William Optics Pleiades 68 - Forums

Hi everyone,

What are your thoughts on the recently announced William Optics Pleiades 68 f/3.8 telescope?

I am very interested in it mainly because of its focal length and f/3.8 aperture, plus its blue which is one of my favourite colours.

At $2,000 USD, it’s not cheap by any means, but I am curious to see what the price will be over here in Australia once it becomes available. If it’s not too much dearer than the US, I might save up my pennies and get one as it looks like a very interesting scope!

Zak 🙂

What in the world!!!! That's my new dream telescope, I'd better save up. Imagine narrowband with that thing!!!! Totally unexpected. The metallic blue is also my favorite color on a telescope.

I don't think it could be at 2K USD.

There is not enough information about this one. A few sample shots on Facebook are not that impressive in the power of resolution. Also, how this little scope works with the FF small-pixel sensor would be a big question mark (if it can).

It could be interesting for grab and go NV of nebulae (both afocal or prime focus).

A fast refractor with sharp stars in the corner of an APS-C or full frame camera would be a welcome addition to this hobby. Seeing as there were a number of Redcat 51 copies with poor corner stars at f4.9 I'll wait until more images are available before I make any judgements on this telescope (and I say that as a current owner of two WO telescopes!).

Askar FRA400 with reducer is F/3.9, and it's a little over half of this "new" telescope. I own the Askar and love it.

Askar FRA400 with reducer is F/3.9, and it's a little over half of this "new" telescope. I own the Askar and love it.

Exactly, and there are also FRA300 which slightly less than FRA400 and there is FRA500 which is cheaper than this new WO, and i love Askar scope as well, for me Askar is like 2 in 1, it already has built in flattener if i go native, 400 or 300 is plenty and the reducers will do the job nice, i will always go for Askar option over WO for that price, talking about myself the quality and brand name not my most important thing these days really.

If this can get round stars across a FF chip I see this as being a very appealing option for widefield and portable setups.

As for comparisons to other scopes such as the Askar FRA400, I see two distinct advantages of the WO Pleiades: native 260mm focal length and the internal focuser.

If this can get round stars across a FF chip I see this as being a very appealing option for widefield and portable setups.

As for comparisons to other scopes such as the Askar FRA400, I see two distinct advantages of the WO Pleiades: native 260mm focal length and the internal focuser.

I can also see the duo focus lengths nature of Askar FRA400 as an advantage instead, I can have 400mm and 280mm focal lengths in one scope. WO really isn't worth that much over the Askar.

And i bought my Askar FRA400 with the reducer back then for $1280, i could manage to buy FRA300 without a reducer for about $800, so that is even more options than a single WO, but definitely this new scope is a truly nice scope for anyone who wanted to start and has the budget for it, and luckily i already have many scopes at nice prices that this new scope isn't gonna cut it for me anyway.

I’m not a fan of how wo scopes from the past few years look optically in the corners. I’m in the wait-n-see camp.

What in the world!!!! That's my new dream telescope, I'd better save up. Imagine narrowband with that thing!!!! Totally unexpected. The metallic blue is also my favorite color on a telescope.

I know right? It looks so cool, especially with it's blue colour scheme!

Narrowband should be great with this scope, although for the OSC users like myself, I will probably have to invest in high-speed variants of filters that I own as they aren't really that good with fast scopes.

Zak

Min Xie:
I don't think it could be at 2K USD.

There is not enough information about this one. A few sample shots on Facebook are not that impressive in the power of resolution. Also, how this little scope works with the FF small-pixel sensor would be a big question mark (if it can).

Well on the William Optics website, it says the scope is available to pre-order and the price is still $2,000 USD.

I agree, we will have to wait and see if it's worth considering seeing that there aren't that many sample photos available to look at on the internet.

This scope is supposed to support FF imaging according to the WO website, but like I said, we will have to wait and see how good this scope is.

Zak

It could be interesting for grab and go NV of nebulae (both afocal or prime focus).

It sure does look like a very interesting scope that's for sure!

Can't wait to see what people can do with it when it releases.

Zak

Zak Jones:
What in the world!!!! That's my new dream telescope, I'd better save up. Imagine narrowband with that thing!!!! Totally unexpected. The metallic blue is also my favorite color on a telescope.

I know right? It looks so cool, especially with it's blue colour scheme!

Narrowband should be great with this scope, although for the OSC users like myself, I will probably have to invest in high-speed variants of filters that I own as they aren't really that good with fast scopes.

Zak

Standard filters should not have any problem with f/3.8. Obviously, reach out to your manufacturer to confirm, but I really don't think you should have to buy highspeed filters. Those filters are typically designed for systems f/3.3 and faster.

Well on the William Optics website, it says the scope is available to pre-order and the price is still $2,000 USD.

I agree, we will have to wait and see if it's worth considering seeing that there aren't that many sample photos available to look at on the internet.

This scope is supposed to support FF imaging according to the WO website, but like I said, we will have to wait and see how good this scope is.

Zak

Thanks, Zak!

Wow, this one is indeed getting interesting.

https://williamoptics.com/products/telescope/pleiades-series/pleiades-68-astrograph-f-3-8

"7 Elements Astrograph Design (Contain 3 Super ED)"

Then, I would expect perfect corner performance with the IMX455 sensor.

-Min

Richard:
A fast refractor with sharp stars in the corner of an APS-C or full frame camera would be a welcome addition to this hobby. Seeing as there were a number of Redcat 51 copies with poor corner stars at f4.9 I'll wait until more images are available before I make any judgements on this telescope (and I say that as a current owner of two WO telescopes!).

This does look like a very interesting scope that's for sure!

