William Optics GTF-81 - Very Initial Observations

[Gasman]

Thanks for that Tyler, look forward to seeing some shots from your scope!

Steve

[tferrari]

One last thing - I never really addressed what you were getting at with your comment about your camera and filter wheel. I think the focuser will handle that load without a problem even if the draw tube is racked out to 80mm. You can remove any draw tube slop by tightening the shaft brake (applies pressure to shaft through to rack which is attached to draw tube) and by adjusting draw tube brake (which applies pressure at the 2 o'clock position of draw tube). You can sort of compress these components together to get what you need.

[tferrari]

Finally a test image (took long enough!)

I haven't really posted many pictures on here before so let me know if there is a more convenient or efficient way.

I wanted to keep this photo full frame for everyone to be able to see the field flatness. Guiding was pretty good and the stars are quite flat right to the edge of the field. Sub length is too short, no light pollution filter used. This worked well as a test photo, however.

This photo was shot in mono.

Click for full size frame.

Target: M3

Scope: William Optics GTF-81 81mm/F5.9

Camera: ATIK 383L+/EFW2/Astrodon Gen 2 Lum filter (-20degC)

Mount: NEQ6 Pro

Guiding: PHD w/ Orion SSAG & 50mm guide scope (pulseguiding-EQMod)

Integrations: 20 x 90sec lights (30min),20 x darks

Processing: Nebulosity 3, PS CS5.1 (64bit)

Seeing: poor

[steppenwolf]

Excellent - no sign of the collimation issue present on my sample. I hope that this is now typical of the units being shipped by William Optics as the GTF-81 *should* be a really good buy. Here's hoping that earlier QC issues are now a thing of the past because I'd love to see this instrument do well for the company.

[tferrari]

WO was very aware of the initial QC issues with the GTF-81. From what I can tell, the issues seem to be a thing of the past. In the case that a user does have an issue, I'm quite convinced that WO will bend over backwards to maintain their reputation.

As a side note, it seems they are taking a much more hands-on and proactive approach in their Taiwan fabrication facility, trying to detect and prevent issues long before the products make it to market.

Tyler