SW Evolux 82 First Look

[johninderby]

Just arrived this aft from FLO. Feels quite hefty for it’s size. Reassiringly solid.. 👍🏻

Plenty of pics to come but a few to start with. 🙂

Edited May 31, 2022 by johninderby

[johninderby]

More pics. 🙂

[badhex]

Looks great @johninderby! Looking forward to hearing about first light. What are your impressions on the build quality so far? 

Edited May 31, 2022 by badhex

[johninderby]

And a few more pics this time with the handle, diag and finder. The handle makes it easy to carry the whole setup. one handed.

[johninderby]

First impressions of build quality are excellent. Fit and finish are excellent and it has a quality feel to it. A big step up for SW and now seems more like the offerings of Long Perng. Focuser feels very solid and smooth. Like the extra long dew shield which is one advantage over most other fracs out there. The design seems well thought out with some nice touches.

Is this the best built SW frac yet? 🤔

Edited May 31, 2022 by johninderby

[RobertI]

Very nice looking scope John. Interesting to hear the build quality is a step up from usual SW scopes, bodes well. Some really nice features I like the look of:

• Nice long dew shield with locking screws
• Two finder shoes - very useful
• Single tube ring and oversized focuser thumbscrews are reminiscent of Tak
• Handle - luxury

Looking forward to seeing what the “Exclusive” lens design” yields out in the field. 👍

[johninderby]

The sun has gone into hiding. Was going to see how the scope handled a solar wedge.

Partly cloudy tonight so might get a chance for a bit of a look. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

[Skyline]

1 hour ago, johninderby said:

First impressions of build quality are excellent. Fit and finish are excellent and it has a quality feel to it. A big step up for SW and now seems more like the offerings of Long Perng. Focuser feels very solid and smooth. Like the extra long dew shield which is one advantage over most other fracs out there. The design seems well thought out with some nice touches.

Is this the best built SW frac yet? 🤔

Enjoy, now you understand what I meant about the quality of my 62ED. I am sure will not be disappointed with the viewing which it will give you.

[johninderby]

The sun came out so tried the Lacerta 2” wedge but unfortunately not quite enough infocus. Will have to fit a shorter eyepiece holder on the wedge to get it to focus.

Observed a pigeon sitting on an aerial in the bright sun and a razor sharp image with no hint of CA on the aerial.. 👍🏻

Edited May 31, 2022 by johninderby

[johninderby]

8 minutes ago, Skyline said:

Enjoy, now you understand what I meant about the quality of my 62ED. I am sure will not be disappointed with the viewing which it will give you.

Yes nice to see SW upping their game. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Edited May 31, 2022 by johninderby

[Ags]

I hope the optics are as good as the looks, which are very, very good.

[Rob]

4 hours ago, johninderby said:

First impressions of build quality are excellent. Fit and finish are excellent and it has a quality feel to it. A big step up for SW and now seems more like the offerings of Long Perng. Focuser feels very solid and smooth. Like the extra long dew shield which is one advantage over most other fracs out there. The design seems well thought out with some nice touches.

Is this the best built SW frac yet? 🤔

I agree on the Long Perng.. the designed by logo looks like LP to me ?!.

my 80ed being a Long Perng is built beautiful .. I’m sure you had one back in the day. Very eager for first light

Rob

[badhex]

I read somewhere on CN that the OL stood for something else - L???? Optics or Optical but I can't find the thread again to confirm. 

[JeremyS]

6 hours ago, johninderby said:

And a few more pics this time with the handle, diag and finder. The handle makes it easy to carry the whole setup. 

Looks like WDS has lost out on a sale this time, John.

[Skyline]

2 hours ago, Rob said:

I agree on the Long Perng.. the designed by logo looks like LP to me ?!.

my 80ed being a Long Perng is built beautiful .. I’m sure you had one back in the day. Very eager for first light

Rob

The logo is wrong for long pern.

The logo corresponds to :

Lichtenknecker Optics nv

[johninderby]

Apparently they were involved in the design of the Esprit as well.

 

[badhex]

16 minutes ago, Skyline said:

The logo is wrong for long pern.

