William Optics Megrez 90 or 110

[Viking]

This will be my first scope. Main interest will be in Messier objects and doubles, visual, manual.

Both scopes seem to get good reviews however those on the 90 seem better. Some say the apeture wins, is this the case with these two scopes?

Eyepieces etc, I was intending to choose the TV Ethos 13mm, a TV diagonal and a TV Powermate.

The mount is less clear. I was thinking of the EQ5.

Any suggestions regarding the above would be most welcome.

Viking

[GazOC]

The 100mm obviously has more aperture but the 90mm will be far better colour corrected. Thats basically the choice you are making with these two scopes.

[Whippy]

There's a phrase 'your scope is only as good as the mount it's on'. If I may venture, you're spending a fair few quid on a scope and accessories (those Ethos' are £500 are they not?) but you're not spending a great deal on the mount. Personally I would go for a HEQ5 or EQ6.

Tony..

[psychobabbler]

Hi

I am the proud new ower of a Megrez 90 within the past couple of days, so have not had a chance for first light yet (still to figure out the vagaries of polar alignment on the HEQ5), but it really is a thing of great beauty and you can't go wrong.

PB

[John]

I've owned a Megrez 90 and they are very nice scopes. I've not tried a 110mm (I'm assuming we are talking about the doublet here rather than the triplet) but I have read that their colour correction is not quite as good as the 90mm - but then you might expect that as their optical design is basically the same just scaled up a bit.

TBH though you will soon find that you are hankering after more aperture with regard to DSO's (Messier objects and the like).

For the price of one of the WO scopes (or just the Ethos eyepiece even ) there are a lot of alternatives which might make better all-round 1st scopes IMHO. The Megrez 90 would make a very nice 2nd scope.

If I was in your position and was set on a quality apo I might think about going for a 110mm WO Triplet at the expense of the Ethos, "economise" by buying eyepieces like Hyperions and get a HEQ5 mount to go with it.

John

[Helen]

I have a Megrez 90. I've kept it because I really like it It is great if you want a relatively compact package and want to use it for grab and go. Its the one I take on holiday (if we're taking the car) and I use for short visual sessions. (For longer and deeper I use my 8 inch SCT.) The Megrez 110 is a bigger beast altogether. It is much heavier and will be much more demanding of a mount, but you will see more because fo the bigger aperture.

HTH

Helen

[GazOC]

Thats a good idea John, having £500 tied up in one eyepiece at the expense of compromising on the telescope isn't the best way to go IMHO.

[Andrew*]

This will be my first scope. Main interest will be in Messier objects and doubles, visual, manual.

Both scopes seem to get good reviews however those on the 90 seem better. Some say the apeture wins, is this the case with these two scopes?

Eyepieces etc, I was intending to choose the TV Ethos 13mm, a TV diagonal and a TV Powermate.

The mount is less clear. I was thinking of the EQ5.

Any suggestions regarding the above would be most welcome.

Viking

Viking,

It sounds like you've got an excellent budget to play with, so can I make some suggestions?

I would rather start your decision with the mount. Get the biggest you can afford (or in this case, physically deal with!). This means it should take any telescope you care to chuck on it and will do you for astrophotography too, should you wish to progress from visual. The HEQ5 would probably be the best bet, as the EQ6 is very physically demanding

As for the scope, I would say get two! My reasoning - DSOs benefit from aperture, so get a big newtonian or a C8, and other objects benefit from the crispy contrast of an apo refractor, e.g. the ED100.

Whatever's left goes into a set of eyepieces, power supply, dew control, filters, collimation, etc. etc.

Anyway, welcome to SGL. Enjoy your stay here and hope you enjoy whatever goodies you go for in the end

Andrew

[Viking]

A big thanks to all of you who have responded to my posts. I actually have two budgets, the first to buy the scope and the mount in UK; the second - holiday spending "money" overseas where I was intending to buy the eyepieces etc. Both have limited funds therefore I can't go with two scopes as suggested by John and Andrew or go for the Triplet. However, I welcome the advice of Whiplash, John and Andrew regarding the mount i.e. an HEQ5. I think this is a must.

