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Posts Tagged 'william-optics'

The new William Optics “Mini Cat” is here – small but powerful!

September 18 2024, Jan Ströher

The new, ultra-compact MiniCat Astrograph from William Optics is a high-quality photographic machine, consisting of 6 lenses in 2 groups with integrated focuser design (WIFD). The fast focal ratio of f/3.5 allows very short exposure times with the highest image quality and correction – as you would expect from all apochromatic refractors from William Optics. The field of view illuminated by the MiniCat for astrophotography corresponds to that of full-frame cameras.

William Optics MiniCat 51/178 OTA

Due to the very short tube length with the low weight of only 1.67 kg, the MiniCat is a perfect apochromat for traveling and for small photo mounts, such as the iOptron SkyGuider.The Cat series from William Optics has been very popular for many years and rightly so. They are very handy optics for nature and astrophotography. The heart is the optics with Petzval design: Four lenses in three elements ensure a color-corrected and, above all, flat image field. An external flattener is no longer necessary!

The latest “baby” is no exception: With the MiniCat 51 you not only get impressive optical performance, but you can also enjoy the beautiful design and finish from William Optics!

The new RedCat 71 from William Optics

December 15 2021, Jan Ströher

The time-proven and much loved RedCat 51 by William Optics has a new big brother – the RedCat 71. The same Petzval design with corresponding high-quality optics using FPL53 and FPL51 optics. With its 71mm aperture, the new “Cat” is a lot more powerful than the RedCat 51. The result is a pure-colour, corrected image field with a diameter of over 45 millimetres – ideal even for full-frame cameras! The fast f/4.9 aperture ratio facilitates short exposure times. At 3kg, the 335mm-long RedCat 71 weighs only slightly more than its smaller brother.

Once again, focusing is helical, adjusted by turning a ring on the lens tube.

The telescope comes with a protective carry case, as well as a Bahtinov mask specially designed for the RedCat. This mask aids focusing and is permanently and precisely fitted in the lens adapter.

The RedCat 71 is also perfect for deep sky astrophotography and offers not only impressive optical performance, but also William Optics’ attractive trademark design.

The new RedCat 71

 

To use the RedCat 71 for astrophotography you need a mount with a load capacity of at least 7kg due to its weight. The new iOptron mounts CEM26 or GEM28 are ideally suited for this.

Reckon you will soon be a “Cat” fan?

Discover the new RedCat 71 and William Optics’ ”Cat” series.

Gran Turismo GT 81: the high-end telescope from William Optics!

April 9 2020, Stefan Taube

The Gran Turismo 81 refractor is a triplet apochromat with a lens unit with FPL-53 glass from Ohara, Japan. This combination ensures maximum colour purity and high contrast! The GT81 is therefore a versatile refracting telescope which satisfies every requirement!

William Optics GT 81 Astroshop

Apochromat refractor AP 81/478 Gran Turismo GT 81 from William Optics.

Equipped with an optional diagonal mirror, with this apochromat you can observe the Moon and the planets in high contrast. This fast telescope also enables sustained observing of more difficult deep sky objects: star clusters, galaxies and nebulae. Thanks to needle-sharp star images, resolving and observing globular clusters becomes a particular pleasure.

For astrophotography, we recommend the field flattener and focal length reducer (flattener/reducer) Flat6AIII. With this, the telescope delivers a flat field with the same focal position, even for full-frame cameras. The Bahtinov mask integrated into the telescope body helps with precise focusing.

Using the dovetail plate integrated into the frame, you can equip your Gran Turismo with a finder scope or guiding scope.

The very robust and stable GT81-Apo is ideally suited for mobile astronomy and astro-photography. The tube weight of four kilograms is easily accommodated by medium-sized mounts. Take this apo with you to a dark sky and discover the best objects from the Messier and NGC catalogues. The GT81 from William Optics will be, after the Firstlight, your new favourite telescope!

The new Gran Turismo 81 Apochromatic Refractor by William Optics

August 24 2018, Stefan Taube

William Optics, the specialist for high-quality lens telescopes, is bringing a very interesting “photo machine” to the market with the Gran Turismo GT 81. This refractor features a travel telescope forma-factor, so it’s still easy to handle – a real dream for astrophotographers!

The GT 81 is fitted with a three-element lens that ensures high colour correction and ultra-sharp depiction. In addition to the usual high-quality workmanship of William Optics, the equipment of this apochromatic refractor is worth looking at: A high-quality eyepiece holder, pre-mounted guide scope rings and a prism rail. A special highlight is the patented focus mask that is also included in the scope of delivery.

We are offering a matching guidescope and a field flattener with this telescope. With the Gran Turismo 81 by William Optics, you’ll be receiving a high-quality piece of optical equipment for life-long fun with astrophotography!

New: Improvement to the Orion-Dobsons and the Skywatcher EQ-5, new QHY camera and apos by William Optics!

October 27 2017, Stefan Taube

We would like to present to you a small selection of items that we included in the range recently:

1.Orion Dobson telescope N 254/1200 SkyQuest XT10 PLUSOrion XT10 PLUS

Dobson telescopes with 10-inch aperture by Orion are, of course, nothing new. Orion now offers its 10-inch in an improved PLUS version.

New features:

  • Friction brake for the height axis. This enables the use of heavy eyepieces.
  • Filters for observing the sun in safety.
  • Crayford focuser with reduction for fine focusing.
  • 2″ wide-angle eyepiece and Barlow lens
  • Eyepiece tray

With the XT10 PLUS you will receive an easy-to-use telescope with small improvements for even better performance and more fun during your observation sessions!

There is also an 8-inch Dobson by Orion in this improved version: XT8 PLUS.

 

2. Skywatcher mount AZ-EQ-5-GT SynScan GoTo

The AZ-EQ-5 mount by Skywatcher is actually not new. You will receive this mount immediately with a classic tripod as you known it with other mounts. Until now, Skywatcher delivered the mount with a column where the tripod legs didn’t fit right under the mount. This tripod was very compact for carrying, but not as sturdy as the classic tripod.

The AZ-EQ-5 mount is a real all-purpose mount that can take up to 15 kg: It is very light to carry and can be operated in either equatorial or azimuthal position, so for either astrophotography or for simple observation.

The mount is, thanks to the toothed belt drive, relatively light and fitted with the latest version of the SynScan computer control system.

 

3. William Optics apochromatic refractor AP 61/360 ZenithStar 61

Are there any astrophotographers who don’t dream of an apo by William Optics? With the ZenithStar series you will receive a lens telescope in William-Optics quality at a fair price!

The small optics with an aperture ratio of f/5.9 weigh less than 1.5 kg and can be combined with a photo mount. You will receive a light, compact system for travel with which you will achieve amazing wide-angle shots of nebula regions of the Milky way – all that’s missing is the suitable flattener and a DSLR camera.

 

4. ALccd-QHY camera 9c Colour

Alccd-QHY-9c

We are constantly extending our range of cameras by ALccd-QHY. We have recently added the the 9c Colour camera. It has a Kodak KAF-8300 sensor: 8.9 megapixels with a 22.5 mm diagonal and 5.4 µm pixels.

The most important information;

  • The chip is fitted with microlenses.
  • The active cooling with a larger fan cools down the camera to 50 °C under the ambient temperature.
  • The 32 MB SDRAM buffer ensures a quiet transfer of the images.

This camera meets the high requirements of advanced astrophotographers.