William Optics GT-81 Unboxing and Review part 1

[m37]

New scope arrived yesterday, GT-81 by William Optics. As always fantastic service from Steve and the guys at FLO. No surprise there! Even though I fouled up the order (well spotted Martin!!!) 

Bear in mind I am comparing the William Optics GT-81 Triplet APO Refractor to my old scope which is a Skywatcher Startravel 102. To put them both in context, the ST102 costs £163 and the GT-81 is £725.

I didn't find a huge number of detailed reviews about this scope and it doesn't appear on any of the WO web sites (world or UK) so I have put together a very (overly?) detailed unboxing and report on the equipment. First light and some star tests to follow in Part 2.

The packaging from FLO was typically excellent and some writing on the box indicated that Quality Control checks had taken place before posting which is nice to know.

Opening up the box I was greeted with a hand written certificate/product warranty card. Nice start.

And then a chocolate   I couldn't find reference to the chocolate online but I assume you smear it all over the objective as some sort of cleaning compound

Pictured here are the OTA along with guide rings and handle (included), the and the flattener/reducer and Canon T-Ring (both additional extras).

First close-up is the handle and guide rings:

The handle and guide rings have a real quality look and feel about them. Weighing in at 375g they look well made and well assembled. Everything is perfectly lined up and very sturdy.

The internal diameter of the rings is 68mm and the thumbscrews for holding the guidescope/finder are well sized (I have reduced mobility in my hands) and have plastic tips to protect whatever they are holding. The smallest diameter that could be held securely by the thumbscrews is probably about 35mm although this would be with the thumbscrews in fully and would not allow for any adjustments. I would say the smallest diameter tube you would want to hold while leaving plenty of adjustment room would be about 45 to 50mm.

The hex-socket head bolts that attach the handle to the OTA are somewhere between a 4mm and a 5mm head. Whether these are 4.5mm or AF (WO are an American company I believe) I can't tell at this point as I don't have either! Cheap enough to pick some up but worth bearing in mind if you want this scope to be up and running straight out of the box.

On to the scope itself. It is very solid and has a real look and feel of very high quality both in components, assembly and finish.

There are some nice finishing touches and details such as a thermometer on the single speed focus turny thing (can't use that other word on here or it gets filtered!!!) and cork on the mount bracket.

The focuser is a heavy duty Rack and Pinion design and again looks and feels very well made. There is also a cover for the dual speed focuser thingy, small detail but even this is made from aluminium and is threaded and feels solid and fits smoothly.

 

The underside of the focuser has a hex headed grub screw marked Tension and a focus lock thumbscrew. This was ver stiff but a quick application of light lithium grease sorted it out no problems. Fully tightened you can still fine tune the focus position with the controls but you can forget about it slipping or being pulled down with a DSLR, filter wheel, reducer OAG etc etc. In fact you could probably hang a small car off it without any sag or slipping.

No adjustment was required as there was no evidence of play, sag or anything else. The focus unit also has a thumb screw to unlock the rotation which again is very smooth and solid. There are little nylon (flat headed screwdriver adjustable) grub screws for adjusting free movement resistance. Not required in this instance though.

Turning the focuser controls I was extremely impressed with the ease and solid feel. The smaller side of the dual focuser claims to be 1:10. I measured this and it is exactly 1:10. to the mm.

The controls are finished in a nice matt silver and gold with the WO logo and the main mounting ring has some relief detailing. Nice touches again.

The dew shield is retractable and has a locking thumbscrew and a very solid smooth feel when sliding in and out.

At the business-end, again it looks very nice and well finished.

Small white spec of something that looked like it came from the finish or a thread inside but this has subsequently been banished (top tip: gentle tapping with finger and hoover running on low power while plastic nozzle is attached to a cheap eyepiece holder safely gets rid of internal dust)

Some measurements here:

length (from end of retracted dew shield to where drawtube enters focuser) = 325mm

length (from end of extended dew shield to where drawtube enters focuser) = 381mm

maximum outward travel on drawtube = 81mm

weight of OTA + mounting foot = 4168g

all of the above + guidescope rings, handle and mounting bolts = 4558g

all of the above + 2 inch to 1.25 inch eyepiece adapter = 4670g

all of the above + end cap = 4780g

Other details include

• the drawtube has a nice clear scale on it showing metric and imperial measurements up to the maximum 81mm
• the end cap is very good quality with black felt lining (which I presume gives good light absorption for darks/bias frames) and a really lovely feel when added/removed. Finished in flat gold with the WO logo in white
• A dust cap covers the 1.25" opening on the end
• checked the thermometer against a digital thermometer and it is spot on

Summary

This scope looks and feels absolutely beautiful. From the physical aspects and feel I would recommend it to anyone. I am used to an admittedly low-end Skywatcher but it is much better than I had hoped. If I had to find any faults, and I would have to be really picky, just to stop you all thinking I work for WO (I don't!!!) they would be:

• 4.5mm (or AF?) head allen wrenches are not typically found in the cheap sets/bike tools most of us would have lying aroun; including one or even a small tool set would have been a nice touch
• the OTA is heavier than the Tube Weight quoted by WO. While this could technically be correct, I don't see the point of knowing the tube weight without (presumably) the focuser or any mountings. 2.9Kg quoted, the lightest I could get it was just over 4Kg. Not necessarily misleading but certainly not as clear as it could be.
• NO INSTRUCTIONS!!!! There were no instructions in this whatsoever which seems a bit silly. Online the closest you can get is the GTF-81 with included flattener which kind of works but some of the adjustment screws and bolts are not shown on this. This is probably my main gripe but I know an email to FLO will shed some light. I also opted for the William Optics RDF but there is no indication how this should be attached.

All in all this feels really, really superb so far. Optically of course I will reserve judgement until I've used it in anger but I have a very good feeling...

cheers

Christoph

[earth titan]

Very nice.

I shall be interested in the 1st light opinions on this as it is a very well priced triplet APO.

[m37]

Very nice.

I shall be interested in the 1st light opinions on this as it is a very well priced triplet APO.

Me too!!!!

[FLO]

And then a chocolate   I couldn't find reference to the chocolate online but I assume you smear it all over the objective as some sort of cleaning compound

 

[Uranium235]

I hope it images as well as it looks, at the moment its at the top of my "must get" list.

Nice idea with the hoover too, not sure if I can do it with a dyson though.... those things will fetch the plaster off the wall if you give it half a chance

[m37]

I hope it images as well as it looks, at the moment its at the top of my "must get" list.

Nice idea with the hoover too, not sure if I can do it with a dyson though.... those things will fetch the plaster off the wall if you give it half a chance

I open the little valve thing that reduces the suction a bit. Ace. I should market an astro specific one and charge three grand for it.

[gcluer]

The hex-socket head bolts that attach the handle to the OTA seem to be a bit larger than 4.5mm.  A 4.5mm hex wrench will work but it seems that they are 3/16 inch