Skywatcher Esprit 80 or 100

[Jkulin]

Hi All,

Not that I can justify what I have now, but I fancy a really nice peace of glass and am seriously looking at either the Skywatcher Esprit 80 or 100, but I can''t decide which would be more useful.

I currently have a Skywatcher 80ED Pro and the 8" RC F8, not planning on going any bigger for now, but never say never ;-)

I'm enjoying DSO and have yet to start Narrow Band, but have a feeling that I am going to be drawn more towards that, I enjoy widefield, but the chances of that from home are rare unless I am travelling.

So which do I go for, I will sell the 80ED Pro as I can't justify having something so near to the other.

The 80 Ed Pro Spec: -

Aperture: 80 mm
Focal length: 600 mm
Focal ratio: f/7.5
Focal reducer: 0.85

The Skywatcher Esprit 80 is: -

Optical Diameter 80 mm
Focal Length 400mm
Focal Ratio f/5
I'm not sure what the effect of the field flattener will have on it.

The Skywatcher Esprit 100 is: -

Optical Diameter 100 mm
Focal Length 550mm
Focal Ratio f/5.5
I'm not sure what the effect of the field flattener will have on it.

I'm using an Atik 383+ as my standard Camera and am unlikely to be able to afford to change for some time.

So the question is which will cover my needs as there can only be one Frac for sometime, I can't afford to go any higher on my budget of either of these two.

As I haven't started capturing nebulae yet am I likely to find the Esprit 80 more useful than the 100 or is there any other Scope that I would be ignoring, I can't afford going for a Tak, I'm quite happy with 2nd hand as long as in immaculate condition?

Your thoughts would be most appreciated.

 

[Tim]

Bigger is better John , probably, and a nice choice you have to make.

I'd have thought the extra aperture will serve you well, the Esprit range has established itself as having an optical performance to rival more expensive makes, and the extra focal length of the 100 will improve your imaging resolution to around 2 arcsec/pixel. The flattener on my 150 Esprit has no effect other than providing a flat image.

[Jkulin]

Thanks Tim, that's really helpful, not for my wallet though :-)

The 100 is rather nice and would probably do me for many years.

I hate upgrading stuff, much preferring to buy once and buy wisely.

[RayD]

I have the 100 and absolutely love it.  I did have the 80 but had to return it due to a manufacturing fault.  The FOV is perfect, especially coupled to my Atik 16200, and the fact that it has a pair of rings and losmandy plate makes it much more flexible when mounting and rotating the OTA compared to the 80, which has the built in foot mount.

 

[AKB]

15 minutes ago, RayD said:

a pair of rings and losmandy plate makes it much more flexible when mounting

...isn’t that supposed to make it less flexible?  

[RayD]

22 minutes ago, AKB said:

...isn’t that supposed to make it less flexible?  

Boom boom 

[newbie alert]

Try astromany tools  for the fov..

https://astronomy.tools/

[Jkulin]

59 minutes ago, newbie alert said:

Try astromany tools  for the fov..

https://astronomy.tools/

Thanks Newbie that site is much better for comparison than some of the other sites I use.

Thanks Ray very helpful.

Ooer this is going to be expensive

[RayD]

1 hour ago, Jkulin said:

Ooer this is going to be expensive

But extremely enjoyable 

[scitmon]

When comparing to the 80ed pro, does the esprit 100 perform that much better for the £1000+ difference?

[RayD]

39 minutes ago, scitmon said:

When comparing to the 80ed pro, does the esprit 100 perform that much better for the £1000+ difference?

I don't have first hand experience of the ED, but I believe it is a doublet rather than triplet and uses a crayford focuser whereby the Esprit has a very good R&P so in theory should be better suited for higher quality AP with most I believe agreeing the R&P is better with heavier equipment than the crayford (all written in invisible ink for Olly )

Naturally only you can decide whether the additional budget is worth it, but in the price range the Esprit (all of them) really are very good.

[ollypenrice]

I buck the trend by wanting to make a case for the 80. The NB targets are emission nebulae, many of which are vast. Yes, there are some planetaries which would benefit from the FL of the 100 but the 100 doesn't take you into galaxy territory so, given that you can't have everything in one scope, I'd like the extra field of the 80.

