Sky Watcher 6 inch APO?

[jakey]

Perhaps I have been had over on a very early April the 1st, but I bumped into an old astro buddy and whilst catching up, he told me that Skywatcher were shortly going to announce a six inch APO.

Anyone heard this or do I put my clown suit back on:icon_clown:

[barkis]

If anyone could enlighten you/us, it would be our Steve at Flo. Jakey.

No doubt he will pick up and answer the riddle.

Ron.

[GazOC]

Theres a cheap (relative term) 6" triplet on the way shorly from AstroTech in the USA, I can't remember who carries their gear in the UK though.

I think its only a matter of time before Skywatcher come out with a 6" model but to keep decent colour correction at an acceptable focal ratio it will have to be a triplet and also probably FPL-53. ie. not THAT cheap.....

[johninderby]

SCS Astro carries the AstroTech scopes http://www.scsastro.co.uk/cg240001.htm

OpticStar carries ED Triplet scopes under their own Accension brand name. Their 127 ED Tiiplet is £1299.00 but they do offer a £200.00 upgrade with better optics and an inferometer report.

http://www.opticstar.com/Run/Astronomy/Astro-Telescopes-Ascension.asp?s=6a0acea3-4496-45a4-933a-78523c6abed&p=0_10_1_6_50

John

[FLO]

We have also heard rumours but have not received any official news from Skywatcher's importers. I hope it is true.

<edit> If it is true it will almost certainly be a Synta in-house optic rather than one already in use. They will no doubt be keen to make the most of their association with Schott, the German glass manufacturer.

[GazOC]

If they can bring it in around 3500ish for a "Pro" version then it'll be interesting.

[FLO]

Fingers-crossed...

[johninderby]

Re: 6" APOs

Just out of curiosity does anyone know if William Optics has sold any of their 6" APO scopes in the UK?

John

[Doc]

Also out of curiosity what sort of mount would you require for this beast.

Would a EQ6 suffice?

[GazOC]

Yep, I'd say EQ6 for visual.

[Whippy]

Also out of curiosity what sort of mount would you require for this beast.

Would a EQ6 suffice?

I would imagine so, I have seen one of the Skywatcher 6" f8 doublet refractors on an EQ5 and it looked a bit under-mounted so I guess once you add in the extra lens element, a HEQ5 would be the bare minimum.

My understanding is that lens designs aren't 'scaleable' as in they couldn't just make a bigger version of say a 127mm model and expect it to have the same level of correction, so if Skywatcher and/or Astrotech manage to bring out a 6" APO that undercuts the WO model and is fairly fast (around f8 or faster) with at least the 'visual' definition of APO-ness (ie: colour free in focus) then it certainly would put the cat amongst the pigeons.

Tony..

[FLO]

Re: 6" APOs

Just out of curiosity does anyone know if William Optics has sold any of their 6" APO scopes in the UK?

John

Yes, we have

Coincidentally, James is delivering a William Optics FLT 152 to a customer next Wed when he returns from Kielder. Ian King has also sold some.