Williams Optics 103mm Zenithstar

[Trikeflyer]

Might not be relevant but I have the Altair 80mm ED Starwave and its a fantastic powerful scope.  I love it.  I use it lots and the build quality is fabulous, the focuser is top quality and it gives great views. I would think the big brother would be just as good?

 

Steve

[Limerick John]

Hi

I am new to this forum.

I have recently ordered a Zenithstar 103mm (gold version) mainly for visual use and some astrophotography. They are out of stock pretty much everywhere so there is a reasonable leadtime. I'll post a review after it arrives.

My decision to go with the more expensive Z103 is the build quality , fit and finish. It is going to spend a good bit of time set up in the living room so I was told by SWMBO that it better look good !!!

I have an older WO Megrez 72mm which is a superb scope and built like a tank.

[simmo39]

3 hours ago, Limerick John said:

Hi

I am new to this forum.

I have recently ordered a Zenithstar 103mm (gold version) mainly for visual use and some astrophotography. They are out of stock pretty much everywhere so there is a reasonable leadtime. I'll post a review after it arrives.

My decision to go with the more expensive Z103 is the build quality , fit and finish. It is going to spend a good bit of time set up in the living room so I was told by SWMBO that it better look good !!!

I have an older WO Megrez 72mm which is a superb scope and built like a tank.

Will be interested on your thoughts about this scope, I have been hovering around the buy button for a while. Looking at using it for imaging.

[Limerick John]

The scope has now arrived from FLO. It took about 4 weeks from date of order as they are ordered as needed from WO.

The sticker on the box was quite prophetic. Nothing but rain since it arrived.

I have only had a short time today with it. First impressions:

 It is quite a handsome instrument. Bigger than I thought but not too heavy. Here it is mounted on my AZ4 mount which holds it well. I have added a WO red dot finder that I had lying around.

I managed to get a few minutes in the garden with it before the rain came. It seems sharp enough. There is some slight false colour noticeable on the edge of the field of view (leaves against a white sky background) using a 27mm Panoptic but cannot see it in the center of the field of view. At higher powers (9mm Nagler) it was less evident so it could be the eyepiece. Hopefully I can get it under a clear night sky to do a proper assessment of its capability.

The 10:1 focuser is very nice to use. No sign of any slippage or slop.  The focuser rotation is a bit stiff and is locked out of the box. You need to loosen the three nylon tipped screws to get it to move. I am sure with the right adjustments it can be made a bit smoother.

A slight nick in the black paint on the dew shield but apart from that it looks very nice indeed. I'll post a full review after it gets some star time.

edit: I managed to get some shots of the moon this morning with my Canon 450D (no cropping and minor contrast edits only. No CA or colour correction). I have added one shot with the moon at the edge of the FOV.

 

Edited July 20, 2019 by Limerick John

[Jarvo]

It’s bigger brother is reviewed in the August Sky at Night Magazine. It gets a good review. 

Its a work of art - I went to view one at Rother Valley Optics. I really don’t think you would be disappointed if you bought one (especially if the accessories are all the same colour ). 

In the end I opted for an esprit 100 because I got the accessories included (finder/diagonal/ flight case). 

Let us know what you decide  

Jarvo

 

[djpaul]

On 20/05/2019 at 09:37, Guest Vangelis said:

It's probably a decent scope. However, it's really poor value for money now in the UK market. For the same price you can get  a SW ED120 a highly reviewed and regarded scope that comes with a full kit of accessories and you get almost an inch more aperture for a similar price. It's a doublet and it also uses fpl53. For some reason W/O scopes have become really uncompetitive compared to Skywatcher and even Explore Scientific scopes. It may be due to the pound tanking against the dollar. I had a GT81 I bought new at the start of 2015 for £725. No accessories came with it. The same scope albeit with a different focuser is now nearly £1100. Not what I would call value for money. I would buy an Esprit 80 which is £200 cheaper and comes with all accessories. My GT81 was a great scope but no better optically than say an Esprit 80 or ES 80. I know they look nice but I would seriously think about buying an ED120 at the budget of the Zenithstar or even save a few hundred quid and buy an ED100.  

