Willam Yang 80mm Semi APO Megrez

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Willam Yang 80mm Semi APO Megrez
A real competitor to the TV Pronto. Construction and finish superior to the Pronto. Very nice rotating focuser assembly for centering objects for CCD/Camera work. I understand Yang developed this for an affordable Astrophotography scope.

Color is there - its not an APO - but images are pinpoint across the FOV and color is reasonable. I've taken the scope to nearly 400X and views are still awesome on the Moon/Planets! I've been able to use and focus w/ eyepieces as large as 2" 50mm (with some light loss). Only thing stoping a "10" is it will not come to focus with many eyepieces without some type of adapter (a free one is available for 1 1/4 diag. but not 2").

Price is half that of a Pronto.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40842

Willam Yang 80mm Semi APO Megrez
I'm very impressed with the fit and finish of this little scope, and the optics easily exceed the performance of my old Ranger (same as in Pronto). Using TeleVue Radians, Cassini is easy at 120x on Saturn and festoons and swirls can be detected on Jupiter's belts at similar mags. (However, there is some violet around Jupiter.) Star-field views with Panoptics are bright and pinpoint. Daytime performance, too, is very impressive. I also own a Takahashi 78mm apochromat, and while the Megrez doesn't match it in image quality, it's near enough that I'm considering upgrading the Tak to a 4-incher sometime down the road.

Also, the Megrez's case is well-made, and the foam inside is dense enough to support the scope easily. The included 45-degree diagonal surpasses some other versions in clarity and color, and the 25mm plossl appears to come from the same factory that makes Celestron's non-Ultima plossls (they have the same rubber ring), so it's not a throwaway.

In short, it easily outclasses the Ranger/Pronto optics, more-or-less matches the Pronto package (the Pronto does have a 2-inch diagonal and a TV plossl going for it), and utterly buries the Celestron/Orion wide-field clones.

Eric Adams
eadams@airspacemag.si.edu

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Willam Yang 80mm Semi APO Megrez

I just picked up one of the very first batch of new
William Optics Megrez 80 mm simi APO scopes from the
folks at Anacortes Telescope & Wild Bird.

Thanks Herb for getting me in on one of the last few
units to go out the door in the first batch.

I can honestly say that I can not remember ever being
more pleased with a telescope purchase, than I am with
my new Megrez 80. Don't get me wrong, I was also very
pleased with my Tak FS 102 but, at four times the cost,
the Tak was EXPECTED to hit a high mark.

Not to put too fine a point on it, the Megrez 80 is,
in my opinion, the best VALUE out their in a portable
80 mm class scope. It edges out the other "simi" APO's
I have looked through like the Televue Pronto and just
blows their doors off on features, and mechanical fit,
and finish.

It's not a full APO but it IS it's a VERY good simi APO.

I was able to induce a small amount of color fringing
by taking the scope slightly out of focus. When viewing
a properly focused image, color was almost completely
absent except for very bright, very white, very high
contrast objects like Venus. On Jupiter you have to
look very hard, and on Saturn I could not see any color
at all.

Viewing very bright street lights about a half mile away
revealed no false color fringe on a sodium light, and
only a very slight, but noticeable, purple fringe on a
mercury arc lamp. Violet light is at the edge of the visual
spectrum and is the toughest test of color correction.
It's normal for doublet designs to have trouble with sources
which have significant spectral content in this range.
I have seen other low F ratio scopes which claimed ED glass
not do any better on this grueling test.

Overall sharpness and contrast is excellent, and goes way
beyond the 50x per inch limit. In daylight, with a Tak
5 mm LE eyepiece and 2x Ultima Barlow, the views were very
sharp and contrasty at 192X.

Internal reflections are also very well controlled.

The views were so good, I had the impression you could take
this scope up into the "Crazy" range for this aperture of
300X-400X, but, like any 80 mm scope, the exit pupil will
become so small that your own eye will start to limit the
optical quality.

For reference, on Jupiter I could see about six to (very
faintly) eight bands including some of the minor belts.

The Galelian moons were perfect little "period" points
showing just the hint of a disk.

Just a little after midnight (my local time) Io was coming
out from behind Jupiter and this little scope picked it out
very cleanly against the bright edge of the planet.