The logo corresponds to :

Lichtenknecker Optics nv

That's the badger. I knew I'd read something like that but couldn't remember.

[johninderby]

4 minutes ago, badhex said:

That's the badger. I knew I'd read something like that but couldn't remember.

Found the CN thread but no real info there. Just peters out.

Clear skies earlier but clouded out when it got dark. Well the forecast did say partly cloudy so at 99% cloudy they weren't actually wrong. 😁

[badhex]

7 hours ago, johninderby said:

Found the CN thread but no real info there. Just peters out.

Situation normal

[badhex]

Seriously though, and more constructively than my last post 🙂

Lichtenknecker is a new name to me although seems to have been very active in producing quality optics, so I'm sure there are many SGL members who already know about them. For anyone like myself who does not, I have been looking through various threads about the EvoLux on the other forum but as mentioned there was very little real info, mostly a lot of posts flaming other posts, and a lot of posts openly bashing Skywatcher for their policies and even bashing Kevin, the SW spokesperson who posts there, which I find to be a shame. Please be aware however I'm not slating anyone, and certainly not the forum itself, I just find it difficult to read posts containing endless vitriol.

Regardless, I eventually did find the below info on Lichtenknecker Optics in a post from about ten years ago on one of the Esprits. I've also found a PDF biography of the founder and company with lots of pictures and diagrams (in German). Oddly, the Lichtenknecker Optics website referred to various places now redirects to Astroshop.

lichtenknecker.pdf

Quote

"Belgian company Lichtenknecker has been a first-class manufacturer of optics and scopes for the amateur market since 1973, with a quality and reputation similar to Zeiss.
They offered refractors (achros, semi-apos, triplets, even quadruplets, from 3 to 10 inches, f/8 to f/20 (see this link for the refractor objective chapter of their 1980's catalog ), Newtonians, 8" and 12" SCTs (with "curved" Schmidt-corrector plates to prevent ghost images at the focal plane), Schiefspieglers 4.5" to 16" inches, and their legendary Flat-Field astrographs (6", 8", 12").

Since the turn of the century, the company has gradually shifted their activities to the production of high-end optics for scientific, and especially military applications.

That seems to be the reason why their public appearance is virtually non-existent - I agree that their web site is pretty bad and outdated.

The interesting thing is that they still are willing to produce many of their former amateur optics on a custom basis, and a phone call to them will almost always get you directly in touch with the president, Mr. Hugo Ruland (a little similar situation to Vernonscope/Don Yeier)

Their "gate to the amateur astronomer world" is the also highly regarded Swiss company "AOK Swiss" ( web page ); AOK's owner Beat Kohler has established a long-standing cooperation with Lichtenknecker.
AOK can provide Lichtenknecker's FPL 53 doublets (4" to 8", f/10 to f/20), their CaF2 triplets (4" to 8", f/7 to f/15), and their Schiefspieglers (4.5" to 12", f/28 to f/20)."

 

Edited June 1, 2022 by badhex

[Skyline]

@johninderby With the handle fitted, can you still place the scope in the case and shut the lid? as I am considering buying the handle myself for the 62ED.

[johninderby]

24 minutes ago, Skyline said:

@johninderby With the handle fitted, can you still place the scope in the case and shut the lid? as I am considering buying the handle myself for the 62ED.

While the scope could still be put in the case with the handle you would have to rotate the clamshell as the focuser doesn’t rotate and then cut the foam to clear the handle and dovetail.

So yes it’s posible but myself would go with a padded scope bag big enough to hold the scope with diag and finder.

Edited June 1, 2022 by johninderby

[Rob]

been waiting on first light John?. How’s it going with the scope

Rob

[johninderby]

5 minutes ago, Rob said:

been waiting on first light John?. How’s it going with the scope

Rob

The new scope curse. Too much cloud. 🤬🤬🤬

Can’t last forever thpugh can it. 🤔

[Alan White]

8 minutes ago, johninderby said:

The new scope curse. Too much cloud. 🤬🤬🤬

Can’t last forever thpugh can it. 🤔

Now you have done it John….. next 3 months all solid cloud 😜