Good advise above.  

Although I have a william optics 73mm zenithstar and a skywatcher ed120.

 

[Limerick John]

7 hours ago, djpaul said:

Good advise above.  

Although I have a william optics 73mm zenithstar and a skywatcher ed120.

 

I had looked at and considered similar scopes from Skywatcher, Altair, TS etc.. However, paying in Euros and with the lower value of the pound there wasn't much of a price difference when  buying direct from the UK.  I would still personally prefer a WO scope over say a similar Skywatcher or TS scope in terms of resale value and just how they look. There is some great value out there at the moment from these brands though.

Edited July 20, 2019 by Limerick John

[newbie alert]

I'd always been a fan of William optics..good looking scopes,  sharp optics..

Then I found I couldn't use the fine focus on the focuser, which wasn't the end of the world but a little bit of hassle...fast forward a year or so and while setting up a distinct crunch sound with a ball bearing, circlip and a fragment of metal falling from the focuser combined with no movement from it showed all wasn't well.. so I tried to find a replacement, not much luck there so emailed William optics as surely they'd have a replacement or parts..they emailed back and said that the component is no longer available or the parts..if I sent the whole focuser back there's a small chance they could mend it with different parts but couldn't guarantee it..So I started to look more in depth into a replacement, flo was really good in putting me in contact with Ron at moonlite but unfortunately I couldn't justify the cost on what is essentially a doublet.. so I bought a esprit with a moonlite and that was that

So the WO went back in the box until I decide what to do with it... such a waste..

Next time I look past the bling

[Limerick John]

I managed to get a quick look at Jupiter and a few stars last night during a break in the clouds.

The ZS 103 seems tack sharp across most of the FOV. It does show noticeable CA on Jupiter. The scope was not cooled down though but the image is sharp. Alberio looked pleasant against the blue twilight sky. I bought the telescope mainly for wide field viewing and eventually some DSLR imaging.

I should hopefully get some more time with the instrument to do a proper assessment in August when the nights get a bit longer.

I did a quick comparison with my 10 year old Megrez 72. The CA is similar. The Megrez 72 I have is a cracker optically. Its funny how one goes looking for issues because there is some awareness of potential problems when there are most likely none.

 

Edited July 21, 2019 by Limerick John

[steveex2003]

On 20/07/2019 at 09:38, newbie alert said:

I'd always been a fan of William optics..good looking scopes,  sharp optics..

Then I found I couldn't use the fine focus on the focuser, which wasn't the end of the world but a little bit of hassle...fast forward a year or so and while setting up a distinct crunch sound with a ball bearing, circlip and a fragment of metal falling from the focuser combined with no movement from it showed all wasn't well.. so I tried to find a replacement, not much luck there so emailed William optics as surely they'd have a replacement or parts..they emailed back and said that the component is no longer available or the parts..if I sent the whole focuser back there's a small chance they could mend it with different parts but couldn't guarantee it..So I started to look more in depth into a replacement, flo was really good in putting me in contact with Ron at moonlite but unfortunately I couldn't justify the cost on what is essentially a doublet.. so I bought a esprit with a moonlite and that was that

So the WO went back in the box until I decide what to do with it... such a waste..

Next time I look past the bling

That is a sad story indeed.
None of this stuff is remotely cheap. I'm not sure I would be able to avoid a certain level of resentment in your shoes to be honest.

[GazOC]

1 hour ago, steveex2003 said:

That is a sad story indeed.
None of this stuff is remotely cheap. I'm not sure I would be able to avoid a certain level of resentment in your shoes to be honest.

It's hard to think of another area of business where something purchased relatively recently for that amount of money would be totally unsupported by the manufacturer. I'd be bouncing

[newbie alert]

It's ok, I get over it..more than ecstatic with the esprit atm...

[andrew63]

How old is the telescope? - they have a two year guarantee.

