Quick Starfest Report

Just a quick report on the Starfest star party near Mount Forest,
Ontario that occurred this past weekend. A number of people, including
myself, actually arrived on the Tuesday before in order to get a prime
camping/observing spot and do some imaging. Some Starfesters from Ohio
arrived on the previous Friday! Tuesday night was okay, if a little
hazy. Wednesday night was a little less hazy, but the seeing was very
good - Airy discs in my guidescope were well defined and very stable.
The transparency on Thursday night was really terrible. Okay, there
was a thunderstorm! It actually cleared up past about 2:00 a.m. but I
decided a good night's sleep was more important. That turned out to be
a good decision because Friday night had very good transparency (but
only mediocre seeing) - a great night for photography - and I didn't
get to bed until after 5:00 a.m.. Saturday was also a good night,
although not as good as Friday.

The few talks I went to this year were good. I especially enjoyed Doug
Cunningham's talk concerning the Bruce Peninsula, where mag 7 skies
have been reported from the extreme northern tip. Along with another
amateur astronomer, Doug was instrumental in getting the Municipality
of Northern Bruce Peninsula to pass a Dark Sky proclamation last August
declaring the municipality a dark sky community.
(http://www.northbrucepeninsula.ca/darksky.htm).

There were some good deals at the vendor tables. In particular,
Talscope was selling Phoenix 80s spotting scopes, complete with
softcase and 2-inch 45-degree erect-image diagonal for $250 CDN (~ $208
US), tax included (that's a whopping 15% here in Ontario)! The thing
has a 2-inch rotating Crayford focuser with compression rings and the
machining is first rate. It's billed as a semi-APO, but that's
probably meaningless. These same scopes were (are?) being sold in
Europe and Pacific rim countries by William Optics. Apparently, the
80-mm objective is the same one use in the Megrez 80 (SD?). True or
not, it was a good deal. In contrast, the swap table this year was
disappointing. One person's junk may be another person's gold, but all
I could see was fool's gold.

Alen K wrote:
Just a quick report on the Starfest star party near Mount Forest,
Ontario that occurred this past weekend. A number of people, including
myself, actually arrived on the Tuesday before in order to get a prime
camping/observing spot and do some imaging. Some Starfesters from Ohio
arrived on the previous Friday! Tuesday night was okay, if a little
hazy. Wednesday night was a little less hazy, but the seeing was very
good - Airy discs in my guidescope were well defined and very stable.
The transparency on Thursday night was really terrible. Okay, there
was a thunderstorm! It actually cleared up past about 2:00 a.m. but I
decided a good night's sleep was more important. That turned out to be
a good decision because Friday night had very good transparency (but
only mediocre seeing) - a great night for photography - and I didn't
get to bed until after 5:00 a.m.. Saturday was also a good night,
although not as good as Friday.

The few talks I went to this year were good. I especially enjoyed Doug
Cunningham's talk concerning the Bruce Peninsula, where mag 7 skies
have been reported from the extreme northern tip. Along with another
amateur astronomer, Doug was instrumental in getting the Municipality
of Northern Bruce Peninsula to pass a Dark Sky proclamation last August
declaring the municipality a dark sky community.
(http://www.northbrucepeninsula.ca/darksky.htm).

There were some good deals at the vendor tables. In particular,
Talscope was selling Phoenix 80s spotting scopes, complete with
softcase and 2-inch 45-degree erect-image diagonal for $250 CDN (~ $208
US), tax included (that's a whopping 15% here in Ontario)! The thing
has a 2-inch rotating Crayford focuser with compression rings and the
machining is first rate. It's billed as a semi-APO, but that's
probably meaningless. These same scopes were (are?) being sold in
Europe and Pacific rim countries by William Optics. Apparently, the
80-mm objective is the same one use in the Megrez 80 (SD?). True or
not, it was a good deal.


