William Optics RedCat 51 APO

[haitch]

16 hours ago, FLO said:

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 

Regardless of pixel size they should probably switch to a ZWO to avoid clashing with the colour scheme ?

Edited February 13, 2019 by haitch

[Mobile Wizard]

2 hours ago, haitch said:

Regardless of pixel size they should probably switch to a ZWO to avoid clashing with the colour scheme ?

Already got the spray paint out.

pillar box red should do it.?

Edited February 13, 2019 by Mobile Wizard

[FLO]

Speaking with WO, it sounds like our first delivery of RedCat telescopes will arrive around the end of this month / early next ? 

We have arranged for one to be sent to us sooner so @RayD can kick its tyres. 

Steve 

[Mobile Wizard]

5 hours ago, FLO said:

Speaking with WO, it sounds like our first delivery of RedCat telescopes will arrive around the end of this month / early next ? 

We have arranged for one to be sent to us sooner so @RayD can kick its tyres. 

Steve 

Awesome.?

[Chris]

Nice Rosette taken with the RedCat51:

 

[RayD]

Certainly looks like it is going to be very capable.  Looking forward to using it with my SX mini and mono CCD also.

[Alien 13]

10 hours ago, Lockie said:

Nice Rosette taken with the RedCat51:

 

I like the wedge shown in that video too.

Alan

[Astroscot2]

I watched the video yesterday ,  must say I was quite impressed by the little Ioptron mount producing 4 min unguided subs at 250mm.  The narrowband image produced looked very sharp and flat from what I could see.  Looking forward to seeing an unfiltered broadband image. 

 

Mark

Edited February 20, 2019 by Astroscot2

[Chris]

1 hour ago, Alien 13 said:

I like the wedge shown in that video too.

Alan

Me too!

[DaveS]

Yes, looks a lot better than the Skywatcher one, and don't have to use an allen key to loosen off the azimuth adjustment. Wonder if FLO will be stocking them?

That little apo is looking increasingly attractive.

[FLO]

48 minutes ago, DaveS said:

Yes, looks a lot better than the Skywatcher one, and don't have to use an allen key to loosen off the azimuth adjustment. Wonder if FLO will be stocking them?

No problem ?  We will add some to our next WO order. 

Steve 

[FLO]

On 14/02/2019 at 17:55, FLO said:

Speaking with WO, it sounds like our first delivery of RedCat telescopes will arrive around the end of this month / early next ?  

We were advised yesterday sales have significantly exceeded supplies so RedCat telescopes are on 'allocation'. This means dealers will receive only a percentage of what they ordered. This frustrating situation does occasionally happen when new models are released but usually settles down after a month or two. 

Please don't shoot the messenger ?

On 14/02/2019 at 17:55, FLO said:

We have arranged for one to be sent to us sooner so @RayD can kick its tyres. 

That one did arrive so was sent to Ray at Simplified Astro for review. 

HTH, 

Steve

[barkis]

Looking forward to Ray's reviews of the RC51,   I'm sure he will give his honest appraisal, and hopefully all good.

Ron.

[FLO]

On 06/03/2019 at 11:02, FLO said:

We were advised yesterday sales have significantly exceeded supplies so RedCat telescopes are on 'allocation'. This means dealers will receive only a percentage of what they ordered. This frustrating situation does occasionally happen when new models are released but usually settles down after a month or two. 

Our first delivery of William Optics RedCat telescopes has just arrived. We should have them booked in by end of day so will begin dispatching them to customers tomorrow. 

Unfortunately because demand is exceeding supply we have received only a fraction of what was promised. Another delivery is scheduled to arrive later this week or early next but even then that'll still be less than half what we ordered. 

We are dispatching them to customers ASAP in first-come-first-served order. Promise ?

Steve 

[FLO]

On 06/02/2019 at 19:20, FLO said:

The first one to arrive will be mine! ? 

That was said back when I thought supply would be okay. Prior to today the only RedCats delivered to UK dealers (one to each dealer, we think) were for demo/review purposes. (We loaned ours to @RayD who is reviewing it for his Simplified Astro YouTube channel). I promise nobody has been left waiting because of myself or a colleague. We will have ours when supply has caught up with demand. 

Steve 

[Astroscot2]

Im looking forward to seeing more reviews of this scope.  I think WO could be onto a winner here.

 

Mark

[Mobile Wizard]

6 hours ago, FLO said:

Our first delivery of William Optics RedCat telescopes has just arrived. We should have them booked in by end of day so will begin dispatching them to customers tomorrow. 

Unfortunately because demand is exceeding supply we have received only a fraction of what was promised. Another delivery is scheduled to arrive later this week or early next but even then that'll still be less than half what we ordered. 

We are dispatching them to customers ASAP in first-come-first-served order. Promise ?

