WO or Skywatcher

[nephilim]

As part of my upcoming AP setup I'm looking at buying a Triplet  & so far I've narrowed it down to either the Sky-Watcher Esprit 80 ED Pro or WO GT 81 lV. 

Both these scopes are a similar price. The Skywatcher is slightly faster @F5 (WO F5.9) & a slightly shorter FL @400 (WO 478). The Skywatcher comes with a finder & star diagnol which are of no interest to me, 'extras don't figure into my decision as I'm only interested in the scope itself.

I don't know why but I'm thinking the WO will be better quality although there's nothing wrong with Skywatcher as a make. Both will be checked & tuned by Es Reid.

Does anyone have any experience with either or both of these?

Obviously I'd be interested in other makes with similar specifications.

Although I had originally decided on a DSLR, I'm becoming more drawn towards a dedicated camera (at the moment, as I keep changing my mind as I read up on all these things......Too many choices 😂).  The 2 cameras I'm looking at are the ZWO ASI 533MC Pro & the ZWO ASI 294MC Pro.

Tia

Steve 

Edited November 7, 2020 by nephilim

[vlaiv]

I have TS 80mm photoline F/6 APO that might be sourced from the same factory as WO GT 81.

With SW, I would check following:

- what sort of flattener / reducer can be used with it

- how good is focuser and does it have threaded connection.

F/6 scope can be reduced F/4.8 without too much trouble with good FF/FR. However, in order to give best performance - there should be no tilt and threaded connection is the way to go about that one.

[nephilim]

1 hour ago, vlaiv said:

I have TS 80mm photoline F/6 APO that might be sourced from the same factory as WO GT 81.

With SW, I would check following:

- what sort of flattener / reducer can be used with it

- how good is focuser and does it have threaded connection.

F/6 scope can be reduced F/4.8 without too much trouble with good FF/FR. However, in order to give best performance - there should be no tilt and threaded connection is the way to go about that one.

Thank you for replying Vlaiv, these are 2 considerations & obviously both make sense.

I've a couple of months for research before buying so still a lot to look into.

I'll also have a look at the TS 🙂