Interested

:blink:I have an Atik 314L coming to me very soon and will predominantly be using it on the ed80. I do have a focal reducer too, but I have heard that spacing is an issue potentially. In the package I am also getting the EfW2 with filters.

Should I give it a go firstly without the reducer? Field flattening probably isn't a concern with the small chip I would have thought?

What spacers or adapters will be required?

Thanks

Tony

If I remember rightly, the chip to front of camera is 12 mm for the 314L+ and 22 mm thickness for the EFW2 = 34 mm.Chip to reducer is usually 56 mm so you are looking at a 22 mm spacer between the filter wheel and reducer. I'm sure someone will be along to correct me soon if I am wrong!

Pete

To be honest, given the available sample images and price, I can't understand why anyone would choose the SW Esprit 100 over a Borg 101ED with F4 super reducer which cost just £30 more. For £1k less you can get the slightly slower Altair 115 EDT, which have produced some incredible images.

Well, The first review was mine. I bought the Esprit because I wanted a scope where I could plug in my 383L+ & filterwheel , focus, and 'away I go'. Fed up fiddling with spacings between chip & lens! The in-built flattener would allow easy use of 2" filters as well (I still get vignetting with 1.25" filters). The T Thread system is ok for the 314L+ but, in my opinion, M 48 would be better for the 383L+. The Esprit seemed like a neat solution for both cameras. The problem with the scope is that it is not collimatable - this has to be carried out at the factory.

I had ordered a GTF81 from Ian King but was informed today that of the 6 scopes he took delivery of, a few were not good enough to sell to customers so he could not fill my order. I'm not sure if this is isolated or not. Apparently, Williams Optics only made 100 GTF's for world wide sale, so a bit like the GT - going to be difficult to get hold of (not sure why WO bought out the GT flattener when you can't buy the scope?).

I'm now looking at a Takahashi FSQ 85ED.

P.S. The images I took with the scope were fairly short exposures under the light polluted skies of Bristol and were just taken to show the problem with the Esprit - I am sure that, if the Esprit had been collimated and images were taken over a few hours under dark skies they would have been very good. The Esprit is a nice looking scope and balanced well on my mount. It is a shame I had problems and if I could be sure they were sorted, I would buy the scope again. It is a shame that most suppliers can only sell you a scope - they don't have the facilities to check out the scope before they mail it to you!

Regards,

Hi Michael,

The M 42 exposure was taken with my ED 80 using 1.25" filters, a 0.8 Reducer/Flattener and a manual filterwheel. I bought the Atik EHW 2 filterwheel and 2" filters thinking it might cure the problem.....wrong!

I can get focus ok with the Meade, I just plug the R/F straight into the tube. Can get focus ok without the R/F as well. I have the light problem in all situations.

It would help if Atik suggested some settings when using their cameras with their software (Artemis Capture), but, they don't.

I've now returned the camera to Atik so will update once it is returned to me.

I am quite open that it could just be the way I am using the camera but without 'suggested settings' I don't know.

I have never had problems with my Atik 314 though.

Thanks both, for your inputs.

Image 1 & 2 are from the same session. As pointed out, the 2nd image has what appears to be vignetting, which is a bit of a surprise as I am using 2" filters.

The 'dark' I took with the cap off is just to show that, with the shutter closed there is a bad light leak on the shutter (not sure if this would be classed as normal?). If the shutter isn't closing properly, it might be the cause of my problem?

The darks I use for stacking with the exposures in DSS are taken with the lens cap on so don't exhibit light leak.

Attached is an even worse light leak from a session on M 42 back in Jan. I thought the problem then might just be over exposure (5 min guided) but not sure that would explain the arc of light at the bottom of the image?

It might help if the instruction manuals that come with the cameras were a bit more comprehensive

Hi all,

I bought an Atik 383L+ in Oct 2011. I haven't used it much and have had a few problems with it:

The images I have taken mostly seem to have alot of light creeping in at the bottom of the images (Image 1). I have discounted light from the laptop having ensured the laptop is shielded from my setup. I also use the 'night vision' facility in Artemis. I say 'mostly', as when the light isn't creeping in at the bottom of the image I get the effect in the second image (Image 2) attached! The images were taken using an Atik EFW 2 filterwheel and 2" Baader filters (images attached, using the 'L' filter, but get the same problem with the RG&B as well). Both these images were taken in the same session (one after the other in fact!) so the conditions were the same for both images.Images 1 & 2 are 300 sec guided.

I suspected a intermittent shutter fault so took a 3 second 'dark' with the camera lens cap off (I know the shutter isn't meant to be light proof) to see if the exposure would be 'even' (Image 'Dark' attached) - it wasn't. I use darks taken with the lens cap fitted when I stack in DSS but still get a final image as seen in 'Image 1' or 'Image 2'.

Has anyone any idea what the problem could be?

I am loath to send the camera back to Atik until I have ensured the problem isn't being caused by my doing something stupid!

Thanks to all

A great forum!

I joined it before I bought my scope and the forum influenced my choice (my main interest is DSO imaging).

The various sections in the forum (and using search) have answered many questions for me.

The few questions I have needed to asked so far have been quickly answered by knowledgeable people.