Steve 

That's great, keeping my fingers crossed.?

On 14/02/2019 at 17:55, FLO said:

Speaking with WO, it sounds like our first delivery of RedCat telescopes will arrive around the end of this month / early next ? 

We have arranged for one to be sent to us sooner so @RayD can kick its tyres. 

Steve 

Awesome.?

[Mobile Wizard]

Scope arrived, really nice looking. Not tried yet, need clear skies. Although I'll be using this scope with my Altair 183c Hypercam I would also like to try the scope on my Olympus pen f which has the micro four thirds mount. Can't seem to find what I need to attach this mount to my pen. The red cat has a m48 thread and the T2 micro four thirds adapter is m42.

In the red cat's description it mentions "interchangeable camera mount" what does this mean?,  because with scope in hand all I see is a m48 thread, how is this interchangeable.

Also what would the back focus be for this lens, one of the images in the scopes description would suggest 77.70mm.

Regards.

Mark.

 

 

[symmetal]

2 hours ago, Mobile Wizard said:

Scope arrived, really nice looking. Not tried yet, need clear skies. Although I'll be using this scope with my Altair 183c Hypercam I would also like to try the scope on my Olympus pen f which has the micro four thirds mount. Can't seem to find what I need to attach this mount to my pen. The red cat has a m48 thread and the T2 micro four thirds adapter is m42.

In the red cat's description it mentions "interchangeable camera mount" what does this mean?,  because with scope in hand all I see is a m48 thread, how is this interchangeable.

Also what would the back focus be for this lens, one of the images in the scopes description would suggest 77.70mm.

Regards.

Mark.

From the M48 thread the focus distance is 59.7mm. You can remove the adapter piece with the M48 thread to expose the M56 mounting thread. The focus distance from the M56 thread is 77.7mm. To remove the adapter, looking from the rear there are three grub screws in the centre of the 3 cutouts on the M48 adapter. Loosen these grub screws and the adapter unscrews. You will probably have to tighten the rotation lock screw first.

WO only do three camera adapters from M48 for Canon, Nikon and Sony. I forgot to order the adapter with the scope and tried with an M48 to T2 adapter first but couldn't reach focus with my Canon. Have the M48-Canon adapter on back order. It may be easier for you to adapt from the M56 thread as there is more room to play with if you can find the right adapters.

Alan

[Mobile Wizard]

Hi Alan,

Thanks for your input. Thanks for the information on removing the M48 adaptor to reveal the M56 thread.

Looking on the internet there don't seem to be a lot in the way of M56 adapters.

It looks like I need one of these:

https://williamoptics.com/products/48-mm-to-42mm-thread-adapter

And one of these also:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Baader-Planetarium-Micro-Thirds-T-Ring/dp/B00FQCGAHO?th=1

I don't know were this leaves the back focus.

What are others looking to get or using.

Regards.

Mark

 

[Alien 13]

9 minutes ago, Mobile Wizard said:

Hi Alan,

Thanks for your input. Thanks for the information on removing the M48 adaptor to reveal the M56 thread.

Looking on the internet there don't seem to be a lot in the way of M56 adapters.

It looks like I need one of these:

https://williamoptics.com/products/48-mm-to-42mm-thread-adapter

And one of these also:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Baader-Planetarium-Micro-Thirds-T-Ring/dp/B00FQCGAHO?th=1

I don't know were this leaves the back focus.

What are others looking to get or using.

Regards.

Mark

 

The back focus distance is normally standardized with T rings and matching cameras at 55 mm, for instance Canon have a flange to sensor distance of 44 mm so the T adapter ring is designed to be 11 mm thick. The micro 2/3 has the sensor much closer to the flange so the matching adapter is quite deep but fine for the job.

The baader one looks a bit over complicated but there are plenty of the standard type around.

Alan

[Star101]

I just did a search on Astrobin.com There are several images taken with the RedCat 51 APO.

[harry page]

Hi

I have got one of these and just a small note the Vixen bar on the bottom is not , its several mm to small

and a vixen clamp will not grip it , do find it strange why a silly mistake like this is made

Might save you buying a vixen clamp like me ?

Cheers

Harry

[FLO]

1 hour ago, harry page said:

I have got one of these and just a small note the Vixen bar on the bottom is not , its several mm to small

Others have found the same so we recently added this note to our product description page: 

* Some customers have found William Optics' Vixen style dimension a little too narrow for their mount's saddle so you might need to fit a different dovetail. 

HTH, 

Steve 

[symmetal]

The red RedCat dovetail was too small for the ADM saddle and I clamped an aluminium strip along side it to take up the slack. The white RedCat dovetail did just clamp firmly on its own. Maybe the gold paint is thicker than the red. 

Alan