 

andrew

[steveex2003]

45 minutes ago, GazOC said:

It's hard to think of another area of business where something purchased relatively recently for that amount of money would be totally unsupported by the manufacturer. I'd be bouncing

Well, I think Samsung follow a very similar vein, but thats a story for another day.
My Equinox's may well be at the Ford Focus end of the market, but failing a destroyed objective i'd be supremely confident of most mechanical repairs and replacements. 
I have no doubt the Esprit is a wonderful tool. Hopefully it goes some way to putting this WO business to one side

Edited July 21, 2019 by steveex2003

[Limerick John]

26 minutes ago, GazOC said:

It's hard to think of another area of business where something purchased relatively recently for that amount of money would be totally unsupported by the manufacturer. I'd be bouncing

Its heartbreaking. I had a far worse experience a few years back with a large "reputable" telescope company after spending 6,500 bucks on a brand new telescope/ mount combo. The mount was a dud straight out of the box-faulty motherboard. It took over four months going back to and from the dealer to finally get it resolved but only after the threat of the consumer rights act.  Never again.

[parallaxerr]

23 hours ago, steveex2003 said:

That is a sad story indeed.
None of this stuff is remotely cheap. I'm not sure I would be able to avoid a certain level of resentment in your shoes to be honest.

I feel resentment when I look at your avatar Steve.....towards myself for letting go of that Equinox 120 😥 Hope it's serving you well? My 4" frac can't deliver the same views, but it's a lot easier to set up, which is what I "wanted".

[parallaxerr]

21 hours ago, Limerick John said:

Its heartbreaking. I had a far worse experience a few years back with a large "reputable" telescope company after spending 6,500 bucks on a brand new telescope/ mount combo. The mount was a dud straight out of the box-faulty motherboard. It took over four months going back to and from the dealer to finally get it resolved but only after the threat of the consumer rights act.  Never again.

Same here. Albeit a less expensive item, I received a dud scope from a "reputable" supplier which was a nightmare to get refunded due to a total communication blackout. Likewise - never again!

[steveex2003]

6 hours ago, parallaxerr said:

I feel resentment when I look at your avatar Steve.....towards myself for letting go of that Equinox 120 😥 Hope it's serving you well? My 4" frac can't deliver the same views, but it's a lot easier to set up, which is what I "wanted".

I love the scope Jon. There is nothing about it, that makes me remotely unhappy. I do however understand your decision. It is just ever so, ever so slightly large. It's not heavy or remotely cumbersome, and using some Morpheus eyepieces I am rewarded with views that just plain make me very happy.  I do however love that little 80, whch is mostly left attached to a tiny Giro GR2 head and a CF Manfrotto 055, which I can literally run around the garden with, a cup of coffee in the other hand. This has led me to wonder the worth of a shortish FL 100mm.
I am travelling (busmans holiday sadly) to a Bortle 2 site on the mainland toward the end of Aug, and my 10" Dob and the 120mm are coming with me, so that should be interesting 🙂 
I read your woes re your previous purchase. Am glad you eventually made some headway with it all. It is quite something isn't it, to spend decent money in what is a gentlemans hobby at the end of the day, to be given the brush off like some market stall nonsense.

[Limerick John]

I have now had a chance to spend some time with the ZS 103 as we have had two clear nights.

Looking at Vega, Arcturus and a few bright stars, I did't see any false colour. You can see some colour flaring towards the edge of the FOV but it is minimal. You can see this in day time use also if you look closely (roof line against white sky). Stars focus to pin points of light. With my  27mm Panoptics, the double cluster in Perseus and M31 are beautifully framed in the FOV. A star test shows softening of the out of focus rings on one side of the focus, sharp on the other. I guess this is to be expected to some degree in this design. Less evident using a green filter but still present. Pushed to 290X  with a 9mm Nagler and 2.5 x Powermate the collimation looks perfect

Jupiter shows good detail. I compared it side by side with my old 8" Meade SCT (a fine instrument)  at similar magnification. Very comparable views given the seeing conditions. There is some CA visible on Jupiter but it was also visible in the SCT at a similar level which may be down to atmospheric reasons.

As a user of SCTs and Newtonians for a long time, moving to a decent refractor is a new experience which I am going to enjoy. I am liking the ZS 103 a lot.. A nice addition to my telescope collection.

Looking forward to trying some imaging. I need to get an adapter to place it on my CGE mount.