The 80 mm objective you mention has NOTHING to do with WO Megrez II
SD objectives, which are made in-house and not sold to any other maker,
even OEM...

william optics wrote:
Alen K wrote:
[snip]
There were some good deals at the vendor tables. In particular,
Talscope was selling Phoenix 80s spotting scopes, complete with
softcase and 2-inch 45-degree erect-image diagonal for $250 CDN (~ $208
US), tax included (that's a whopping 15% here in Ontario)! The thing
has a 2-inch rotating Crayford focuser with compression rings and the
machining is first rate. It's billed as a semi-APO, but that's
probably meaningless. These same scopes were (are?) being sold in
Europe and Pacific rim countries by William Optics. Apparently, the
80-mm objective is the same one use in the Megrez 80 (SD?). True or
not, it was a good deal.

The 80 mm objective you mention has NOTHING to do with WO Megrez II
SD objectives, which are made in-house and not sold to any other maker,
even OEM...

Thanks for clearing that up. However, my supposition concerned the
original Megrez 80 or the previous generation Megrez 80 SD, not the SD
II. Why would I make such a supposition? Here's why:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Willia...s/message/1895

If you can't access that, none other than company founder William Yang
states, back in May 2003, that the objective in the Phoeonix 80S is the
same as that in the Megrez 80. Given this statement, why would I
further suppose that the objective now might be the same as that in the
Megrez 80 SD? Because of this web page:

http://www.brayimaging.co.uk/Astro/T...s/William.html

where the Megrez 80 SD and the Phoenix 80 (no S here, curiously) are
being specified on the same page and both called "semi-APOs." It's not
unreasonable, therefore, to suppose that in two years the lens in the
Phoenix 80S might have been upgraded as a byproduct of improvements to
the Megrez, to which the scope is CLEARLY related (even William Yang
implies a family relation).

This is a *fine* spotting scope and I'm glad I bought it (I couldn't
resist it for the price). The build quality and machining are excellent
and optically it appears to be a fine f/6 achromat (if not a
"semi-APO," whatever that is supposed to mean). No one would have any
reason to be ashamed of having anything to do with either the design or
manufacture of this scope. If it had the William Optics logo on it
(mine doesn't, of course) I would have *no* problem believing it to be
a William Optics product, which it evidently *is* in some countries at
least (Taiwan and the UK judging from the web pages I found). In other
words, the quality is excellent, just like all other WO products I have
seen.

So, "William Optics," (should I say William Yang?) since you evidently
know more than a little about WO products, can you tell me/us more
about this scope? What objective is in it? Is it the same objective
used by any other WO product, past or present? Was the scope designed
by WO? lastly, does the nice 2-inch Crayford focuser really rotate or
is this a misprint on the UK web page? I expected mine to do so, but it
rotates only a bit and it seems to be merely because of some loose
set-screws! Once tightened, I don't see how it can rotate.

Hi AlenK,

I do know a little bit because I am in charge of sales & marketing
there, and William is my direct superior. ;-)

I am not saying your scope is substandard, I am sure it's perfectly
good; I am simply saying, if you are not sure what's inside, please do
not say it has the same optics as the Megrez SD! The fact that we did
use to sell the Phoenix doesn't necessarily imply that it's still being
sold with the same optics as our Megrez, right? At the time of writing
(2003), William was still selling the product; now we are not. What
other companies put inside, I cannot warrant, sorry.
The last pieces we had in stock were sold a while ago to our Taiwanese
dealers, and the product was discontinued officially at the end of last
year.

We are not ashamed of having sold the Phoenix, in fact we are only glad
and proud if other companies want to keep producing/selling any
products we used to sell, but please let's not confuse others.
As you may be aware, for example, you can even find a lot of
"ZenithStar 80" out there now. This was our design from 2004. Does it
mean they are all the same?

I just would like to make very clear that our Megrez optics are not
shared by any other brand's scopes (apart from the TMB designed ones
made in Russia, as everybody knows...). That's it.

You are more than welcome to write to me at
if you need further clarifications or need
any accessory for your spotting scope.