On Saturn some surface banding was visible, and the
Cassini Division in the ring system would flash fairly
clearly into view, during moments of good seeing (around
the outer 1/3 of the ring system where the presentation
angle for this structure is most favorable). From what
I saw, it looks like the scope will solidly resolve this
feature under better seeing. The ability to resolve
the Cassini Division, in an 80 mm F6 instrument, is an
indication of exceptional optics.

I was not able to do a star test because the seeing conditions
were not stable enough, and in any case, star testing such a
low F ratio instrument (F6) can get to be a little tricky,
but based upon the contrast and sharpness evident during the
fleeting moments of good seeing that were available last night,
I would say the optics in this scope are very well corrected.

Optically, this scope is as good, or better, than any Pronto
I have ever seen, and, with the exception of slightly more
chromatic aberration on the edges of very bright objects,
is treading very close to TV85 territory in sharpness and
contrast.

I was looking for a scope with less false color, and more
reasonable planetary performance than the generic F5 "short
tube 80" type scopes.

The performance of my Megrez 80 is so good on Jupiter and
Saturn, that it goes WAY beyond reasonable, to the point of
actually being quite pleasant to use.

I didn't get out early enough to catch the double double,
before lyra was below the horizon, but, trust me, this scope
will split it very easily. The close-in components of this
double are at 2.3 and 2.5 arc seconds respectively, which
should be child's play for this scope.

The advertising claim is that, mechanically, the Megrez 80
OTA is built to the same standards as you would find on a
3000-10,000 dollar Fluorite Triplet.

I can tell you that this is true.

In fact the Megrez 80 OTA appears to have been built to HIGHER
standards than some high end 3000-10,000 dollar refractors.

William-Optics has gone overboard to create something as
impressive to look at, as to look through.

The pearlesent white paint job on the tube looks very nice,
but the gold trim on the sliding dew shade is almost too much.

This is a telescope for criminy sakes not Tutankhamen's tomb.

The focuser is a work of art, with adjustable tension and roller
guide bearings which allow the use of a heavy CCD camera, or
Nagler eyepiece, while maintaining very good optical alignment.

There is a rotator collar which allows the whole focuser to be
turned through 360 degrees. This can be used to quickly reorient
the diagonal for more convenient viewing as an equatorial mount
tracks, as well as it's main use in orienting an astro camera to
best frame an object. This item cost's a ton of money to add on
to most of the Tak's etc. and the Williams version seems to work
better and is included for no additional charge with the standard
version of the Megrez scope.


THERE ARE ONLY A COUPLE FAIRLY MINOR GLITCHS . . .

The scope comes with a 45 degree, correct left to right, prism
diagonal. I did not mind this because I did not already have
one of these, and it's a handy thing to have on hand for daytime
use. The optical quality is not too bad, but there are horizontal
bright line artifacts associated with bright objects in this
type of diagonal, so for my Astro viewing sessions I used a high
quality mirror diagonal.

The 25 mm Plossl is really not too bad.

The hold down screw for 1.25 inch accessories is recessed into
a cutout in the main 2 inch assembly. With the 1.25 to 2 inch
adapter fully mated, the cutout does not quite do the job and
the screw bumps and fails to turn down enough to insure that it
grabs the 1.25 diagonal or extension tube. This was already
reported in a previous post and the solution of leaving the
1.25 to 2 inch adapter out about 1/8 inch from fully seated
works just fine. (I did not know what the heck he was talking
about until I saw it, and then it made perfect sense).

As has already been reported, the focuser does fail to come
to focus when used with a shorter light path 1.25 inch diagonal.

I suspect this happened because of the desire to make sure that
the scope has enough back focus for astro photography (which
can be a real pain for some scopes). You can always add an
extension but you can't file off the back of the tube if you
run out of focus travel going the other way. So their heart
way in the right place, and I'm am told that William Optics
will be supplying an extension in the future which fixes this,
and will send them out for free to the people who already
purchased scopes.

Actually, that's pretty decent of them, some companies would
have just TOLD you what to buy to fix it.

Lastly the flat black paint inside the dew shade doesn't
extend perfectly to the edge leaving the tiniest bit of white
showing here and there (this will take all of about 30 seconds
to touch up).