One thing I will say, though, is that if offered a night's imaging with the 100 and a 7nm Baader Ha, or an 80 with an Astrodon 3nm Ha, I'd take the latter any day. The saving put towards a killer filter would be my choice.

Olly

[Jkulin]

Thanks everyone, the decision was made for me when someone very kindly pointed out to me a brand new 100 being sold by someone that hadn't used it, not even to mount at similar price to the 80, so as much as I was tempted with the 80 the 100 took the win.

Thanks Olly, I have the RC for Galaxies and that will have to remain for sometime, I'll be using Optolong NB filter 7, 6.5, 6.5, after paying out so much this year, then the Astrodon will have to wait.

I had similar thoughts about the NB targets Olly, but as that is all new for me, I figured that I need to learn about it before I make any more purchases, and what is one more scope among friends, just don't tell my wife. 

[ollypenrice]

The difference between the scopes is no big deal anyway. You can get great images, slightly different, from both. Win-win.

Olly

[Jessun]

Hi,

Use this tool, or any other similar one

http://www.newastro.com/book_new/camera_app.html

Playing around with cameras and scoped in there will reveal a lot.

/Jesper

[Jkulin]

35 minutes ago, Jessun said:

Hi,

Use this tool, or any other similar one

http://www.newastro.com/book_new/camera_app.html

Playing around with cameras and scoped in there will reveal a lot.

/Jesper

Thanks, I download it and it would have been useful if it had listed any Skywatcher scopes or my RC, it doesn't list the 383 Camera either, so will have to input manually.

I usually use http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fovcalc.php

or

https://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/

Both accommodate most scopes and allow you to play around :-)

[Jessun]

You can pop any numbers in there and save as your setup. 

[Jkulin]

On 10/27/2017 at 07:51, RayD said:

I have the 100 and absolutely love it.  I did have the 80 but had to return it due to a manufacturing fault.  The FOV is perfect, especially coupled to my Atik 16200, and the fact that it has a pair of rings and losmandy plate makes it much more flexible when mounting and rotating the OTA compared to the 80, which has the built in foot mount.

 

Hi Ray,

Before I go out and get an adapter made, I thought I'd ask how you are attaching the Flattener to your focuser, I have no problem screwing it to the skywatcher, but the moonlight comes with a 2" compression ring fitment and the inside thread of the flattener is approx., 72.9mm, so what would do it perfectly is a 72.9mm T adapter :-)

The alternative is to get an adapter that will fit the inside of the flattener which as I say measures approx. 72.9mm and then get a 62.4 male thread at the other end that will replace the compression ring.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

BTW it really is a beautiful OTA, so different from the 80ED.

[RayD]

21 minutes ago, Jkulin said:

Hi Ray,

Before I go out and get an adapter made, I thought I'd ask how you are attaching the Flattener to your focuser, I have no problem screwing it to the skywatcher, but the moonlight comes with a 2" compression ring fitment and the inside thread of the flattener is approx., 72.9mm, so what would do it perfectly is a 72.9mm T adapter :-)

The alternative is to get an adapter that will fit the inside of the flattener which as I say measures approx. 72.9mm and then get a 62.4 male thread at the other end that will replace the compression ring.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

BTW it really is a beautiful OTA, so different from the 80ED.

Not sure I fully understand the question John.  I have the matching flattener for my Esprit 100 and it just screws straight on with no other adaptors than the one that came with it (see below pic).  On the back of that then I have a spacer then my filter wheel.

 

[Jkulin]

Thanks Ray,

Yes that is how mine fits using the Skywatcher focuser - Pic1, but with the Moonlite it comes with a 2" compression fit

I have to use a 54mm adapter to fit the IDAS LP filter to the front of the filter wheel. Absolute pain to remove and ended up in the vice, I have a replacement, just need to find it.

Pic 2 show the Flattener against the rear of the Moonlite with the Moonlites compression ring fitted.

Pic 3 shows the Moonlites compression ring unscrewed.

Pic 4 shows the rear of the Moonlite focuser showing the internal thread of approx. 62.41mm

So what I am needing to do is mate the Flattener to the Moonlite, which is where I need one of two types of adapters, either a step down from 72.9mm to 62.41mm or a 72.9mm to say a 48mm T Adapter and then fit via the compression ring.

