TS ONTC vs Lacerta

[Northernlight]

Ouch.......that's a lot of extra cash To spend to put a 2k scope right.

I think that's  why I like the idea of TS UNC and ONTC scope as their tube walls are 5mm & 7mm respectively, so super thick rigid tubes, which should be good for imaging.

The Lacerta tubes are only 1.5 - 3.0mm, so way too thin in my book.

Waiting to see what 656imaging can offer, but no response as yet.

Rich.

[Jkulin]

20 hours ago, Northernlight said:

Waiting to see what 656imaging can offer, but no response as yet.

As I mentioned Peter has been in Spain all last week and only flew back yesterday, he stopped in at my place on the way home this morning and mentioned that once he has seen his family and unpacked then he will reply accordingly.

[Northernlight]

Peter sent me a bit of a vague short response, saying that he can only offer Pyrex mirrors and standard 2" focusers but did not state the type and then suggested that I needed a more premium scope than he can offer.

I appreciate he is busy, but have to say I was a bit disappointed by his lackluster response.

Going to mull it over tonight and just go for the ONTC or Lacerta and place and order tomorrow 

 

[Jkulin]

From what I understand Peter said that he could only offer the specific hand built OTA's on his website at the moment as he is developing a high end quality Newtonian that he is not ready to launch yet. He actually read his reply to me which was along the lines that his quality Newtownians were in development and not ready for market, not that he can't , only that it is in development.

So he gave you a straight answer from what I understand.

As for lacklustre response, he has been away for virtually 4 solid weeks with very little sleep working through the night setting up an army of new scopes at E-Eye in Spain, he hasn't seen his wife or son for ages, give him a bit of a break.

Edited March 18, 2019 by Jkulin

[Northernlight]

Quote

As for lacklustre response, he has been away for virtually 4 solid weeks with very little sleep working through the night setting up an army of new scopes at E-Eye in Spain, he hasn't seen his wife or son for ages, give him a bit of a break.

John, I appreciate he's you're friend and you're sticking up for him, but i'm entitled to express my views as i see them from my side of the fence as it were. I wasn't personally attacking peter as i'm sure he's a great guy, I'm just saying that from my point of view, if you're going to repond to someone then i'd rahter them just to say that they are busy and they'll get back to the person for a porper discussion at a later date, or just not repond at all until they are ready.

At the end of the Day i was simply asking for information on his Current N-Series of scopes, He didn't answer my questions - so i simply rule out his scopes as a possible option. There is no ill feeling towards peter or his company or the scopes he makes as i dont know enough about them.

 

Edited March 18, 2019 by Northernlight

[Jkulin]

4 minutes ago, Northernlight said:

John, I appreciate he's you're friend and you're sticking up for him, but i'm entitled to express my views as i see them from my side of the fence as it were. I wasn't personally attacking peter as i'm sure he's a great guy, I'm just saying that from my point of view, if you're going to repond to someone then i'd rahter them just to say that they are busy and they'll get back to the person for a porper discussion at a later date, or just not repond at all until they are ready.

At the end of the Day i was simply asking for information on his Current N-Series of scopes, He didn't answer my questions - so i simply rule out his scopes as a possible option. There is no ill feeling towards peter or his company or the scopes he makes as i dont know enough about them.

 

No Probs, I'm not going to comment or post any more on this thread, for the reasons I posted above.

[Northernlight]

John.

Apologies if i have upset you. I dont want to upset anyone on the forum, and i genuinely do appreciate everyones input.  From time to time people can have differing opnions and that's ok as it's what an open discusion forum is for. So thankyou for your input thus far, i meant no offence.

Richard.

 

[Northernlight]

Anyway back to the topic at hand, if you had the choice, would you buy the Lacerta or the ONTC. The ONTC seems a bit more robust with a  much thicker tube and papers to have a better quality mirror cell.

The Lacerta has a good focuser and sounds like they put a lot of effort into tweaking and testing the scope, but the stock gso / skywatcher mirror cells worry me.

 

Rich.

Edited March 23, 2019 by Northernlight

[Firas]

On 23/03/2019 at 02:30, Northernlight said:

Anyway back to the topic at hand, if you had the choice, would you buy the Lacerta or the ONTC. The ONTC seems a bit more robust with a  much thicker tube and papers to have a better quality mirror cell.

The Lacerta has a good focuser and sounds like they put a lot of effort into tweaking and testing the scope, but the stock gso / skywatcher mirror cells worry me.

 

Rich.

I find myself in the same dilama as I am torn between these two. One thing I liked with the ONTC was that you can choose the color of the tube. If that would ever tip the equation in favour of one of the telescopes   

Have you decided yet? 

Edited June 11, 2019 by Firas
Grammars

[Northernlight]

Hi Firas,

I've put all scope purchases on hold until I understand the future implications of projects like star-link and other similar projects.  I've seen how many satellites I have appearing in my images from just 2,000 satellites let alone an additional 12,000 from SpaceX alone. I believe Boeing and other companies are looking to do similar projects.

So not sure how viable astro imaging will be in the near future 

If I didn't have any concerns and was still looking to buy, then without a shadow of doubt I would go with the ONTC as the lacerta appers to essentially be an upgraded SW Quattro and uses the same low quality mirror cell and secondary holder. The tube on the lacerta I believe is around 2mm thick in comparison to 7mm thick tube on the Ontc, so the Ontc will be a lot more rigid. 

