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Sky-watcher 150 Esprit

PeterLive

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PeterLive

PeterLive

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post-47052-0-11980600-1449830893_thumb.ppost-47052-0-89983800-1449830914_thumb.pHaving has problems with the Esprit I purchase a Explore Scientific 152 Carbon Fiber from Germany.  It is a lovely looking scope and light weight for the aperture as one might expect.

Sadly the RGB alignment was so bad probably due to shipping trauma it had to go back to Germany for collimation.

Having received it back the problem may have been improved but it is poorer than I would have expected for a scope costing around £4000.

As I lack experience in this quality of refractor and I would appreciate some advice on whether or no this level of performance is to be expected or rejected.

I attach two images showing cropped lights giving a sequence into and past focus for assessment.

General quality of images seem good but it is the red, green, blue fringing around stars I am worried about.

Cannot believe my luck.  This is the third scope I have purchased.

All advice welcome.

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  • 1 year later...
JonathanA

JonathanA

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Hi Peter,

Perhaps not strictly relevant but I had a similar experience with Bresser Germany. I sent back an ES MN 152 that had a dodgy secondary. They sent a replacement that had even worse problems. I was really shocked by their quality control. I'm on my third example of this scope now so you are not alone in your experience.

I know that FLO have a bench testing service for brand new expensive refractors - that might pick up any problems with a new scope?

Hoping you get there in the end.

Jon

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Gasman

Gasman

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Sorry to hear about your Espirit 150, I can only say I've been delighted with my Espirit 120 bought from FLO, never had a problem in what must be 2yrs now maybe longer as I bought it when they first came out.

Steve

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Scott

Scott

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3 minutes ago, swag72 said:

It's worth checking out the date of this thread .... almost two years old :) ... I'm sure it's all been resolved by now :) 

Ah yes. Now I feel like a right fool ?

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Rodd

Rodd

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On ‎10‎/‎2‎/‎2015 at 10:48, PeterLive said:

The supplier was not at fault here and as much a victim as myself.

Have decided on a replacement the "Explore Scientific 152 Carbon Fibre.  See link below:

http://www.explorescientific.co.uk/en/Telescope-optics/Explore-Scientific-ED-APO-152mm-Carbon-fibre.html

Around the same price with all accessories available and clearly listed on their website.  Lighter due to carbon fibre low expansion a bonus.

This is a major investment for me so I hope I have got it right this time.

Anyone out there have one?

Interesting choice.  That is a $4,000 scope in the US.  You could get a Televue np101is is for a bit less, or a TAK TSA 120 for only a couple hundred dollars more.  I'd get the TAK--or a William Optics 132 even for the same price as the TAK.  All depends on what you want.  But for $4,000, you can get an heirloom piece.  That's a fair chunk of change.  Even a Baby Q (Tak FSQ 85) would be less.

Rodd

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steppenwolf

steppenwolf

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Whilst I appreciate that this is an old thread, as an owner of the Esprit 150, I felt that I should chip in with my own experience as it was rather different to that of the OP! When I was researching this telescope with a view to purchasing a 6" refractor for imaging, I struggled to find many reviews but those that I did find certainly made me sit up and take notice. It's well worth having a read of this thread on CN where prisoners are rarely taken ......

From my own experience of the telescope (I've had it for about 10 months), it is optically quite wonderful and the build quality is extremely high. I opted for the FeatherTouch focuser upgrade but the SW focuser was supplied as well and I have to say, this too was impressively built, solid and silky smooth. However, I felt that an instrument of this value deserved the best quality focuser available so that is why I went for the FeatherTouch and that is what I still have in place.

Like all refractors (apart from those using a Petzval type design or other type with built in field corrector), for imaging, a field flattener is required and the one supplied by Sky-Watcher is an excellent match producing one the flattest fields that I have ever encountered in a refractor. The native focal length is 1050mm but interestingly, the field flattener increases this to an apparent 1070mm. Although I always take Flats to calibrate my images with this telescope, on my KAF 8300 equipped CCD camera, they really are not required as native images are vignetting-free.

This thread here on SGL may be of interest to anyone considering the purchase of one of these fine instruments. Is it a heirloom? I think it may well be but that's not why I bought it, I bought it to capture ancient light and focus it accurately on my sensor and that is just what it does!

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