William Optics RedCat 51 APO

[Chris]

13 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Guess you can say the same about all my Canon lenses used on a 60Da, does this mean if I buy a WO Redcat I'll have to buy a full frame DSLR 

Dave

I do the same, I use EF lenses on my 77D, but I must admit I do think of FF cameras sometimes  

[happy-kat]

You can keep your ff, not interested here as whilst I use EF lenses I'm more than happy with the benefit of less vignetting as used on a smaller sensor.

[Chris]

20 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

You can keep your ff, not interested here as whilst I use EF lenses I'm more than happy with the benefit of less vignetting as used on a smaller sensor.

I've only owned one FF camera, it was a 5D mk1 classic. It had a lovely quality to the images taken with it, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was.. Not sure if it was the increased Bokeh, or the dymanic range or what? I didn't notice any vignetting with EF lenses, not to say it wasn't there, but I didn't notice. 

I'm tempted by another FF. You can get a sony A7 or 6D for around £400-500 now days. If I do I'll take a look at any possible vignetting.  

[Davey-T]

They have an auto vignetting removal thing for particular lenses I believe but I've never used it.

Dave

[MartinB]

Looks a very smart and well thought out piece of kit.  I think it will be going head to head with something like the Canon 200mm F2.8 (which retails at around £700) which I am currently using with an ASI 1600 pro and EFW for wide field astroimaging.  With the small small pixel size of modern cameras be they DSLR or astro cameras this focal length is extremely useful and permits lovely wide field views without sacrificing too much resolution, certainly a good alternative to mosaics.  If I didn't have the 200mm lens (along with a x1.4 extender offering 280mm) I would definitely be interested.  The Canon is an awesome performer though, even at F2.8, focusing needs some care and a steady hand but isn't too difficult.  It isn't as sexy as that Red Cat though!   

[Skyline]

Beautiful Beast, cut it a bit short - otherwise the holiday in April under good skies would have been ideal on the star adventurer.

[Uranium235]

I'm in!

Might have to flog something to raise part of the dosh though.

[FLO]

The new William Optics RedCat 51 is already selling remarkably well! This is nice (speaking as a retailer) but we are growing concerned because the telescope hasn't yet been released and, if sales continue at this pace, our entire first delivery will sell out before it arrives! If other retailers are experiencing the same then I think there might be some delays while WO's production catches up with demand. 

At this stage we can only promise to dispatch RedCat telescopes as soon as we are able in first-come-first-served order. 

Thank-you for your patience. 

Steve 

[philj]

I think they must have hired the Top Gear production team for that promo video ?  bit ott for a scope/lens methinks. Barring the video, sounds a promising developrment, certainly cheaper than a high end telephoto

[Uranium235]

One thought occurs though, with a large camera on the backend - its going to be quite camera heavy (much like the star71 was). So a longer dovetail or counterweight may be required.

[Davey-T]

6 hours ago, Uranium235 said:

I'm in!

Might have to flog something to raise part of the dosh though.

S'long as it's not a QSI683 

Dave

[Uranium235]

37 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

S'long as it's not a QSI683 

Dave

Lol... I was thinking of shifting the samyang 135 (again), no doubt I will probably end up buying another in 12 months time  

Come to think of it - that qsi is a heavy lump of a camera, I would definitely need to sort out a longer dovetail for it to balance out correctly.

But the winner for the redcat will be zero focuser slop - probably the single most common cause of a tilted field.

[Davey-T]

24 minutes ago, Uranium235 said:

I would definitely need to sort out a longer dovetail for it to balance out correctly.

I've got the Star71s on 11" dovetails pushed right forwards in the clamps on a dual bar.

Dave

[Uranium235]

6 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

I've got the Star71s on 11" dovetails pushed right forwards in the clamps on a dual bar.

Dave

Yeah, same here - Ive got the long geoptik bar and a spare clamp I could rig up. 

I reckon a really good match for the redcat would be an atik 490. 3" p/p and a more than useable fov. 

