William Optics was one of the first to introduce high quality "fit and finish" at a reasonable price and well known for it; I never once heard anyone say it wasn't worth it and most of the people I have been in contact with actually feel that the mechanics are actually as important as the optics. The WO scopes were considered a little better than most as they were made in Taiwan not China and the Stellarvue scopes even better of course as all were hand-tested. I visited the WO headquarters when they had one in the US and they took great pride in their product and their service. I think it was too bad that they closed it down. Of course many similar scopes came on the market afterwards and I don't think any were bad. I don't know the current status though. It is true that the Orion used FPL-53 glass and the WO only FPL-51, but for visual use there was no noticeable difference. Of course there are now triplets available for reasonable prices as well. I noticed the improved contrast on Jupiter in my first view through a Vixen 80mm ED doublet compared to my 8" SCT and bought my first refractor the next day. I had my scope up to 182x with no issues. There is definitely more color through my smaller f6 scope than my f7 one though, and I can't push the powers nearly as high. Personally I would be plenty happy with lighter optical tubes if it were possible, but I've appreciated the other features. -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Chuck Hards Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 5:42 PM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Small Refractor Suggestions On 8/16/11, Debbie <astrodeb@beyondbb.com> wrote:
Jay,
I'd go with one of the William Optics refractors. It has a nice fit and finish. It would be nice to piggy-back it on my 120 Megrez.
Debbie, you'll need to elaborate on "fit and finish". Is it actually worth the extra money to a working man? Optics is everything, after all, and optically, William isn't a cut above. In fact their quality has been slipping lately. _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php