William Optics Megrez 88 - A review - Part1

[centroid]

A pristine new William Optics Megrez 88 arrived yesterday, from Steve at First Light Optics.

Steve had kindly offered to loan this to me, in order that I might appraise it's performance and report back to the forum.

I should add that this particular Megrez, was not specially selected for review, but was straight ' off the shelf', and still sealed as it had left William Optics.

On opening the box, I found that the scope was realy well packed in a custom fitted high density foam rubber enclosure, quite capable of taking any rough handling in transit.

The first thing that struck me when I took the scope out of the packing, was that it 'oozed' quality.

Put alongside my Skywatcher ED 80 (not Equinox), it was in a 'different league' in term of finish, build quality and attention to detail, but then it does of course cost twice as much as the ED80.

The dual speed focuser is 'silky smooth', and completely free from backlash and lateral movement. The draw-tube has a graduated scale on it, which would make it very easy to return to quite a precise focus position.

One problem that can occur with this type of focuser, is a tendency to 'creep' out, when a heavy camera is attached to the back end, and the scope is pointing up at high declinations.

There is a friction adjustment screw on the scope, but I had no need to adjust this, as with my SXVF-H9C attached to the draw tube, and the scope pointing at the zenith, there was absolutely no 'creep' at all, yet the focuser glided smoothly in and out when required.

For someone that likes a 'grab and go' scope, that would easily travel in hand-luggage, this scope is a real winner. Its retracting dew-shield, reduces the overall length of the scope to just 397mm, and weighing around 3.2kg, its no over heavy. I should add, that like the focuser, the sliding action of the retracting dew-shield, is smooth and remains firmly in position.

At this stage, I was really impressed with this scope, and I hadn't even looked through it yet.

To my amazement, after dark, the sky actually cleared, albeit with some thin high cloud, the 'seeing' was far from ideal.

I set the scope up on a heavy duty photographic tripod, and eagerly pepared to experience the 'first light'.

I attached a good quality 2" diagonal and selected my Meade Series 5000 26mm eyepeice. Not aiming at anything in particular, I pointed the scope at a fairly high declination, and peered into the eyepiece.

With the smooth dual-speed focuser, focusing was a pleasure, and when the starry background came into focus, the stars were 'pin sharp', impressive!!

I then 'swung' the scope to Altair, centred the star, and looked specifically for chromatic aberation (CA). On either side side of focus, there was evidence of some red fringing, but in all honesty, it was minimal.

At focus, the star appeared 'crisp' and virtually CA free. In fact I think it fair to say, that unless you were being hyper critical, it was CA free.

It is important to keep in mind that this scope is a Doublet, and at f/5.6, really quite fast, a difficult combination with which to achieve good CA rejection. In this respect, I consider that William Optics have done a very good job, in getting the CA down to the level it is. Of course, if you want to move into 'Triplet' territory, then better CA performance is available, but at a price!!!.

If visual astronomy was my 'thing', I wanted a quality wide field scope, easily transportable, and at a reasonable price, then I wouldn't hestitate to buy this scope.

However, as an imager, my concern was how it would perform in this role. More about this in Part 2.

Below are some pictures of the WO Megrez 88, alongside the Skywatcher ED80, and a close up of the Megrez focuser.

Dave

[Andrew*]

Fantastic review, Centroid.

Makes me want to sell my ED80 and get one of those ASAP. It's faster, lighter, smaller, better focuser, and has greater aperture. What's not to like?

<Andrew tips the last coppers from his wallet>

The price.

Andrew

[GazOC]

Yep, it certainly looks a stunner. If they've controlled the CA at that focal ratio then they've done well.

[markcol]

First rate review Dave, can't wait for next installment, really well done.

The fact that you have the ED80 on hand for comparison will be very helpful I'm sure.

BTW my WO scopes have a chrome focuser locking screw, is this not the case with the Megrez 88?

Best Regards

Mark