Testing a Williams Optics Zenithstar 110 TMB APO with SkyWatcher HEQ5 mount

At work, we received a telescope from a colleague from the faculty of science.  The nice telescope is a Williams Optics Zenitstar 110 TMB APO on a SkyWatcher HEQ5 mount.  The telescope came with Baader Hyperion Universal Zoom 8-24mm, Baader Hyperion 5mm and a Baader Hyperion 3.7mm eyepiece.

I first took the telescope home to do some tests.  In the beginning of August, I could use a Baader Herschel-wedge from a friend of VVS Capella to do some solar observing.  The view was nice, but the sun was not really cooperating...  The first day I observed the sun, there was only one very small sunspot visible.  At the next opportunity, there were no sunspots at all.

The William Optics Zenithstar 110 TMB APO with the Baader Herschel wedge to do some solar observing.

I took the telescope on holidays to Austria, but I could not find the time (and the good weather) to do some observing.  Luckily, on September 3, 2021, the weather at home was really nice.  Even in the evening, I could observe in my shorts and t-shirt.  I started observing at 22:30 and stopped around 23:30.  I first struggled a bit with the handpad.  After a while, I found out how to start the alignment.  I found out at the telescope that the battery of the red dot finder was empty, and I did not have any spare batteries at home.  This made it much more difficult to find the alignment stars.  Once the telescope was aligned, the objects did show up in the field of view of the telescope.  I never used an equatorial mount before, so it took some time to get used to it (and I still prefer the smooth movement of a nice Dobsonian telescope). 

The views through the telescope were quite nice, with very sharp stars.  I did observe some deep-sky objects before the planets became visible from our garden.  I looked at M 27, M 11, M 31 and the double cluster (h & chi Persei).  Although the views were nice, I missed the aperture of my 18'' telescope 😛  Jupiter and Saturn showed a lot of details and were very nice.  

I guess this telescope will perform very well from really dark locations (Bortle 1-3, instead of Bortle 5 in our garden).  I can imagine that touring the Milky Way, with the dark nebulae will be really spectacular from a dark location, or the North America nebula or even the whole Veil Nebula.  

As a conclusion, I think the Williams Optics Zenithstar 110 TMB APO is a nice telescope, but I think the telescope will only show its true potential from a very dark location and on the right selection of (mainly large) objects.  

The telescope is now at work, were it will be used by the students for some practical work and as a testbed for the ASA AZ800 telescope that will arrive next year in Leuven and that will be used to write the control software for the Marvel telescope.

The Williams Optics Zenithstar 110 TMB APO ready for the night.

Observing with the Williams Optics Zenithstar 110 TMB APO.