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From the subliminal: Quick first light on the William Optics ZS110............

Whippy

By Whippy
in Member Equipment Reviews

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Whippy

Whippy

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It's been a fairly long road from deciding to get a refractor to tonight. I'm not going to into the boring details so let's get one thing out of the way, it's GORGEOUS! Very very nice. I would say it reminds me of the old Lotus/JPS F1 cars but the first thing that entered my mind was it's got the same colour scheme as the old Raleigh Ultra Burner BMX that I has when I was a kid. No accounting for brains here...

Anyways, skies were clear-ish but the seeing wasn't great but I'm not knocking it, where's the new scope curse? I haven't got the alt/az mount for the grab & go either, that's coming tomorrow so it was onto the trusty cappuchino machine for it's first look out into the skies. Align it up and off we go...

First up, three colour contrast doubles. Almach, Albeiro and Rasalgethi. All looked gorgeous, proper colours and neat and tidy. What struck me (apart from the obvious lack of diffraction spikes) was how dark the sky looked in comparison to my C8N, glorious. The double speed focuser is simply a joy to use. I always have trouble getting a tight focus on my bog-standard R&P focuser on the C8N, not here. Pin sharp and the motion of it is smooooth as a baby's backside. The whole focuser rotating works well too, no fuss, no muss.

A couple of gobs next, M92 and M13. Wow! Never seen these like this before! Stars are sharp, the cores don't have that 'de-tuned TV' look about them that I've been used to. I don't think I can resolve as many stars as I can with my newt, but that doesnt matter as the overall view is much better.

Then disaster strikes, I can hear my eldest crying his eyes out in his room and I spend the next 45 minutes calming him down and sorting him out. He hasn't done anything like that for ages. Tonight of all nights........

Back outside for a quick look at M31 and TBH I can't tell the difference between what I'm looking at through with this and what I'm used to with my C8N. Time has caught up with me and it's time to pack away. Very carefully I might add!!

So what do I think so far? Flippin' amazed! It's a solid, well built, clearly high quality scope (as my wife said, it screams quality) that looks the part as well to boot. Even with my relatively inexperienced eyes, I can tell the views (from what little I've seen) through it are top notch. Over the next few months, I'm certain that I'm going to appreciate the quality of this scope more and more and when finances permitting should serve me well when I take the plunge into imaging. It's certainly a keeper this one! I'll post a proper first light report when I get a bit more time with it.

Tony..

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Whippy

Whippy

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Thank you gents. It arrived last thursday and I was awaiting some other bits to arrive before I could use it. That was a long week I can tell you! I forgot to mention the RDF, I've never used one before but took me all of about 5 minutes to get the hang of it :(. The diagonal (carbon fibre and dilectric no less!) is great too.

Jamie, I thought my C8N looked slick in Black, but this thing is in a different league looks wise! Shame about the mount, EQ6 on the wish list...

I'll be doing a proper first light report on it soon with assistance from someone who has more experienced eyes than me, so it should be a bit better than my usual ramblings!

I'm going to be doing another FL report on something else hopefully tonight (skies permitting) if the courier turns up with it...

Tony..

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Whippy

Whippy

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Cheers Tom :(. Had another crack last night and I've never seen open clusters like that before! Stunning :). Shame the Alt/Az didn't turn up yesterday, it'll be nice to get a quick look at Jupiter (however bad the view will be) before it sinks.

Tony..

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Whippy

Whippy

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Beautiful Scope Tony....

BTW The Raleigh Ultra Burner was rubbish. I had a Firebird Freestyler with CW Bars and Skyways....so there.

Jonathen (Not Bob Haro)

Pfft. Plastic wheels, c'mon.... Ultra Burners had Araya rims!! Had to have a lean-back seat and Shimano platform pedals post too :(.

Remember this? Andy Ruffell.... CHERRRYYYY PIIICKERRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

Tony..

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jonifive

jonifive

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Ha I remember it well. I spent ages on our quater pipe just learning to do a rollback 540 like he did. And those plastic wheels were indestructable compared to the Arayas and the Z rims I destroyed.

I forgot about the redline flight crank, shimano brakes, levers and headstock (drilled out naturally), shimano dx pedals, Fiola seat and Haro lean back seat post. Oh yes and the numerous pairs of Mushroom grips.

And no skin on my knuckles and shins after falling off doing kerb endos!!

Those were the days....JV

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Whippy

Whippy

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Bless you sir, you've just bought a huge smile to my face remembering all that stuff :(. So I take it you never owned a pair of those metal mag-like wheels on a (I think) Team Murray then, complete with pedal back brakes weighed about 3 tons but completely indestructable!

Tony..

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jonifive

jonifive

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Oh God! Pedal back brakes Puch Murrey style, straight from the US of A. Good for backhops, lousy for everything else!. I remember laughing at the BMX bit in the film E.T. because they had pedal back brakes on their Mongooses. And fantasizing about Nicole Kidman in BMX Bandits.

Can't wait to buy my eldest a BMX, and show him how RAD his fat, bald, old dad is!!!

:( Jonathen

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lunator

lunator

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Tony

That looks * sounds a crackin' scope. Look forward to hearing a report when you have a chance with the complete grab & go set up.

JV ..... becareful RAD dad's have an unacnny knack of doing themselves serious harm..... :(

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Whippy

Whippy

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I did have a quick go with it on top of the AZ3 last night to have a very quick look at Jupiter. Well, it looks like that Celestron zoom lens my wife got will start being used! Makes life LOADS easier :). I'll be sorting out a proper 1st light when SOMEONE finds the time :D.

I'm off over the local park to show the kids how to do a wheelie hop..

Tony..

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MartinB

MartinB

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Great scope Tony. 10 years ago this sort of thing was multi thousand pound esoterica. God bless China. Should be a great visual and imaging scope.

Mind you I hate all this pretty scope nonsense that WO has got into. Working very well for them but I hate paying money for cosmetics. Scopes are for looking through not at.

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