It is supposed to support full frame imaging, but I will wait and see if it actually does when people get their hands on the scope.

I did see that WO also announced a RedCat 51 WIFD yesterday too, so that is another welcome addition to their line-up, as the helical focuser did cause problems from what I saw, but now that there is a WIFD designed RedCat, it should be interesting to see how that goes once it also gets released.

Zak

Askar FRA400 with reducer is F/3.9, and it's a little over half of this "new" telescope. I own the Askar and love it.

I love my Askar 65PHQ! I have used it for a few images, and I am very happy with the results from it so far. Pinpoint stars right to the very edges of the frame.

I have yet to test it with my Canon 6Da to see how good the scope performs with full frame cameras, but I will most likely wait until autumn or early winter to test it as it's summer here in Australia and I prefer to use my ZWO ASI183MC Pro and ZWO ASI533MC Pro for my imaging mainly due to their cooling.

How are you finding the reducer? I am looking at the reducer for my 65PHQ, but I have seen that a lot of people online have been having trouble with tilt or elongated stars in the corners. For that reason alone, I am not going to get one yet. It would be nice to image at 312mm f/4.8 though one day!

Zak

Tareq Abdulla:
Askar FRA400 with reducer is F/3.9, and it's a little over half of this "new" telescope. I own the Askar and love it.

Exactly, and there are also FRA300 which slightly less than FRA400 and there is FRA500 which is cheaper than this new WO, and i love Askar scope as well, for me Askar is like 2 in 1, it already has built in flattener if i go native, 400 or 300 is plenty and the reducers will do the job nice, i will always go for Askar option over WO for that price, talking about myself the quality and brand name not my most important thing these days really.

I love every telescope that Askar has to offer!

They are all very inexpensive and have great image quality, plus most of them are Petzval designed, so you don't need to worry about mucking around with backfocus.

Zak

If this can get round stars across a FF chip I see this as being a very appealing option for widefield and portable setups.

As for comparisons to other scopes such as the Askar FRA400, I see two distinct advantages of the WO Pleiades: native 260mm focal length and the internal focuser.

We will have to wait and see how this scope performs with full frame cameras, but I am sure that it will perform well.

Yes, the Pleiades 68 does have the faster aperture and a wide-field view, but I mentioned before that WO announced a RedCat 51 WIFD yesterday, which should be very interesting!

Zak

If this can get round stars across a FF chip I see this as being a very appealing option for widefield and portable setups.

As for comparisons to other scopes such as the Askar FRA400, I see two distinct advantages of the WO Pleiades: native 260mm focal length and the internal focuser.

I can also see the duo focus lengths nature of Askar FRA400 as an advantage instead, I can have 400mm and 280mm focal lengths in one scope. WO really isn't worth that much over the Askar.

Yes absolutely!

It will be much cheaper to get an Askar telescope with it's reducer so you have two different advantages for imaging.

Zak

Tareq Abdulla:
And i bought my Askar FRA400 with the reducer back then for $1280, i could manage to buy FRA300 without a reducer for about $800, so that is even more options than a single WO, but definitely this new scope is a truly nice scope for anyone who wanted to start and has the budget for it, and luckily i already have many scopes at nice prices that this new scope isn't gonna cut it for me anyway.

That is a very good price for the Askar FRA400 and reducer! I assume that is in USD, as from my Askar supplier the FRA400 costs $2,099 AUD without shipping.

I did look at potentially getting the Askar FRA300 Pro at one stage, but I will not be going through with that now as I have managed to secure a replacement objective lens for my chromatic aberration riddled Radian 61, and from what I have seen with Cuiv the Lazy Geek's video about the before and after the objective lens replacement for his Sharpstar 61EDPH II, it has given me a lot of confidence that I will be able to use my Radian 61 for broadband imaging now once my replacement lens arrives in the New Year.

Zak

Sean Mc:
I’m not a fan of how wo scopes from the past few years look optically in the corners. I’m in the wait-n-see camp.

Nothing wrong with that!

We will have to wait and see how this scope performs in the corners when it releases.

Zak

Zak Jones:
What in the world!!!! That's my new dream telescope, I'd better save up. Imagine narrowband with that thing!!!! Totally unexpected. The metallic blue is also my favorite color on a telescope.

I know right? It looks so cool, especially with it's blue colour scheme!

Narrowband should be great with this scope, although for the OSC users like myself, I will probably have to invest in high-speed variants of filters that I own as they aren't really that good with fast scopes.

Zak

Standard filters should not have any problem with f/3.8. Obviously, reach out to your manufacturer to confirm, but I really don't think you should have to buy highspeed filters. Those filters are typically designed for systems f/3.3 and faster.

Yes I agree, although I have seen with some filters such as the Optolong L-eXtreme and Optolong L-Ultimate they don't perform as well with faster apertures due to band shifting.

I do get great results with my Radian 61/Askar 65PHQ and dual-band filters though.

Zak

Min Xie:
Well on the William Optics website, it says the scope is available to pre-order and the price is still $2,000 USD.

I agree, we will have to wait and see if it's worth considering seeing that there aren't that many sample photos available to look at on the internet.

This scope is supposed to support FF imaging according to the WO website, but like I said, we will have to wait and see how good this scope is.

Zak

Thanks, Zak!

Wow, this one is indeed getting interesting.

https://williamoptics.com/products/telescope/pleiades-series/pleiades-68-astrograph-f-3-8

"7 Elements Astrograph Design (Contain 3 Super ED)"

Then, I would expect perfect corner performance with the IMX455 sensor.

-Min

All good!

Yes I agree, this scope is getting more interesting by the day.

With those 3 super ED elements, it should have superb chromatic aberration correction and should perform well with full frame cameras.

Zak