky-watcher-esprit-ed-100-quintuplet-refractor/

Sounds promising, I'm considering this scope as well.

Mel

[harry page]

Hi

I spoke to greg parker and its not going well , sending it back I think

Harry

[Interested]

Lol Mel,

Your right, it is a quintuplet (5 element) .

What was Greg's problem Harry, at least he seems to be getting round stars?

Nadeem, I thought the camera may not be square-on so I double checked that, as you say, wait to see what Mr Skywatcher says. So far, I have no doubt they will sort the problem. Odd though, M 51 looks not too bad, but the stars! I was just wondering how I could get stars that shape if I tried?

I have heard that WO had problems with early batches of their first triplets. I wonder if new designs are field tested before releasing to the public?

I hope it will eventually turn out to be a very good scope

[Interested]

Ian King has come back to me today to confirm the problem I was having is collimation related .

Anyway, scope is being returned. It is an aweful shame as it is a lovely looking and compact scope that fitted my needs. Hopefully, Mr skywatcher will resolve the problems soon......

In the meantime, it looks like a WO FLT 98 with IV flattener for me .

[Whirlwind]

Which is a very nice alternative, albeit you lose some of the back focus and that it only has a t-thread output. However just watch the focuser as it depending on the weight of your camera set up.

Ian

[NickK]

The flattener is built into the scope.

Very nice! It's only a matter of time before you'll start expecting all scopes to naturally flatten the FoV. A flat field is what I expect from a scope - obviously spoilt by the SDP (which is a an SD doublet+ED fronted doublet flattener)..

[Interested]

Hi Ian,

I had been advised that the stock focuser wasn't the best so I have bought the WO FLT 98 with a Feather Touch 3" focuser - It handles the Atik 383, filter-wheel and IV reducer/flattener with ease.....all at f5.

Nick, It is a shame about the Esprit, it is a lovely scope. I liked the idea of just plugging the camera in and focusing without worrying about chip to flattener distances. It is a new design and 5 elements! The scope weighed about 7kgs. A few nights of eperimentation with the FLT though and hopefully, that will be me set to go!

[Coco]

Did the 100 ED Esprit ever recover from this marketing disaster ... how on earth did they let it onto the retail market, lets hope those early bird buyers of the GTF81 dont get burned..

[E621Keith]

There is one question I always wanted to ask people who purchased SW Esprit 100.

Why not the Borg 101ED+F4 super reducer? The Borg is a proven design, it's faster and only cost £31 more than the Esprit 100. Why pick the Sky Watcher?

[Interested]

There is one question I always wanted to ask people who purchased SW Esprit 100.

Why not the Borg 101ED+F4 super reducer? The Borg is a proven design, it's faster and only cost £31 more than the Esprit 100. Why pick the Sky Watcher?

It's a question of taste to an extent, otherwise we would all buy the same scope. That said, the Esprit is a f5 scope with a built in flattener - no mucking around with spacers to get the required chip to lense gap. I could just 'plug in' my 314/383/550, focus, and away I go! The UK also tends to favour the T thread system (M42 thread) despite trying to sell people cameras with ever bigger chips. M48 is a better size adapter for the 383L+. Rather than purchase adaptors from several sources in several sizes, the Esprit seemed a neat solution - and cheaper than a Televue NP 101 or Tak FSQ-106. It was a gamble buying the scope, the quality of the optics being unknown at the time of buying. It could have turned to be a classic scope!

Just my opinion.

Regards,

[SamAndrew]

What you really mean is it's a gamble for the retailers; If you buy it and it's no good then just return it, and then buy one of the other scopes; you can't lose. The same was true of the GTF-81.

[Interested]

What you really mean is it's a gamble for the retailers; If you buy it and it's no good then just return it, and then buy one of the other scopes; you can't lose. The same was true of the GTF-81.

I'm not sure what you mean by "buy one of the other scopes"? I wanted a flatfield refractor - there's not many manufacturers out there making them. I was thinking of buying a Tak FSQ-85EDX at the time I bought the Esprit, the 'gamble' for me was that I could get a flatfield refractor at 2/3rds the price. I couldn't - I've ordered the Tak.

Regards,