In my eyes, the Ontc is in a whole different league to the lacerta, with the ontc being a big step up, for not much more money 

Rich.

 

[Northernlight]

Well 1 year later i still cant decide between the ONTC or the Lacerta scopes. Who thought that spending money on new scope could be so difficult.

[wimvb]

I think @Firas is quite happy with his ONTC which is now operational in my observatory, and remotely controlled from his home in Stockholm city. It looks quite impressive on top of an EQ6-R with a Moravian G2 8300 and a Lodestar X2 OAG. Guiding is good and Firas first image can be seen here.

https://www.astrobin.com/fcqzl2/?nc=user

[Northernlight]

Yeah, i keep going back to the ONTC - I think maybe the 10" F4   -   I wanted a 12" F4 @ 1200mm but the 12" ONTC is out of my budget, but Lacerta do a 12" F4 for 2690 Euro - So i'm torn between the 10" ONTC and the 12" Lacerta as both will be around the same price by the time i add the focuser to the ONTC

[wimvb]

I believe you mentioned tube wall thickness before. At f/4 I would probably go for the sturdiest scope. In any case, get it with rings and a Losmandy dovetail bar. With rings means you can add a top bar (vixen style) for extra rigidity and to allow a guide scope or other hardware. 

[pete_l]

On 14/03/2019 at 12:20, Jkulin said:

his will be custom designed to your spec

Will he be QA-ing each one of them and providing individual optical test bench results?

[Jkulin]

41 minutes ago, pete_l said:

Will he be QA-ing each one of them and providing individual optical test bench results?

You'll need to contact him at http://656imaging.co.uk

I have seen some of his new designs and they are amazing.

[Northernlight]

4 hours ago, Jkulin said:

You'll need to contact him at http://656imaging.co.uk

I have seen some of his new designs and they are amazing.

 

I got back in touch with him, and he initially said he could do me a newt for around £2000 after i explained that my budget was £2500, afterwards he suddenly realised that i wanted an imaging newt and said he would need to go away an re-price it, and after a few days he came back with a price of £3600

At which i kindly declined his offer and reminded him of my original budget of £2500

[Firas]

I am very happy with the telescope although I haven't discovered its full potential yet. Very well built, held collimation as expected. But the flocking material inside, loosened off a bit, perhaps due to heavy temperature change or just the glue softened. Pushed it back and it's in place since then. 

I went with Baddar Steeltrack as I was very happy with it on my 80 ED. Some say it is as robust as the Feathertouch. Very stable. 

I spent months researching what coma corrector it should be coupled with, and I am very happy to have chosen, Televue Paracorr type 2. It made the telescope absolutely coma free to the farthest edges of the image. 

You should count the coma corrector in the total price of the telescope. And if you could, don't spare on that, as it will pay off right away with a decent one. 

ONTC offers three different positions for the primary mirror. I like the fact that I could get another coma corrector, say ASA .75, rendering the focal length to 750mm, and speeding up to f3.7 or so. Right now it operates at f/5.6 at 1150mm. Great for galaxies! 

                                                                                                       See the holes for the primary mirror here 👇

 

[Firas]

8 hours ago, Northernlight said:

 I wanted a 12" F4 @ 1200mm but the 12" ONTC is out of my budget

Ask TS for a discount as I did, but motivate it.  They are very kind. 

[Northernlight]

14 hours ago, Firas said:

Ask TS for a discount as I did, but motivate it.  They are very kind. 

So how much did you pay for the 10" F4 with the Baader focuser as i was just thinking the same thing bout the baader instead of the Moonlite ?

[Northernlight]

Well i've decided on the ONTC but want to discuss getting it with a Baader Steel Track, but struggling to get any real responses to my emails as the replies are 2-3 days apart and only parts of my emails are getting answered. So this may take a while

At moment can't decide between the 10" F4 (1000mm) or 10" F4.7 (1200mm F/L)

 

 

[wimvb]

+ F4.7: slightly easier collimation, probably

+ F4.7: ever so slightly smaller secondary. This should give you a little more contrast. But probably not enough to notice in the field.

+ F4: slightly "faster", but only because you sacrifice pixelscale (same aperture)

Not much difference weight wise. Honestly, I think either has its merits, and you will probably be happy with whatever you buy. And TS don't even make it an easy choice by having a price difference.

Tough choice, really.

[Northernlight]

I'm going to see what the smallest secondary i can get that will fully illuminate the Kaf-8300 as i would like to use this for imaging and visual, as well as getting slightly better contrast. Now all i need is for TS to actually answer my emails

[Astroscot2]

Did you settle on a final scope? 

[Northernlight]

In the end I gave up on both Ts & Lacerta

 

I placed an order with TS and after 4 months they hadn't even started building my scope and just gave a different excuse each time, so i cancelled the order.  I then talked to Telesckop Austria about their new lacerta but gave up on that as  the launch date just got delayed further and further.

In the end I got sick of waiting and just bought a 10" Quattro and upgraded the springs & focuser as well as adding a primary mirror mask and so far it seems to be working well, as i get nice tight stars edge to edge with the Skywatcher Apalantic coma corrector.