Daniel

p.s.
check our authorized dealer list on our official website:
www.william-optics.com


AlenK wrote:
william optics wrote:
Alen K wrote:
[snip]
There were some good deals at the vendor tables. In particular,
Talscope was selling Phoenix 80s spotting scopes, complete with
softcase and 2-inch 45-degree erect-image diagonal for $250 CDN (~ $208
US), tax included (that's a whopping 15% here in Ontario)! The thing
has a 2-inch rotating Crayford focuser with compression rings and the
machining is first rate. It's billed as a semi-APO, but that's
probably meaningless. These same scopes were (are?) being sold in
Europe and Pacific rim countries by William Optics. Apparently, the
80-mm objective is the same one use in the Megrez 80 (SD?). True or
not, it was a good deal.

The 80 mm objective you mention has NOTHING to do with WO Megrez II
SD objectives, which are made in-house and not sold to any other maker,
even OEM...

Thanks for clearing that up. However, my supposition concerned the
original Megrez 80 or the previous generation Megrez 80 SD, not the SD
II. Why would I make such a supposition? Here's why:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Willia...s/message/1895

If you can't access that, none other than company founder William Yang
states, back in May 2003, that the objective in the Phoeonix 80S is the
same as that in the Megrez 80. Given this statement, why would I
further suppose that the objective now might be the same as that in the
Megrez 80 SD? Because of this web page:

http://www.brayimaging.co.uk/Astro/T...s/William.html

where the Megrez 80 SD and the Phoenix 80 (no S here, curiously) are
being specified on the same page and both called "semi-APOs." It's not
unreasonable, therefore, to suppose that in two years the lens in the
Phoenix 80S might have been upgraded as a byproduct of improvements to
the Megrez, to which the scope is CLEARLY related (even William Yang
implies a family relation).

This is a *fine* spotting scope and I'm glad I bought it (I couldn't
resist it for the price). The build quality and machining are excellent
and optically it appears to be a fine f/6 achromat (if not a
"semi-APO," whatever that is supposed to mean). No one would have any
reason to be ashamed of having anything to do with either the design or
manufacture of this scope. If it had the William Optics logo on it
(mine doesn't, of course) I would have *no* problem believing it to be
a William Optics product, which it evidently *is* in some countries at
least (Taiwan and the UK judging from the web pages I found). In other
words, the quality is excellent, just like all other WO products I have
seen.

So, "William Optics," (should I say William Yang?) since you evidently
know more than a little about WO products, can you tell me/us more
about this scope? What objective is in it? Is it the same objective
used by any other WO product, past or present? Was the scope designed
by WO? lastly, does the nice 2-inch Crayford focuser really rotate or
is this a misprint on the UK web page? I expected mine to do so, but it
rotates only a bit and it seems to be merely because of some loose
set-screws! Once tightened, I don't see how it can rotate.

william optics wrote:

I do know a little bit because I am in charge of sales & marketing
there, and William is my direct superior. ;-)

I thought it was something like that.

I am not saying your scope is substandard, I am sure it's perfectly
good; I am simply saying, if you are not sure what's inside, please do
not say it has the same optics as the Megrez SD! The fact that we did
use to sell the Phoenix doesn't necessarily imply that it's still being
sold with the same optics as our Megrez, right? At the time of writing
(2003), William was still selling the product; now we are not. What
other companies put inside, I cannot warrant, sorry.
The last pieces we had in stock were sold a while ago to our Taiwanese
dealers, and the product was discontinued officially at the end of last
year.

It was just a supposition (see words like "apparently," "true or not"
and the use of a question mark in my original post). But your answer
still doesn't say one way or another whether the lens is the same or
not. It may be, it may not be. But I'd hazard a guess that the lens
hasn't changed. See the word "guess" before you jump on that one,
please. :-)

I just would like to make very clear that our Megrez optics are not
shared by any other brand's scopes (apart from the TMB designed ones
made in Russia, as everybody knows...). That's it.