Weird star shapes

[souls33k3r]

46 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Well they got that forecast spot on damn them, packed up now but at least I only have to switch off and close the roof so doesn't take a minute.

I just checked and no clouds in sight mate. Shame about your skies 

[Davey-T]

Yes just stuck my head out and it's cleared again, too late now I'm going to bed.

Dave

[souls33k3r]

8 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Yes just stuck my head out and it's cleared again, too late now I'm going to bed.

Dave

Sorry about that mate. Yeah it's too late now.

I have emailed FLO now with all the images and information. Not sure if they have the shop open on Saturday but i'm super gutted to find the scope like this after repairs. 

Good night matey, speak to you tomorrow.

[FLO]

1 hour ago, souls33k3r said:

I have emailed FLO now with all the images and information. Not sure if they have the shop open on Saturday but i'm super gutted to find the scope like this after repairs. 

Sorry to hear your telescope is misbehaving again. Our office isn’t open over the weekend but we’ll find and respond to your email when we reopen Monday. 

Unless I am mistaken (am not at my desk so relying on memory) you purchased your Star-71 around one year ago and Es has aligned it’s optics twice. It clearly isn’t able to hold it’s alignment and we no longer stock the Star-71 so I think the only sensible option is for us to accept defeat, collect your telescope and refund your payment. You will then be able to put this unfortunate and frustrating episode behind you. Please give it some thought. 

HTH, 

Steve 

[Davey-T]

That's pretty frustrating especially as Rob (U235) has just sold his super example Star 71.

WO appear to have discontinued them as is their wont, very few of their scopes seem to be produced for any period of time.

I sympathise mate having thrown loads of money at this hobby and still been frustrated, makes you want to take up visual observing, unfortunately not feasible from my back garden.

Dave

[RayD]

It seems very much hit or miss with the Star71.  Good ones are very good, but bad ones don't seem to be fixable other than at the factory.

Fair play to FLO, you cannot ask for more than what they are offering, so hats off those guys once again 

I do wonder how much we are all guilty of pixel peeking, though, and zooming in to 400% and noting any tiny anomaly.  That isn't to say that's the case here, as the latter images do show an issue, but I fear that we are generally expecting a £700 triplet to perform the same as a £15,000 one.

Hope you get a suitable replacement, mate.  I have a TS80 which you're welcome to borrow until you sort something out.

[Davey-T]

As you say Ray far too much pixel peeping going on, I can't see the point of demanding perfect stars into the corners when they look fine at normal 100% magnification.

I've got 3 Star71s and don't bother examining images with a microscope it's far too easy to lose the plot and become obsessed with pursuing the perfect image and my eyes are crap anyway so mine look fine to me but you may have noticed I don't post many for critiqueing ( is that not a word )

And it's not only " cheap " scopes that have problems plenty of folk with complaints about Taks

The SW Esprit seems to be pretty good, not heard many complaints about them though you have to shell out £100.00ish for the flattener which pushes the 80mm over the £1000.00 mark and introduces all that spacer malarkey. 

Dave

[RayD]

5 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

And it's not only " cheap " scopes that have problems plenty of folk with complaints about Taks

The SW Esprit seems to be pretty good, not heard many complaints about them though you have to shell out £100.00ish for the flattener which pushes the 80mm over the £1000.00 mark and introduces all that spacer malarkey. 

 

Yep, you're absolutely spot on, Dave.  I simply cannot fault my Esprit 100.  I use it with the stock focuser and have a super image across the 16200 chip.  I think the balance of cost and quality with the entire Esprit range makes them an excellent choice and I think SW have got it on the money with them.

As you say, a little faff with the spacing, but once that's done it's done.  Let's be honest, much of the issues with spacing is people not actually understanding whether to add or take away etc. leading to confusion and frustration.

[RayD]

11 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

I don't post many for critiqueing ( is that not a word )

You and me both, Dave, and it is a word now as I understood what it meant.  If chillaxing can be a word, then so can this ?

[Davey-T]

Nice expensive bit of kit from WO here, be good if it fitted other makes.

Dave

 

[RayD]

2 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Nice expensive bit of kit from WO here, be good if it fitted other makes.

Oooh I'm liking the look of that, Dave.  Good find, and what a great idea!

[souls33k3r]

Sorry about the super late reply, I just woke up (Kids of the new era, our day starts from mid day :D).

To be honest I wasn't a pixel peeped and hate at being one too but of course the first star 71 before it got collimated had good looking stars, well at least to my eyes and it went unnoticed for over a year and I was quite happy with it until I got pointed at the aberration in the corner which became clearer and clearer with every image I took in the past because now my eyes won't look past it. I wish I knew this scope would behave like it did after being back otherwise I would've kept it like such and be happy with it. 