[Davey-T]

I've got an Atik4000 big sensor but also big pixels but may give it a try, hoping Ray can fetch a demo one to our dark site in March or April depending on delivery so we can try it out as long as it's not raining, could still try it in daylight though to compare to a couple of Canon lenses I guess.

Dave

[RayD]

27 minutes ago, Uranium235 said:

Yeah, same here - Ive got the long geoptik bar and a spare clamp I could rig up. 

I reckon a really good match for the redcat would be an atik 490. 3" p/p and a more than useable fov. 

I have a SX814 which has the same sensor and intending to try it with this.

Edited February 11, 2019 by RayD

[RayD]

8 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

I've got an Atik4000 big sensor but also big pixels but may give it a try, hoping Ray can fetch a demo one to our dark site in March or April depending on delivery so we can try it out as long as it's not raining, could still try it in daylight though to compare to a couple of Canon lenses I guess.

Dave

I'm hoping to, Dave.  Unfortunately it may end up that Steve needs to fulfil orders with this one, so it may be delayed to another time.

Edited February 11, 2019 by RayD

[Davey-T]

1 minute ago, RayD said:

I'm hoping to, Dave.  Unfortunately it may end up that Steve needs to fulfil orders with this one, so it may be delayed to another time.

Someone will just have to buy one then 

Dave

[RayD]

6 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Someone will just have to buy one then 

Dave

? But how will you get on with just one QSI?

Edited February 11, 2019 by RayD

[Davey-T]

Done and done, ordered one but need something with a bigger sensor to stick on it now 

Dave

[FLO]

10 minutes ago, RayD said:

I'm hoping to, Dave.  Unfortunately it may end up that Steve needs to fulfil orders with this one, so it may be delayed to another time.

It won’t be delayed. You will have one as soon as they arrive (it will be mine after you are finished with it) ?

Steve 

[RayD]

1 minute ago, FLO said:

It won’t be delayed. You will have one as soon as they arrive (it will be mine after you are finished with it) ?

Steve 

That's great news, Steve.  Thanks 

[RayD]

6 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Done and done, ordered one but need something with a bigger sensor to stick on it now 

Dave

Holy cow that was quick.  I think a good test for this will be my Atik Horizon CMOS, Dave.  It's a 4/3" sensor, same as the ASI1600 so you're welcome to have a little go with that as I'll be doing the CCD testing first.

[Mobile Wizard]

Hi all,

Ordered one of these the other day and nice to see I'll be one of the first to receive one.

I'm totally mobile so do my astrophotography out of my camper van due to were I live being cramped, can't see much of the sky of which is polluted anyway. I'm totally new to this so down to the weather and work/life commitments not done much so far, although my equipment is growing rapidly.

Sky watcher EQ6-R Pro.

Celestron AVX,

WO GT71 with field flatener,

Explore Scientific ED102 deluxe,

Altair Hypercam 183c,

That's not all but nearly. Not got things dialed in properly yet.

Anyways back on topic, can anyone tell me what I need to connect the Redcat 51 to my Olympus pen micro four thirds camera. Also is the Altair Hypercam 183c a good choice for this scope.

Nice to be ere.

Regards.

Mark.

 

 

Edited February 12, 2019 by Mobile Wizard

[FLO]

1 hour ago, Mobile Wizard said:

Anyways back on topic, can anyone tell me what I need to connect the Redcat 51 to my Olympus pen micro four thirds camera. Also is the Altair Hypercam 183c a good choice for this scope.

Welcome to SGL ?

FLO has never stocked Altair cameras but we understand they are manufactured by a company called ToupTek in China. As far as we can tell their 183c model uses the same Sony sensor as the ZWO ASI 183MC, which is a good match for the RedCat. 

A while ago we added a calculator to our Astronomy Tools website that calculates a camera’s suitability for use with a telescope. 

We will know more about connecting cameras when the telescope has launched. 

HTH, 

Steve