Hope that explains it a little better?

 

[RayD]

3 minutes ago, Jkulin said:

Thanks Ray,

Yes that is how mine fits using the Skywatcher focuser - Pic1, but with the Moonlite it comes with a 2" compression fit

I have to use a 54mm adapter to fit the IDAS LP filter to the front of the filter wheel. Absolute pain to remove and ended up in the vice, I have a replacement, just need to find it.

Pic 2 show the Flattener against the rear of the Moonlite with the Moonlites compression ring fitted.

Pic 3 shows the Moonlites compression ring unscrewed.

Pic 4 shows the rear of the Moonlite focuser showing the internal thread of approx. 62.41mm

So what I am needing to do is mate the Flattener to the Moonlite, which is where I need one of two types of adapters, either a step down from 72.9mm to 62.41mm or a 72.9mm to say a 48mm T Adapter and then fit via the compression ring.

Hope that explains it a little better?

Ok so you're looking at replacing the stock SW R&P focuser with the Moonlite?

[Jkulin]

Yes, I think I may have mentioned that I already have a brand new Moonlite with focuser and controller that was fitted briefly on my ED80, the flange adapter to allow me to fit to the Esprit is arriving tomorrow (Customs held it back for taxes :-( ), but the problem is fitting it to the flattener.

I appreciate that the focuser on the Skywatcher is superb, but it isn't motorised and will mean my having to readjust the focusing for each filter and potentially change in temperature and freeze my proverbial's off in the ice if need be rather than power it up and tell it to go to a focus setting, didn't really want to go to the extent of buying a different focuser for the skywatcher when I have a virtually new one anyway.

[RayD]

9 minutes ago, Jkulin said:

Yes, I think I may have mentioned that I already have a brand new Moonlite with focuser and controller that was fitted briefly on my ED80, the flange adapter to allow me to fit to the Esprit is arriving tomorrow (Customs held it back for taxes :-( ), but the problem is fitting it to the flattener.

I appreciate that the focuser on the Skywatcher is superb, but it isn't motorised and will mean my having to readjust the focusing for each filter and potentially change in temperature and freeze my proverbial's off in the ice if need be rather than power it up and tell it to go to a focus setting, didn't really want to go to the extent of buying a different focuser for the skywatcher when I have a virtually new one anyway.

Oh I know what you mean with the auto-focuser, I have the Lakeside on mine for that exact reason (I image remotely).  I also have the Moonlite hi-res SM on my C8 sitting next to it on my dual rig.  However, I have the internal FF on my Moonlite so I'm not really sure how you would go about this (if I'm honest I didn't even know the end unscrews).  I would think a quick email to Moonlite will confirm the thread size and pitch on the focus tube, and then it should be easy enough to sort something from there, but that would be my starting point as you know the thread size on the FF.

 

[Jkulin]

Thanks Ray, Great minds think alike :-) Already emailed Ron at Moonlite with images, but it maybe quicker to get my neighbour who is an engineer to knock it up, he reckons he could have it done within a couple of weeks.

Ididn't know that you could get an internal FF for the Moonlite

So you have a lakeside, is that an addon to the existing SW focuser providing a motorised function or a complete assembly (Excuse my ignorance)?

[RayD]

1 minute ago, Jkulin said:

Thanks Ray, Great minds think alike :-) Already emailed Ron at Moonlite with images, but it maybe quicker to get my neighbour who is an engineer to knock it up, he reckons he could have it done within a couple of weeks.

Ididn't know that you could get an internal FF for the Moonlite

So you have a lakeside, is that an addon to the existing SW focuser providing a motorised function or a complete assembly (Excuse my ignorance)?

Yes just an external motor that goes in place of one of the focus wheels John, similar to your Moonlite SM, but able to fit on pretty much any focuser with a custom bracket.  As you can see in the pic above it is pretty small and just just fixes to the existing focuser.

I'm pretty sure it is only the Celestron FF that fits inside the focus tube and it is a special flange for it.  It is really for SCT's as it lets you focus without the mirror flop but still using a FF.

I reckon the custom adaptor will be the best bet as you'd be able to make it in one to save having lots of joints.