Espirit 120

[Ken82]

Just received this in today’s post. Very pleased with quality etc etc. I’ll write a full in depth report in a few days. 

[Miguel1983]

one day...?

[steppenwolf]

Lovely - I have the 150 version but have only heard great reviews about the 120 so you are in for a treat!

[domstar]

Beautiful. It looks so compact. Is that a MASSIVE table?

[souls33k3r]

I've just took delivery of the 100 and it's not what i expected if i'm being honest. Really nice finish to it and certainly not small or light so i can only expect better and heavier things from the 120 version.

Congratulations mate. I'm sure you'll love your new toy

[steppenwolf]

3 hours ago, souls33k3r said:

I've just took delivery of the 100 and it's not what i expected if i'm being honest. Really nice finish to it and certainly not small or light so i can only expect better and heavier things from the 120 version.

I'm slightly confused by this comment - was it not what you expected because it was a disappointment or because it was better than expected? Either way, it would be useful to know your findings!

[souls33k3r]

Hahaha sorry its been a long day at work so I can see why my comment didn't come across how I expected. What I meant was, I was expecting this scope to be slightly bigger than my previous 70mm but it bigger, heavier and looks great. It's a great scope, really nice finish so I expect nothing but the best with the 120 as well.

[Ken82]

I had some time to have a closer look at the scope this afternoon and this is what I think -

Part 1

I decided to purchase this scope as it fits nicely in between the focal lengths of my other telescopes. I have read lots of reviews of the espirit range and quite honestly haven’t found any negativity at all. I purchased the scope from FLO and spent an extra little to have the scope optically bench tested. This will serve as an additional peace of mind and I’m really pleased I did so. 

On close inspection of the scope I can see this is a very high quality instrument with great attention to detail. 

It comes with all the connectors etc that you would require to start imaging right out of the box. I did purchase the field flattener at an additional cost as I plan to use it purely for imaging. If your doing visual astronomy the flattener isn’t required. I also received a m48 to canon adapter but not sure if this is normally included in uk sales or FLO just threw it in ? Either way very pleased ! 

The retractable dew shield is a great fit and works very well with the two screws to tighten over the tube. 

The focuser is of excellent quality and feels lovely to work it back and forth. The only other refractor I have is a takahashi Fsq 85 and I’d say this is of equal quality. The locking knob sits underneath the focuser. I wasn’t sure about the locking knob in the beginning as I’m used to using the screw type on the Fsq but this is growing on me and certainly locks things down tightly. 

I also like the camera orientation adjuster which enables you to quickly frame the object your imaging. Again slightly different to the Fsq but excellent. 

Visually the scope looks stunning with clean lines and I like the splash of green SkyWatcher have added to their scopes over recent months. 

The optics look awesome and I’m really looking forward to testing it out when the weather clears. I plan to use a full frame canon 6d to start with so this will be a real test of the scope/optics. Going by the look/feel of the scope I’m very confident it will pass with flying colours. 

Make no mistake this is a finely engineered scope, love it ! 

 

[steppenwolf]

Great preliminary report - looking forward to your comments on first light!

[Gasman]

Love my Espirit 120 , can't believe I've had it over 5yrs now, bought it from FLO (I did one of the reviews) never regretted it once and also never used the flattener I bought the same time, still in its box. Have to say I've been delighted with all my Skywatcher gear. I nearly got the Espirit 80 to piggyback on the 120 but as I just wanted it for a guidescope went for the ED80 instead.

Steve

[Ken82]

Finally got round to a few tests tonight with the esprit 120 and 36mm sensor.  A hell of a lot of cloud but I’ve taken a few 1min unguided exposures, wow ! I expected the field to be flat but it’s actaully way better than my tak fsq 85 ! More to follow 

[ollypenrice]

On 27/11/2018 at 23:17, Ken82 said:

Finally got round to a few tests tonight with the esprit 120 and 36mm sensor.  A hell of a lot of cloud but I’ve taken a few 1min unguided exposures, wow ! I expected the field to be flat but it’s actaully way better than my tak fsq 85 ! More to follow 

Whatever Tak may claim, the FSQ85 doesn't get anywhere near to covering a 'full frame' CCD chip. Part of the difficulty lies in finding out what size the chips really are. There are several slightly different dimensions quoted for the 11 meg chips we use here.

It will be great if your scope does cover the full frame chip because I think they'll become more popular in CMOS astro cameras. I sometimes use a full frame camera at a metre of FL and find it really productive. Slightly less would be better still so I think you'll be right in a sweet spot with your rig.

Olly

[gorann]

This year I first bought an Esprit 150 in April and now also an Esprit 100. Really happy with both. The focusers are great (same on both scopes) and I see no reason to upgrade them.

My only issue so far, and I assume I could easily fix it, is that the Esprit 100 easily slides and rotates inside the tube rings (have not had that issue with the Esprit 150). I just cannot get the rings tight enough (I have got them fully pressed together). When I point the scope upwards it slides down until it is stopped by the dew shield, and when I try to rotate the focuser by turning the rotator ring, I instead en up rotating the scope inside the tube rings. Before the next imaging session I will have to put same extra lining inside the rings. Any suggestions of what material to use, and has anyone else had this problem?

