Skywatcher Esprit-80 and Esprit-100 Incoming

[FLO]

This is definitely a good news day 

The Skywatcher Esprit-80 and Skywatcher Esprit-100 triplet refractors are both scheduled to arrive here in the UK and be ready for dispatch "within two weeks". 

We don't yet have an official price but are expecting the Esprit-80 to retail around £1100-£1300 and the Esprit-100 around £1700-£2000. An official price will be released soon. 

Both models will be supplied with a 9x50 RA erect-image finder-scope and a 2" dielectric diagonal. The 80mm has a mounting shoe and the 100mm is supplied with tube-rings and dovetail. 

Separate dedicated flatteners will be available for both models. When used with their flattener the Esprit 80 will have a 33mm field coverage and the Esprit 100 40mm (the Esprit 120 & 150 cover 44mm). 

[jezhughes]

Great news! Bad news for bank balance! 

[JohnC64]

Great news - any guestimates on the price of the field flatteners?

[FLO]

We are 'guessing' £199, but that is only because the other Esprit flatteners are £199.

We should have the official price soon  

[Uranium235]

Ohhh goody, Ive been waiting for these. Perhaps a nicely worded letter to santa is in order!

[dmahon]

What happened to the 4/5 element refractor (? also Esprit 100) that had poor early reviews - is it discontinued?

[FLO]

There were some alignment issues with the 5-element Esprit-100 so it is no longer available. I am told it will be rereleased, but we don't know when. A 5-element f5 refractor is a very ambitious project (several big names have tried and failed) so kudos to Skywatcher for attempting it. I hope they succeed. 

The 80 and 100mm refractors incoming are both triplets. Skywatcher have proven themselves with the Esprit 120 and 150 triplets so we are confident the new models will be a success. 

[JohnC64]

some first light pictures appearing  online now from the Esprit 80mm - looking good :-)

https://www.facebook.com/SkyWatcherTelescope/posts/589749171077328

John

[Sp@ce_d]

Hmm Just the NB. I'd rather see some RGB images... see how good the stars are..

[jezhughes]

The guy who took that mentions it was GBHa

[Coco]

some first light pictures appearing  online now from the Esprit 80mm - looking good :-)

https://www.facebook.com/SkyWatcherTelescope/posts/589749171077328

John

Not really John, looks awful ... 

[jezhughes]

Can't really relate that photo to the scope.. Apparently its only 5mins each over HaGB, so only 15 mins of data.

Who knows if its calibrated too. Best to look out for a proper calibrated image with good amount of RGB data

[Sp@ce_d]

John did PM me a link to another image of M31 taken with a Canon 60DA that does look better.  He didn't post it here as it's on another retailers website.

[jezhughes]

John did PM me a link to another image of M31 taken with a Canon 60DA that does look better.  He didn't post it here as it's on another retailers website.

Would you mind PMing me that? 

[Coco]

The turquoise aberration on 52 Cyg  looks awful... 

[Sp@ce_d]

Would you mind PMing me that? 

done..

I'd still like to see a decent CCD RGB image though. Decent stars seem harder to get with a DSLR.

[JohnC64]

I took the image for what it was, a quick and dirty 3 subs , and  roughly stacked.  Guess we will have to wait for more images to appear.  They do appear to be coming online in Canada as I guess stock has been delivered over there.

Pm'd you Jez with the other image

[jezhughes]

I took the image for what it was, a quick and dirty 3 subs , and  roughly stacked.  Guess we will have to wait for more images to appear.  They do appear to be coming online in Canada as I guess stock has been delivered over there.

Pm'd you Jez with the other image

Makes sense, assuming they're shipping to BC, Canada's a lot closer to Japan than us 

Cheers for the PM and link!

[ollypenrice]

some first light pictures appearing  online now from the Esprit 80mm - looking good :-)

https://www.facebook.com/SkyWatcherTelescope/posts/589749171077328

John

Check out the bottom right hand corner...

Olly

[jezhughes]

I did notice that picture was from back in July. Would that have really been a production model?... I know there was mention of a CA user who had a pre production scope in testing. It could have just been one of those?..

[JohnC64]

ah yes some stretching of the stars in that corner - wonder if he was using the field flattener?  Will have to wait until someone does a full test of it and posts some more reasonable (and hopefully more representative) images.

[Coco]

Looks like the camera is tilted, the aberration is so bad I doubt its optics.. the stars look awful.

Otherwise someone at Sky-Watcher will be getting the chicken head for Chinese New Year.. 

[jezhughes]

ah yes some stretching of the stars in that corner - wonder if he was using the field flattener?  Will have to wait until someone does a full test of it and posts some more reasonable (and hopefully more representative) images.

that's a good point. If FLO don't even have information on a matched field flattener its unlikely this guy even used a matched one, or one at all.

[Sp@ce_d]

Looks more like Coco says.. optical train isn't orthogonal?.. (I'll put me teeth back in  )

[Fogboundturtle]

Yeah,. I am so sorry that I haven' been able to produce 1 images since I got mine 2 months ago. The weather has been terrible in the past month and the only clear night I had was ruined by a powertank running of out juice. From my experience with the scope, trying to image without the flattener will leave most user unsatisfied. I did see some 5s grab of M31 in a really dark site with my Sbig STF-83000m before I ran out of juice and I liked what I saw.