WO ZS61 v SW 80ED PRO

[Hals]

Torn between these two for wide field imaging. Can anyone with experience of either offer a good comparison, pro's & cons etc. I'm leaning towards the ZS61 at the moment and whichever one I get will do me for a few years.

[Skinnypuppy71]

I can't really help you with which one to choose..All I  can say is that I received my WO zenithstar 73ii  yesterday and I'm fair chuffed with the build quality of the thing...built like a tank these are....oh and that focuser is soooo smooth and I haven't even looked at the sky yet...just a couple of birds across the street......flying ones... before anyone gets any ideas.lol.

[blinky]

what camera are you going to use?  I had a Willima Optics ZS66 a few years ago and it was a nice widefield image but with the big pixels of the DSLR I was using at the time it was very undersampled and I prefered my 80mm Skywatcher.  Nowadays with small pixel CMOS I would be tempted to go with the 60mm as it would provide the larger FoV for widefield especially if paired with one of those CMOS chips...

[blinky]

Should also say I have a ZS73 and I also love it, there is something nice about WO kit!

[Hals]

31 minutes ago, blinky said:

what camera are you going to use?  I had a Willima Optics ZS66 a few years ago and it was a nice widefield image but with the big pixels of the DSLR I was using at the time it was very undersampled and I prefered my 80mm Skywatcher.  Nowadays with small pixel CMOS I would be tempted to go with the 60mm as it would provide the larger FoV for widefield especially if paired with one of those CMOS chips...

It’s a Canon 80D DSLR. 

Edited June 17, 2020 by Hals

[blinky]

3.7 micorn pixels, so would work with the widerfield WO 61 quite nicely I feel

[Hals]

That’s what I thought 👍

[TerryJ]

What did you decide? I am looking at either the WO ZS73 or the SW ED80.  I would be using Canon 450D Astro modded. Next purchase would be a dedicated camera, probably mono, when funds allow.

[Adam J]

On 17/06/2020 at 22:23, Hals said:

Torn between these two for wide field imaging. Can anyone with experience of either offer a good comparison, pro's & cons etc. I'm leaning towards the ZS61 at the moment and whichever one I get will do me for a few years.

I would go with a 80mm unless you have some reason to want protability. You are going to be traiding detail for a wider view with the ZS61.

[Hals]

Portability is a criteria, I know the ED80 is pretty portable but I'm edging for the WO partly because I have the option of a good deal with it and its superior (IMHO) build quality and finish.  I'll let you know which one I get eventually !

Edited June 19, 2020 by Hals

[carastro]

I love the optics of the WO scopes, but the design of the two I have owned (WOZS71 and WO Megrez 72 APO) leaves a lot to be desired in comparison to the ED80 which I also own.

1) The soppy little foot you can't balance the rig without adding an extra dovetail.

2) With the extra long dovetail on it is really difficult to get hold of the focus locking nut. 

3) Plus there  is no-where to mount a finderscope/finderguider. 

I have managed to overcome most of these problems by mounting it on top of my ED80 with a guidescope mount and mount my finderguider onto the Ed80, it works really well on that.

I love the faster optics of the WOZS71 in comparison to the ED80.

Carole   

[Hals]

So, after some research and much YouTubing I’ve pulled the trigger on a William Optics Z71 Star II Quad APO Astrograph. Should fulfil my needs for wide field with fast and quality optics. I’ll be doing shorter unguided subs initially then later I’ll get an autoguider rig for it. I feel like I’ve taken the red pill and am about to fall down the rabbit hole 😀

Edited June 21, 2020 by Hals