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Skywatcher Esprit ED APO Triplets have arrived!

FLO

By FLO
in Sponsor Announcements and Offers

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FLO

FLO

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The new Skywatcher Professional Esprit 3-Element ED apochromatic refractors are here in the UK and available for overnight delivery. With these new premium triplet refractors Skywatcher are entering the posh end of the refractor market confident that their optical performance will rival or exceed that normally associated with the most famous high-end brands.

Designed primarily for demanding astro-imagers wanting high-contrast images full of detail with pin-point stars right to the edge of the field and zero detectable colour fringing, even on the brightest of objects!

Two models are available f7 Skywatcher Esprit 150 ED PRO Triplet and the Skywatcher Esprit 120 ED PRO Triplet, both with f7 focal ratios.

Steve :rolleyes:

(Apologies for the basic stock photos, we'll upgrade them as soon as possible)

skywatcher-esprit-150-ed-pro-triplet.jpg

skywatcher-esprit-120-ed-pro-triplet.jpg

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FLO

FLO

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... let us know how they sell?

Will do :)

Skywatcher already dominate the beginner-intermediate end of the market and practically own the quality doublet market so they stand a good chance of succeeding at the premium end too.

It will take people a while to associate the brand with premium triplets, but they will. Ultimately optical performance will determine the outcome and this level of performance cannot be done on a budget, at least not consistently.

These are interesting times :rolleyes:

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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I'm all for it but SW need to be aware that, as well as moving into the production of a new kind of product, they are moving towards a new kind of customer. The person spending this kind of money on what remains a smallish aperture telescope wants one thing. Perfection. You get it with Takahashi (at a prodigious price.) You get it with TEC at a price not so far from this.

I suspect that one thing this kind of customer doesn't want is a Crayford focuser. Maybe I'm wrong.

Any talk of a flattener? Last I heard the one for the TEC was breezing daintily in at 750 dollars.

Anyway if anyone wants to send one down here for review I will be moderately interested. (French for Leaping up and down in frenzied excitement!)

Optimistic Olly.

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Whippy

Whippy

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Would be very nice to see a side by side test with one of the top brands though..

I would imagine if the scopes are as good as the sales patter, then the only real way to do a test would be on an optical bench as the real world differences between them would be tiny at best.

I guess the $ooo question is - even if optically they are superb, for this sort of money would you be persuaded to buy a chinese refractor over american, japanese or russian?

I'd agree with that, brand snobbery counts for a lot when you're spending that kind of money :rolleyes:.

Tony..

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FLO

FLO

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In a funny roundabout kinda way I think some will buy one because it lacks prestige. For about 2-3 years you will be able to setup at Kielder or Kelling without drawing a crowd :rolleyes:

After-which 'Esprit' will have the same bragging rights as the other posh brands...

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fatwoul

fatwoul

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Steve, I just noticed that both scopes are listed as 120mm f/7 on this page. Just letting you know so you can fix it.

This is indeed an interesting turn. Makes me wonder what happened to the fancy fracs that SW were displaying in that last catalogue, and why these two were nowhere to be seen. Maybe they didn't want to mix these scopes up with the beginner stuff for the same reason they've given these scopes entirely new branding.

However, the appearance of these makes me wonder whether this announcement and the delay of the EQ8 are connected - whether the EQ8 is being redesigned to better accommodate these scopes and the sort of customers who might buy them. If that's the case, I can wave goodbye to an EQ8 for ~£2,500 next summer!

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FLO

FLO

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Steve, I just noticed that both scopes are listed as 120mm f/7 on this page. Just letting you know so you can fix it.

Sorted. Thank-you :rolleyes:

We wanted to be the first dealer to list them so I was in rather a rush ;)

If that's the case, I can wave goodbye to an EQ8 for ~£2,500 next summer!

I doubt the EQ8 will come in at less than £4k. Like these Esprit refractors Skywatcher are building the EQ8 to appeal to the posh end of the market. When it arrives it will be something very special indeed :)
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FLO

FLO

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I feel sure anyone buying an FLT-123 or Esprit-120 will upgrade the focuser to a Moonlite or Feathertouch. I find the resurgence of interest in rack-and-pinion focusers interesting. There are pros and cons for both Crayford and R&P but ultimately it is the manufacturing quality that determines performance. After all, the best and worse focusers are R&P.

Btw, we have some William Optics FLT-123 arriving later this month fitted with WO's new R&P focuser.

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AndyUK

AndyUK

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I'll be interested in seeing a head to head between the Esprit 120 and the Altair Astro 115. :rolleyes:
I'd be interested to see that too - At £1,000 (c. 40%) more and excluding a flattener, it might have a bit of a job on its hands...
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John

John

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Also - would you really want a 28mm 2" LET lens thrown in? Surely a nirvana UWA would be more of the order of the day!

In the niche they are aiming for, they don't really need to include either an eyepiece or a diagonal I reckon.

I wonder if they will loan some to some top imagers and let the results speak for themselves :rolleyes:

It did wonders for Skoda's image when some top rally driving names started to appear in their cars :)

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AndyUK

AndyUK

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Oooohhh - Sorry... I missed that - I stand corrected... :rolleyes:.

But it IS still £1,000 more. Okay, it does come with some "extra's" too, but... I guess the proof will be when someone can do a review. I'd like to think that they've got it right, but I'm also hoping that the cost of the 100/f5 pretzval won't be as high as I'm now expecting it to be (Maybe we could run a sweep?!)

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MjrTom

MjrTom

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Also - would you really want a 28mm 2" LET lens thrown in? Surely a nirvana UWA would be more of the order of the day!

Yeah good point!

Although saying that most premium OTA don't usually come with much other than tube rings....

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