William Optics Zenithstar ZS71 ED 2013

[martin_h]

Just a quick un-boxing and first thoughts...

You know how you get an image in your head and its nothing like reality?.......Well I knew it was a short scope, I'd read all the blurb and the reviews, but when the box arrived my first thought was "Where's the rest of it?" LOL...its not every day a telescope is deliverd in a square box is it?

1st thought......It's small....it's rinky dinky!

2nd thought.....It's heavy........its seems heavier than it should be if that makes sense, considering the size of it.

3rd thought......I'm gonna like this scope.

Just to put it in perspective - which not a lot of reviews do........the trainer is a size 9 !!

[Black Knight]

Wow, I hadn't realised it was quite as compact as this .... Very nice . I must admit I've been toying about picking up this scope. I'm looking forward to your first light report

[Rich MedRev]

Now that is seriously compact, dare I say 90mm Questar territory!?

What are you mounting it upon?

Sent from my BlackBerry 9800 using Tapatalk

[martin_h]

Now that is seriously compact, dare I say 90mm Questar territory!?

What are you mounting it upon?

Sent from my BlackBerry 9800 using Tapatalk

NEQ6...you reckon it will cope?

[Dunkster]

1360090346[/url'>' post='1816118']

NEQ6...you reckon it will cope?

Might be a challenge balancing all that weight

It really is compact - I recently travelled with mine in an average sized laptop bag, diagonal, eyepieces, finder all in with no stretching, sagging or anything else suspicious. Only the tripod went in the case

[garethmob]

how big is it in relation to a megrez 72? that does seem a small scope! is it me or is that focus knob larger than normal?

[martin_h]

The focus knob has a screw on protective cover.

[Mik3]

Looking forward to see some images with this

[garethmob]

Ahhhh that's a really kool design!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk please ignore any spelling typo thingys

[ollypenrice]

Careful you don't lose it!!! (Hell, I put it down somewhere...)

I wonder how much drawtube will be exposed when it's in focus? Any idea?

Olly

[martin_h]

I have no idea about anything at the moment, It's sat in its box under the bed, and looking at the forcast its going to stay there for quite a while.

One thing that will look odd tho, I'm going to piggyback it on top of the ED80 and ust the 80 for a guide scope............so my guide scope will be about 3 x longer than the imaging scope!

[jezhughes]

It is so dinky! I love mine. It also helped with my parent relations as my mum gets annoyed when i get large telescopes (she was really annoyed about the 200p), so i was able to confidently lie to her and pass it off as something cheap and average (it's not). I keep everything in her kitchen so the smaller the better...

Olly, in focus the draw on mine is a couple of inches. Can't remember exactly as i don't check the dial.

Its heavy but really well made. Ironically its actually a bit of a pain to balance in Dec (if you should ever want to), its back heavy and if you want to rotate it you can't fit the scope very far up the clamp, otherwise the focusers knock. So mine doesn't actually balance very well at all, and it is quite a bit of back weight once the draw tube's out and your gears on the end.

[martin_h]

[Dunkster]

1360158640[/url'>' post='1817163']

Its heavy but really well made. Ironically its actually a bit of a pain to balance in Dec (if you should ever want to), its back heavy and if you want to rotate it you can't fit the scope very far up the clamp, otherwise the focusers knock. So mine doesn't actually balance very well at all, and it is quite a bit of back weight once the draw tube's out and your gears on the end.

Have you tried reversing the dovetail/shoe? I also found it back heavy, especially when spooling out the focus (is that in out, back?), but haven't had any decent nights recently to try again

[martin_h]

Careful you don't lose it!!! (Hell, I put it down somewhere...)

I wonder how much drawtube will be exposed when it's in focus? Any idea?

Olly

With the reducer fitted the drawtube extends about 30mm in focus.

[martin_h]

I'm not overly impressed with the focuser, first of all the tension screw wasn't done up at all, so when I mounted the filterwheel and CCD the whole drawtube slid out, luckily it's fitted with a stop! Secondly, the fine focus wont pull the drawtube(and filterwheel/CCD) against gravity, outwards movement is fine, inwards is a no go.

[jezhughes]

I'm not overly impressed with the focuser, first of all the tension screw wasn't done up at all, so when I mounted the filterwheel and CCD the whole drawtube slid out, luckily it's fitted with a stop! Secondly, the fine focus wont pull the drawtube(and filterwheel/CCD) against gravity, outwards movement is fine, inwards is a no go.

Hmm, never had that problem personally.. maybe you adjusted the tension screw too much and the fine focuser can't bring inward now?

I've had a fully loaded filter wheel, reducer and ccd on the back and not had a problem, although granted the fine focus does struggle to focus inward when there's weight on the back, but it should be capable

[pixueto]

Guys, this is probably a dumb question but how do you attach a finder to this scope if you want to use it on a HEQ5Pro? At the moment, I'm using a SW200P reflector guiding through the finder. I'm thinking about using the HEQ5Pro-ZS71-finder but I don't have a clue about what I need to attach everything. Will the ZS71 go into the HEQ5 without any adapter? Is it possible to add a vixen tyoe shoe to the little scope so I can add the finder? Can you give me an indication of what I need?

Thanks for your help and time

[Dunkster]

The ZS71 already has a Vixen style dovetail shoe

Finder wise, there are two screws forward of the focuser on the main tube for attaching WO's (or similar) red dot finder - although I've heard it's a little bright, from its origins as a rifle finder. Not sure how you might attach a magnifying finder, but with such a short focal length scope, would it really help...

[pixueto]

Thanks, I need to attach the finder as it's my guiding scope.

[DoctorD]

One of these should do the trick

http://www.365astronomy.com/multi-reticle-red-dot-finderscope-for-refractors-with-metal-body-p-1692.html

Remove one of the grub screws on the top of the focuser body - finer mount fits with single supplied screw.

HTH

Paul

[pixueto]

Thank you. The ZS71 would actually be the main scope, and I need to attach a standard SW finder so the finder can work as a guiding scope. Is there a chance then to attach a standar Skywatcher finder bracket? So far, all my imaging has been done with a SW200P on a HEQ5Pro. I'm considering buying this little scope for widefield and for reducing weight so piggibacking is not an option.

Many thanks

[Dunkster]

There's another pair of screws behind the grub screws, larger, shiny and one behind the other. Anyone know what they're for? I haven't been brave enough to loosen them

There's not a whole lot of space, tbh, I have a Rigel baseplate and there's not a lot more room lengthways.

[gingergeek]

Anyone seen or found a review on these scopes ? I was considering buying one to sit on top of my ED80 instead of the ST80. Use a CCD on it with OAG and DSLR on the slower ED80.

Any experts look at one yet ? I know various people like Olly don't rate WO in general.

[DoctorD]

Just found this:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/baader-universal-quick-release-finder-base.html

Looks like it might be a single screw finder shoe suitable for Vixen/Skywatcher style brackets.

HTH

Paul