To be honest these things are fairly minor compared to the
overall fit and finish of this instrument, and there is not
a lot of other things you could nit pick.

SO THE BOTTOM LINE IS . . .

Given it's current price of less than $600 dollars, on a
scale from one to ten, I would normally have to rate this
scope about an eleven, but the above mentioned minor problems
knock it back down to only a ten.

IF YOU CAN LIVE WITH "SIMI"-APO PERFORMANCE, AND HAVE BE
CONSIDERING SCOPES LIKE THE PRONTO, THIS SCOPE IS HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Willam Yang 80mm Semi APO Megrez
I would like to recommend this scope it`s so damn god so it deserves to sit
in the living room spermanent :)))))

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Willam Yang 80mm Semi APO Megrez
I would like to recommend this scope it`s so damn god so it deserves to sit
in the living room spermanent :)))))

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Willam Yang 80mm Semi APO Megrez
Parta-part-part blaaaah! Apaart from it`s not insignificant sizzzze the scope
performedABSOLUTELY Flawleeeezzzz! yeah! period! No other scope is like this one! useless...:)

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Willam Yang 80mm Semi APO Megrez
While I don't own one of these, I have had several opportunities to view through a friend's Megrez and have been very impressed. There is obvious false color on Jupiter but it's not severe. Several Jovian bands are clearly seen, as is the Cassini division on Saturn. The contrast is good and deep space views are sharp and clear, just a little ways behind my 80mm F/6 Apo from another manufacturer. The build quality is quite good, particularly the crayford focuser and the retractable dewshield, and the total Megrez package is nice and very well priced.

Overall Rating: 9
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Willam Yang 80mm Semi APO Megrez
This is a very well made scope with good optics. I have two other "ordinary" 80mm achromats of that same or similar focal lengths and I would say the Megrez 80 is very SLIGHTLY sharper. It's certainly no APO and I question the "semi" APO (what ever that is) claim. The color is no better than the two achro scopes I just mentioned so I'd say you are buying it for the mechanical quality-which is very very good.

I know it's hard to judge such things but the lens coating on my scope doesn't look like any multi-coating I've ever seen. The refrections seem quite bright and I'd almost come to the conclusion that only the front surface was coated.

The focuser is very smooth and I think in general this is a pretty good deal but it's not significantly optically any better than any good 80mm achromat.

Overall Rating: 8
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Willam Yang 80mm Semi APO Megrez
The WY Megrez 80 f6 Semi-Apo has its hands full with the 80mm Stellarvue f6 Achro. In side-by-side comparisons, the level of detail on Jupiter was a toss up. The WY actually had more in-focus false color than the Stellarvue. The WY is a bit more nicely finished. The Stellarvue is durable and purposeful, but has a "cobbled together" feel and appearance. The WY, on the other hand, has a "precision machined in a die shop" feel. The Stellarvue is hundreds of dollars less, and IMO represents a much better value than the WY. It's your money, but my money is on the Stellarvue. I give the WY an 8, price independent, and a 7 price considered as a factor.

Overall Rating: 7
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Willam Yang 80mm Semi APO Megrez
OK lets get real here , the current price for the megrez is $649 ...you immediately have to get a decent 1.25 diagonal at a cost of $100-150 bucks and a decent plossl Televue 20mm....now you up to $850-900 bucks just to match the televue pronto package....so now the difference between the two scopes is about $50-100. Hardly a hands down win for the megrez...owning both scops I still prefer the pronto...dont get me wrong the megrez is very nice. But the optics in the pronto are a little better (ed over sd glass). The pronto is also built like a tank and that is easily worth the $50-100 bucks different...I should have purchased the megrez when it was only $529. Than it would have been a deal.It seems the megrez is becoming a victim of its own success...

Overall Rating: 8
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Willam Yang 80mm Semi APO Megrez
I bought this scope when it was $569.00(+49 mounting plate) . When I bought
this I was looking for a small refractor with good mechanical strength for
travelling. First I thought of pronto but I avoided it because of it high
cost.
This scope perfectly fits my needs.Later I spent $600 more on a televue mirror
diagnol, televue 15mm plossl, meade 4000 26mm super plossl, orion ezfinder,
bogen 3221 tripod and a bogen 3433 head.
I am extremely satisfied with the fit, finish and the smooth focusing.
This is my first telescope and all my knowledge is from the internet. So
I can't tell the difference in optics of this scope when compared to
other good ones. All I can say I liked the optics too. I don't care some
color on the bright objects.
Later I am planning to get a long focus telescope for planetary views under
$500(ota only).
I am thinking of Celestron G5. Am I thinking right? I don't know.