When the scope came back, I did zoom in once but for 2 reasons, one to look at the corner stars at 100% and 200% (I use 100% at times to look at if my guiding is fine and if the sub is worth keeping) but only recently started to do that but I guess I had to do that with this scope once it came back to verify that all was well but the stars became very evident even without a zoom (at 50%) that something wasn't right about the bright stars. 

If I'm honest, I'm actually gutted, it's such a beautiful scope in terms of the size and finish and not sure if there is another scope that would come close to this. I bought a case for it which now feels like a waste, not sure if I can use it for any other scopes because that's what I bought it for. 

Hats off to FLO for being a super vendor for offering me this chance which right now I am seriously thinking of taking them up for that offer but that also means I'll be on a hunt for a scope of the similar size and fov and tbh within that price range is an Esprit and the Altair 72EDT-R (Quad again) . I don't mind paying for a flattener because the scope eventually becomes the same as a star 71 but without an integrated one. As for the spacing, I've read that the older models require 61mm whereas the newer models require a 66mm spacing. (Don't shoot the messenger) so not sure what can go wrong other than you're measuring yourpacing wrong?

Cheers for the offer Ray and I really do appreciate you letting me borrow the TS80, I think I'll bring back the EdgeHD in the mean time and image with it because there are a few targets I really want to finish imaging but honestly I didn't expect that scope to come out any time soon. 

Sorry guys if I don't sound the usual jolly me right now but I am absolutely gutted about this scope and sad seeing it go. 

 

[Davey-T]

Great that you've got the SCT to use, lot's of targets up there, I was trying to image UGC192 with mine last night, a tiny faint galaxy near Caph.

Dave

[souls33k3r]

12 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Great that you've got the SCT to use, lot's of targets up there, I was trying to image UGC192 with mine last night, a tiny faint galaxy near Caph.

Dave

After being pampered with the small scope size and fov so much, the bigger SCT is a hard work

[geordie85]

3 hours ago, souls33k3r said:

Sorry about the super late reply, I just woke up (Kids of the new era, our day starts from mid day :D).

To be honest I wasn't a pixel peeped and hate at being one too but of course the first star 71 before it got collimated had good looking stars, well at least to my eyes and it went unnoticed for over a year and I was quite happy with it until I got pointed at the aberration in the corner which became clearer and clearer with every image I took in the past because now my eyes won't look past it. I wish I knew this scope would behave like it did after being back otherwise I would've kept it like such and be happy with it. 

When the scope came back, I did zoom in once but for 2 reasons, one to look at the corner stars at 100% and 200% (I use 100% at times to look at if my guiding is fine and if the sub is worth keeping) but only recently started to do that but I guess I had to do that with this scope once it came back to verify that all was well but the stars became very evident even without a zoom (at 50%) that something wasn't right about the bright stars. 

If I'm honest, I'm actually gutted, it's such a beautiful scope in terms of the size and finish and not sure if there is another scope that would come close to this. I bought a case for it which now feels like a waste, not sure if I can use it for any other scopes because that's what I bought it for. 

Hats off to FLO for being a super vendor for offering me this chance which right now I am seriously thinking of taking them up for that offer but that also means I'll be on a hunt for a scope of the similar size and fov and tbh within that price range is an Esprit and the Altair 72EDT-R (Quad again) . I don't mind paying for a flattener because the scope eventually becomes the same as a star 71 but without an integrated one. As for the spacing, I've read that the older models require 61mm whereas the newer models require a 66mm spacing. (Don't shoot the messenger) so not sure what can go wrong other than you're measuring yourpacing wrong?

Cheers for the offer Ray and I really do appreciate you letting me borrow the TS80, I think I'll bring back the EdgeHD in the mean time and image with it because there are a few targets I really want to finish imaging but honestly I didn't expect that scope to come out any time soon. 

Sorry guys if I don't sound the usual jolly me right now but I am absolutely gutted about this scope and sad seeing it go. 

 

If your going to be taking the refund how about this as a replacement?  https://ensoptical.co.uk/index.php?_route_=skywatcher-esprit-80ed-ff&search=Esprit

This would be my course of action if I was you. If I had the money I'd snap this up. I recently bought an FLT 98 from then and the service was spot on. 

[souls33k3r]

41 minutes ago, geordie85 said:

If your going to be taking the refund how about this as a replacement?  https://ensoptical.co.uk/index.php?_route_=skywatcher-esprit-80ed-ff&search=Esprit

This would be my course of action if I was you. If I had the money I'd snap this up. I recently bought an FLT 98 from then and the service was spot on. 

Good shout mate. But I think given my experience I'd much rather firstly buy it new and have it checked and tuned. You can't beat the FLO's great service.