William optics z61 or skywatcher evo 80

[ChrisMarsh]

I’m starting out at Astrophotography with my canon 77d and have taken some photos of the moon and some deep sky with my existing telescope which is a Celestron Astro fi 127 mak and with my lenses that I have 50mm, 60mm and 55-250mm.

im looking at getting a star adventurer once they are available again as I’d like some very portable I’m also looking at getting a small telescope as well.

I’ve narrowed it down to the William optics Z61 or the skywatcher evo 80 both have the fl53 glass which I would like and both are a similar price which would be the better scope?

Edited October 28, 2020 by ChrisMarsh

[nephilim]

36 minutes ago, ChrisMarsh said:

I’m starting out at Astrophotography with my canon 77d and have taken some photos of the moon and some deep sky with my existing telescope which is a Celestron Astro fi 127 mak and with my lenses that I have 50mm, 60mm and 55-250mm.

im looking at getting a star adventurer once they are available again as I’d like some very portable I’m also looking at getting a small telescope as well.

I’ve narrowed it down to the William optics Z61 or the skywatcher evo 80 both have the fl53 glass which I would like and both are a similar price which would be the better scope?

It all depends on what your wanting to image, the WO has a wider field of view & will also be a lot easier on the mount as its a fair bit lighter than the ED80, its also faster at F5.9. I'm about to buy the WO Z73II but will be mounting it on the equivalent of a HEQ5.

 

 

Edited October 28, 2020 by nephilim

[Stuf1978]

I'd stay away from the ED80 on a star adventurer as personally I think its's way too much for that mount, the WO is a much better match imo. Have you also considered the ED72? I used this on a SA for while and with guiding I could get 5 minute exposures no problem, however without guiding I struggled to get anything over 60 seconds consistently 

 

 

Edited October 28, 2020 by Stuf1978

[wuthton]

The ED80 carries a reputation it gained when there was much less competition in reasonably priced short, fast refractors, it's now just plain slow for imaging use. I'm just putting together a travel setup and I did have a paw at the ZS61 but in the end I went with the Redcat51, the price is about the same once you've added the flattener to the 61 which the Redcat doesn't require.

[ChrisMarsh]

1 hour ago, Stuf1978 said:

I'd stay away from the ED80 on a star adventurer as personally I think its's way too much for that mount, the WO is a much better match imo. Have you also considered the ED72? I used this on a SA for while and with guiding I could get 5 minute exposures no problem, however without guiding I struggled to get anything over 60 seconds consistently 

 

 

Yeah I did look at the ED72 but I’d rather pay a little more for the fl53 glass.

[ChrisMarsh]

1 hour ago, wuthton said:

The ED80 carries a reputation it gained when there was much less competition in reasonably priced short, fast refractors, it's now just plain slow for imaging use. I'm just putting together a travel setup and I did have a paw at the ZS61 but in the end I went with the Redcat51, the price is about the same once you've added the flattener to the 61 which the Redcat doesn't require.

I have seen the redcat51 I prefer the focuser on the z61 to the Redcat. 

[wuthton]

2 hours ago, ChrisMarsh said:

I have seen the redcat51 I prefer the focuser on the z61 to the Redcat. 

Yes, but the ZS61 isn't a Petzval. 

[ChrisMarsh]

32 minutes ago, wuthton said:

Yes, but the ZS61 isn't a Petzval. 

Im new to this so I don’t know what a petzval is I’ve looked it up and I’m still confused. 
 

I do like the redcat but what puts me off it is the focus which is like a normal lens I like the idea of the fine focus the z61 has and also it has a little more focal length too

[wuthton]

21 minutes ago, ChrisMarsh said:

Im new to this so I don’t know what a petzval is I’ve looked it up and I’m still confused. 
 

I do like the redcat but what puts me off it is the focus which is like a normal lens I like the idea of the fine focus the z61 has and also it has a little more focal length too

No worries, this is a very brief overview of an extremely complex subject with regard to imaging only, there's a whole lot more consideration for visual. 

Refractors that you can pick off the shelf fall in to 3 categories + 1, Petzval. The first three are singlet, doublet and triplet which through the increasing number of lens elements for each category manage to improve the colour correction of the image, blue light will (nearly) focus to the same point as the red light. But they all suffer from field curvature, the image looks like the Enterprise about to enter warp hence the need for a flattener. 

Petzvals have superb colour correction and an extra element which gives a flat field and takes away all the spacing and back focus faff that comes with flatteners.

I'm sure someone will correct me but the Redcat is the first Petzval refractor that I've seen where the price isn't very firmly into 4 figures.