Basically I decided to buy this scope after reading the comments in this site.
Thank you guys. I am not disappointed.

I agree with the above individual's remarks too. After Megrez's price increase
both Pronto and Megrez are equally attractive for me.

KK, Los angeles.

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Willam Yang 80mm Semi APO Megrez
I forgot to add the rating in my above comments.

Overall Rating: 8
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Willam Yang 80mm Semi APO Megrez
The WY Megrez 80 is in Europe for sale at APM, for equivalent of $700. The Ranger costs equivalent $900 and the Pronto $1400. The Megrez is a winner. Pricewise, and perofrmancewise it isn't far behind as well. In total for a pronto-equivalent package I paid about $900 equivalent.

Try to beat that over here in Europe.

The best Widefield-refractor available for under 1000 Euro's period.

Overall Rating: 10
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Willam Yang 80mm Semi APO Megrez
Price reduced. go and check buytelecopes.com

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Willam Yang 80mm Semi APO Megrez
Hi guys,

How to compare this WY scope with Orion short tube ST80?
Just curious :-)

Thanks!

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Willam Yang 80mm Semi APO Megrez
nice tube needs better optics

Overall Rating: 6
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Willam Yang 80mm Semi APO Megrez
First impression is "WOW." It's a beautifully made optical tube. The mechanics are first rate, better than any TeleVue. Even though it's large than a Pronto, it's also about 2 pounds lighter. The focuser can't be beaten. For 650 bucks you get the scope, heavy duty mounting rings, 2" photo adapter, and a very nice 2" diagonal using the new compression rings to hold the eyepiece (no more barrel scratches) and a very nice case. The tube minus the optics is worth $650. Purchased separately from Anacortes, the ring, photo adapter, and diagonal will cost you over $320. The objective lens is a semi-APO with an SD lens element which isn't bad. The coatings are somewhat half-assed; not as dark as they should be. The spherical correction was excellent, about 1/6-1/8 wave. Color correction isn't bad. Not as good as some Prontos I've spent time looking through but not far behind. The moon has a small ring of purple around it, Mars is slightly purplish, and Vega has an alomost indetectable purple tint to it. If this rating was based on mechanics only, it would be a 12. The sucky coatings and the slight color brings it down to a 9. Would I recommend this scope? Most definitely. For $650 it's a steal.

Overall Rating: 9
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Willam Yang 80mm Semi APO Megrez
A real competitor to the TV Pronto. Construction and finish superior to the Pronto.????? I don't think so. Unless they are using the turet of a tank

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Willam Yang 80mm Semi APO Megrez
Why do I have the impression there's a flame war between Televue and William Optics people?

For americans the Pronto would be advantageous, for europeans the Megrez 80

Mechanically and optically they are more or less equal. When you look at the package price the above applies.

Take your pick, they both should make you happy. Only the Televue might have a better resale value....

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Willam Yang 80mm Semi APO Megrez
I bought this to replace a Celestron Nexstar 80GT. I did it because of the article in S&T that recommended it as a good buy. I don't have a lot of experience with many scopes, but I can see and feel an obvious difference between the Megrez and the Nexstar. As the article said, the Megrez is beautifully built and the focuser is very smooth. As for the optics, I haven't noticed any color around the moon, Jupiter, Saturn, or any of the bright stars, so it must not be very bad. I am very impressed with the high contrast and sharp focus I get. I like the 2" WO diagonal, but don't have any 2" eyepieces, so I use a 1.25 diagonal instead of the 1.25 adaptor in the 2" WO diagonal. I find all my 1.25 ep's will not come to focus with the 2" adaptor, and they will with a 1.25 diagonal. My star tests look good to me, but again, I am not experienced with the higher quality scopes. I just feel it was money well spent, and in combination with the Nexstar goto mount, I'm a happy camper.

Overall Rating: 10
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