WO White powder Coat Finish

[Roy]

Hello all,

Just a quick question to all of you WO owners out there, how do you find the powder coat finish on the WO scopes, does it show the dirt easily, by that I mean, do your fingers leave horrible prints all over it and if so do they wipe off easily as with the anodised versions.

Thanks

[Brinders]

Hmm, interesting question. I have had the white powder coated Megrez 72 for about 6 weeks now and it gets regular use. I too had been a little concerned that it may show dirt rather easily (there's something about the powder finish that makes you think it may do so and may prove not to be very robust) but I have to say it still looks as good as the day it arrived. I also have a Celestron C9.25 purchased in January, as soon as I got it out of the box it showed finger marks on the grey painted tube from where I'd touched it - I find the little Megrez doesn't attract dirt or dust as easily as the C9.25.

Incidently I've owned a TAL 150p for at least 8 years now. The paint on that is a little thin and will scratch easily, but even so it doesn't show the dirt like the Celestron.

Brinders

[Roy]

Thanks for you thoughts Brinders,

I've decided to go with the anodised white but I appreciate you taking the time to offer an opinion.

Cheers.

[James]

I find that it shows the dirt exactly the same as any other type of scope 'surface' but requires just a little more effort to clean - and I really mean just a little bit extra effort, maybe an extra couple of seconds wiping.

James

[Whippy]

I've got a White ZS66 which isn't too bad in comparison to my Black ZS110, it shows EVERY mark! I soon gave up on the tube, as long as the lens is clean.....

Tony..

[George]

I find baby wipes are pretty good at getting rid of fingers marks.

James should have plenty of those

[Reggie]

Does anyone have a blue anodised zs66, I'm about to purchase one. although once it's in the dark I guess no one will see the finger marks

[Roy]

The blue one is very nice Reggie, I was looking at one last night.

I used to have one of the bronze coloured ones (Sweet) but that went when I sold all of my imaging gear.

ps..... Thanks to everyone for there views, it's much appreciated.

[James]

I find baby wipes are pretty good at getting rid of fingers marks.

James should have plenty of those

That's exactly what I used until my wife explained the costs to me...

James

[Roy]

Women, they just don't understand bless em :blackeye:

[Tiny]

On nights when the scope gets condensation I reckon the powder coat doesn't get as much as the blue anodised. Doesn't feel as cold to me either. But that's me.

[Roy]

I ended up getting the white glossy version, the paint is sort pearlescent, very nice.

[Reggie]

Steve @ FLO didn't have the blue in stock and I didn't want to wait 10 days, so I had the white instead, very happy with it indeed, was well worth selling some of my old non-astro gear to fund it. The white powder finish does look very nice, lightly pearlescent.

I had a 40ish minutes clear patch last night with the 66 on my 6SE mount(getting guide rail tomorrow to mount to the 6SE ota), superb views of andromeda through my 13mm hyperion, the owl cluster was brilliant too and a bunch of random milky way stuff, found it hard to ID a lot of stuff purely because I'm not used to that many stars in the EP and I didn't have my laptop charger with me so I couldn't use a planetarium to help.

[Disty]

Hi Reggie,

I've been thinking about mounting my WO 72 refractor on the back of my NexStar6SE OTA, but am concerned about the effect of the extra weight on the 6SE motors. Please let us know how you get on with the 66 on your new guide rail.

[Reggie]

Will do not sure how much the 72 weighs but the 6SE mount will take about 3KG of extra weight, with the 66 + dslr coming in at 2KG I should be ok, if not the mount gets run into the ground a lot quicker and I get a decent mount at some point in the nearer future fyi. the 8se ota is 1.5KG heavier than the 6SE + the mount will take an extra 1.5KG w/the 8SE attached, so that gives 3KG extra in theory.

[Brinders]

The WO site quotes 2.2kg for the OTA, on top of that you have to add the weight of a star diaganol as well as your DSLR. From my experience with a Samsung GX10 you will not reach focus otherwise unless you invest in reducer/flatner or an extension tube.

[Reggie]

I'd say the 72 was pushing it, forget the diagonal just the scope + dslr will be 2.7KG then you've got to add the rings + rail into that equation too. I purchased a 40mm to go with the 66 and I get focus with my 450d without a diagonal.