I feel that for my first scope I would prefer a refractor and pleased to hear that Helen still has her Megrez 90, also PB has just obtained one while John - a recent owner. Perhaps in a year or so I will purchase a larger aperture reflector.

I sense a lot of bad vibes re the cost of the Ethos. John suggests the Hyperions. Question, what focal lengths should I buy, and any suggestions re filters, diagonal, barlow?

Regards,

Viking

[Tiny]

With a Megrez 90 you can go all the way from a 38mm 2" Rigel to a 3.2mm Burgess - depending on what you are looking at. I have used a 2mm on the moon and. the image was still pretty sharp. The scope is good enough to work well with anything as long as the eyepiece is good enough for the scope. So you end up with a tool box of 38,25,9,5.5,4,3.2 to allow for most visual viewing.

[FLO]

I think this is one of those rare occasions where less is more. The Megrez 90 is an absolute gem, optically and mechanically. The M110 does have a larger aperture but from what I have seen it doesn't have the same level of optical correction as the 90

[John]

I think this is one of those rare occasions where less is more. The Megrez 90 is an absolute gem, optically and mechanically. The M110 does have a larger aperture but from what I have seen it doesn't have the same level of optical correction as the 90

From my experiences with the Megrez 90 I'd agree - mechanically superb, optically the equal of the Synta ED80 / ED100 (which is a compliment as these are optically excellent).

John

[chuenmanc]

There's a Megrez 110 going for a complete bargain (£500) on UK Astro Buy Sell at the moment. Based on this price, I can't imagine that the level of correction in the M110 is that much lower than the M90 for it to be worth trading 20mm in aperture. For imaging certainly, but for visual?

Not sure why I am posting this, as I have a Megrez 90 that will probably be going up for sale soon!

[Milamber]

I think you need to realise that the 90 is for imagers, the 110 is better for visual.. Correction is pretty much the same on both in the centre but the 110 does not have as good a flat field as the 90. OK for smaller - up to ICX-285 - cameras but you will notice edge distortion if you have a chip bigger than this.

Arthur

[GazOC]

Based on this price, I can't imagine that the level of correction in the M110 is that much lower than the M90 for it to be worth trading 20mm in aperture. For imaging certainly, but for visual?

The big difference is that the 90mm uses fpl-53 but the 110mm uses fpl-51. Given that the 110mm has the larger objective at the (roughly) same focal ratio I'd guess the 90mm would have much better colour correction even visually.

[Pauls]

There`s the Burgess Optical 91mm triplet apo

Paul

[Viking]

From doing some reading I understand that FPL-53 glass is better than FPL-51 glass. The Burgess 91mm that Steve at FLO has announced is a triplet with the FPL-53 glass. No mention of price through.

Then Astronomica have announced three triplets but with FPL-51 glass. Prices at £799 for a 102mm and £1,249 for a 127mm. William Optics 132mm is £2,799.

I still like the WO 90 and 110 doublets, both within my price range but the Astronomica prices for triplets are less than half the price of a similar WO.

Any views on these Astronomica scopes.

Viking

[GazOC]

Any views on these Astronomica scopes.

I havn't seen any reviews yet on the larger models, I think it'd be wise to wait until they start arriving.

[Whippy]

From doing some reading I understand that FPL-53 glass is better than FPL-51 glass. The Burgess 91mm that Steve at FLO has announced is a triplet with the FPL-53 glass. No mention of price through.

er... http://firstlightoptics.co.uk/products.php?cat=114

Tony..

[Pauls]

From doing some reading I understand that FPL-53 glass is better than FPL-51 glass. The Burgess 91mm that Steve at FLO has announced is a triplet with the FPL-53 glass. No mention of price through.

er... http://firstlightoptics.co.uk/products.php?cat=114

Tony..

That`s a good price

[Whippy]

If the quality is as good as it should be, then that's a silly price. £175 eyepiece, a decent RDF, tuberings and a dovetail included for less than £650? Bargain!!

When I was in the market for a refractor I wanted one of these but a combination of manufacturing delays and my impatience turned my head elsewhere. Looks the bees knees though .

Tony..