 

EDIT: It just struck me that I could accidentally have ended up with the washers between the metal plates of the rings rather than on top. I am traveling now so I have no way of checking it.

[steppenwolf]

2 hours ago, gorann said:

EDIT: It just struck me that I could accidentally have ended up with the washers between the metal plates of the rings rather than on top. I am traveling now so I have no way of checking it. 

That would mess it up!!  ?  I hope that's it as I haven't heard of the rings being an issue before.

[tomato]

Only criticism I have with the 150 is shortly after starting to use a number of the blue rubber cushioning balls keep falling out of their locations in the flight case, no problem when lifting out, but a pain when trying to replace the scope back in the case. I keep forgetting to glue them back in properly. A very minor niggle on what is a very fine scope.

[gorann]

1 hour ago, tomato said:

Only criticism I have with the 150 is shortly after starting to use a number of the blue rubber cushioning balls keep falling out of their locations in the flight case, no problem when lifting out, but a pain when trying to replace the scope back in the case. I keep forgetting to glue them back in properly. A very minor niggle on what is a very fine scope.

I have the same problem with my balls!

[steppenwolf]

4 hours ago, tomato said:

Only criticism I have with the 150 is shortly after starting to use a number of the blue rubber cushioning balls keep falling out of their locations in the flight case

Same here but it was a trivial task to glue the retaining foam 'doughnuts' back in place and they have been solid ever since! Have to say that I think the rubber ball retaining idea was close to pure genius.

[Jarvo]

On 29/11/2018 at 09:41, gorann said:

This year I first bought an Esprit 150 in April and now also an Esprit 100. Really happy with both. The focusers are great (same on both scopes) and I see no reason to upgrade them.

My only issue so far, and I assume I could easily fix it, is that the Esprit 100 easily slides and rotates inside the tube rings (have not had that issue with the Esprit 150). I just cannot get the rings tight enough (I have got them fully pressed together). When I point the scope upwards it slides down until it is stopped by the dew shield, and when I try to rotate the focuser by turning the rotator ring, I instead en up rotating the scope inside the tube rings. Before the next imaging session I will have to put same extra lining inside the rings. Any suggestions of what material to use, and has anyone else had this problem?

 

EDIT: It just struck me that I could accidentally have ended up with the washers between the metal plates of the rings rather than on top. I am traveling now so I have no way of checking it.

Yep I’ve got the same problem with the tube rings allowing the 100 to slip. Have escalated to Suppliers and Skywatcher for a response. 

Jarvo

[gorann]

7 hours ago, Jarvo said:

Yep I’ve got the same problem with the tube rings allowing the 100 to slip. Have escalated to Suppliers and Skywatcher for a response. 

Jarvo

Interesting, let us know what they say! In any case, I assume it could be fixed with something with a high friction like a thin sheet of rubber (maybe cut out of bicycle tires).

[Hamey]

On 06/12/2018 at 01:53, Jarvo said:

Yep I’ve got the same problem with the tube rings allowing the 100 to slip. Have escalated to Suppliers and Skywatcher for a response. 

Jarvo

Did they gave you any solution for that?

[gorann]

What I have done now is just add a layer of duct tape to the inside of the rings. That fixed it - but it is a bit odd that SW does not provide perfectly fitting rings.

[Ken82]

Im having a few issues using a D2 filter with this scope so thought id ask, what should i expect without any filters from the Esprit? Do other Esprit imagers get similar results to my images below? Particularly canon users? Ive used a modified 6d and an unmodified 1300d with similar results.

2min Idas D2 FILTER

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tBuEdoJQnHpDW-CPqe1GIfmd3euKu5D0/view?usp=sharing

1min NO FILTER

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kZKkayjfDSaPiKQA_K-8dd6akRCymVW6/view?usp=sharing

2min FILTER

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HJb0y0j_n0XVL6R1uRBaEu_EUqZ_CfhG/view?usp=sharing

[Pompey Monkey]

4 hours ago, Ken82 said:

Im having a few issues using a D2 filter with this scope so thought id ask, what should i expect without any filters from the Esprit? Do other Esprit imagers get similar results to my images below? Particularly canon users? Ive used a modified 6d and an unmodified 1300d with similar results.

2min Idas D2 FILTER

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tBuEdoJQnHpDW-CPqe1GIfmd3euKu5D0/view?usp=sharing

1min NO FILTER

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kZKkayjfDSaPiKQA_K-8dd6akRCymVW6/view?usp=sharing

2min FILTER

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HJb0y0j_n0XVL6R1uRBaEu_EUqZ_CfhG/view?usp=sharing

You are not clearly describing to us what you think the problem is.

Is it that the HH is fainter than you expect to see in your subs?  Well, it is faint

[Ken82]

26 minutes ago, Pompey Monkey said:

You are not clearly describing to us what you think the problem is.

Is it that the HH is fainter than you expect to see in your subs?  Well, it is faint

Lol no it’s not the horse head that’s the issue (it’s a single unprocessed sub).

Im talking about the halos in the bright stars. Is that normal and people just remove them in processing or is something wrong? 

[Jarvo]

On 20/01/2019 at 21:09, Hamey said:

Did they gave you any solution for that?

Yeah OVL replaced the rings and this resolved the issue