The new WO Megrez 90

[adam88]

Firstly let me say i'm no expert in appraising a telescopes quailties, however i feel i've been observing enough to seem like i know hat i'm talking about ,and this is my first review too:headbang:. I'm purely a visual observer who has too much money to spend on telescopes (much to the annoyance of my girlfriend!).

When i bought this scope in April from FLO i had my heart set on a flt98cf, however there was going to be a wait of about 3 months for wo to manufacture some more, so, after a discussion with Steve at FLO i decided to get the Megrez 90.

The new style differs from the previous model by now being a faster f6.2 and no longer having the 'foot'. It now comes with the beautiful CNC tube rings which once added to the scope with the WO dovetail make the scope quite weighty (~4.5 kg). The crayford focuser has also been replaced by a linear power which has a piece of what looks like steel on the underside of it to give extra stability. Although not as smooth as a crayford it is very stable feeling and i've had no problem with slipping hanging a 2" diagonal and a T4 17mm nagler off the back of it pointing at the zenith!

As you can see from the pictures it is quite a large scope relative the the ZS66 however it is still just about a grab and go!

To my eyes the FPL-53 doublet does a very good job a reducing CA. When observing bright stars and in good seeing as soon as you reach focus any purple just disappears up to about 150X on vega. There is of course colour in and out of focus however what matters is that in focus there is basically none:hello2:. I haven't noticed any objectionable coma and all of my eyepieces (mostly televue) stars appear sharp right to the edge.

Luna is framed against a inky black sky with only a hint of yellow visable along the edge, however this seems to be seeing dependant and the same can be said of jupiter.

When the seeing is good detail on both of these objects is there for the taking and on luna a few weeks ago i had it up to 300X with no image breakdown!

The wide true field of view that can be acheived with this scope is huge (~ 4.1 degrees with a 28mm UWAN) and scanning the cygnus starfields is just stunning!

I've seen the brigtest parts of the veil (NGC 6992/ 6995) display subtle detail (using a lumicon O-III filter) and the dumbell nebula looks just like that!

However where i seem to spend most my observing time with this is on the messier globulars!

Every one i've looked at through this scope begins to resolve! Even faint ol m 56 in lyra and m 71 in sagitta. However contrary to what you may think my favourite one to observe with this scope is m 92 in hercules.

The close proximity of m 13 i think draws peoples observations away from this little gem and it just seems to eat up magnification with this scope!

When my eyes are dark adapted i regularly have the magnification over 250X with this and am rewarded with a truly breathaking sight.

The same can be said with my MN68 on m 92 which with 500x appears more like a open cluster! However i digress .

So i summary this is a great scope for about a third of the price of a sky 90! The performance is IMHO just about as good as a 90 mm doublet apo can be for this price.

With my mini giro mount and this scope i can be out observing in 3 mins ready for any brief break in the clouds and as the old addage goes ' the best telescope is the one you'll use the most'

Thanks WO for another great scope

Cheers

Adam

[John]

It looks a superb scope Adam and it sounds as if it performs as well as it looks

I used to have a MK1 Megrez 90 so it's interesting to see what has changed. I'm glad they have dropped the mounting foot in favour of tube rings - I found the foot got in the way and was not even helpful by fitting a mount dovetail !.

The Veil is lovely through this sort of scope coupled with a fine widefield eyepiece isn't it ? - I use my Vixen ED102 F/6.5 with a Nagler 31 for a similar effect on a dark night.

Nice review of a very nice scope

[adam88]

You're sure right about the veil John!

I most often use my 22 mm panoptic (definately my favourite televue eyepiece!) which just about frames the brightest parts and when a O-III filter is used the view never gets old!

Thanks

adam

[FLO]

Nice review Adam, it is good to hear you are enjoying the telescope

Steve

[adam88]

Thanks Steve,

I certainly am enjoying it and you and james will be pleased to hear the Intes collimation is still spot on and providing great jovian views!

Thanks

Adam