![]() A used ED80 might make sense to buy where a new one doesn’t e.g. It is unlikely to encounter any substantial issues with the ED80 when buying a second-hand unit, and anything wrong will be immediately apparent, such as damage to the objective lens or focuser, as this telescope is so straightforward in design. Celestron’s Advanced VX will work too if that’s all you can afford, but its tracking accuracy is inferior, and you will rely more on autoguiding to pick up the slack, which kind of ruins the cost savings. Orion sells this scope bundled with their Sirius HEQ5, and this is really the best choice all around ( Sky-Watcher’s HEQ5 Pro is identical apart from the fit and finish). An equatorial mount is really only necessary for astrophotography with the ED80 and can easily double or triple the weight of the whole setup.įor astrophotography, you’ll of course want a computerized German equatorial mount with autoguider compatibility. Mount Recommendationsįor visual use, we would choose a lightweight alt-azimuth mount for the ED80 like the Vixen Porta II or the Explore Scientific Twilight I. However, for almost anything else, you’ll want to buy Orion’s 100mm ID tube rings and a compatible Vixen-style dovetail plate, which will allow you to put the ED80 on almost any mount you could possibly want. The ED80 comes with a simple foot on the bottom with a ¼ 20 hole for use on a photo tripod, which is fine for birding or casual astronomy use. ![]() The focuser also has a Vixen/Synta-style shoe molded-in for a finderscope/red dot sight to be attached. It uses a simple set screw to hold your diagonal/adapter and is, of course, all-metal the lack of fine adjustment or easy locking/tension adjustment makes it far from ideal for imaging purposes, but it will suffice for a simple DSLR/mirrorless camera or diagonal and eyepiece combination. The ED80’s focuser is a relatively proletarian single-speed 2” Crayford. Additionally, the longer focal length allows you to do a little better imaging of small objects like globular clusters and galaxies (though they’re still not ideal targets for a small refractor). The ED80’s slower focal ratio of f/7.5 may not make it quite as suitable for wide-field views or imaging, but at the same time it has much sharper high-power images, doesn’t need super-short focal length eyepieces or a Barlow for high magnification use, and the reduced chromatic aberration means less bloat on your stars in images. Compared to a cheap FPL-51 or FK-61 triplet or doublet, the ED80 is vastly superior optically. But the ED80’s design works just fine, and there’s not much chromatic aberration. Pricier scopes will either use fluorite in place of the FPL-53, or add an additional lens element-either will provide better color correction, and the latter can improve edge-of-field aberration control, which is crucial for astrophotography. This design is pretty much the gold standard for most inexpensive ED doublets. The ED80 has a relatively simple apochromatic doublet design, with an FPL-53 lens element. It uses the same optics as the Sky-Watcher Evostar 80ED (formerly ProEd 80). The Orion ED80 is an 80mm (3.1”) ED doublet refractor with a focal ratio of f/7.5 and a focal length of 600mm.
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