Skywatcher ED80 Old Blue version

[roarke80]

Hi, just wanted to know how much the above scope would be worth? Is £200 a good price for the scope or is it better to get the newer black version? Has anything changed much? Thanks!

[JamesF]

Are we talking about £200 for just the OTA, or OTA and diagonal, or with a mount?

To the best of my recollection the optics in the newer models haven't changed, but the focuser has been improved.

James

[roarke80]

It's £200 for just OTA.

Also would £200 for Celestron C80EDR OTA be a good price as well? It's the older discontinued version of course.

Thanks!

[JamesF]

It's £200 for just OTA.

Also would £200 for Celestron C80EDR OTA be a good price as well? It's the older discontinued version of course.

Thanks!

It's entirely possible they're internally pretty much the same scope.

It doesn't strike me as a desperately unreasonable price for a good condition example though I've not paid much attention to them recently. Personally I'd not buy one unless I was planning to use it for imaging and intended to splash out on a decent mount, a guide scope and all the other associated gubbins (ohhh... I did

James

[A McEwan]

£200 for wither would be a good price, in good condition. Optics are identical, but the Celestron has a slightly slimmer tube body and is slightly lighter weight. The Celestron comes with a R&P which may need some work done to get it "just so". The Crayford on my old Blue Tube ED80 was fine.

Ant

[michaelmorris]

£200 is a good price, it should get snapped up.

[SiriusB]

I have the old blue version, £300 new,bare tube. changes on the latest version? well..

snazzier paint, dual speed focuser- the coatings may have been improved going by skywatchers' marketing material, or maybe it's just that~marketing?

Only use mine for visual- if your planning using for AP maybe a new version owner can answer the following question:

Does the latest version still use the rectangular lens spacers or have they changed to a ring spacer like my later ST's use?

Don't think it's anything too major to worry about, but i read somewhere the rectangular spacers can produce imaging artifacts...but that's purely anecdotal coming from an non imager.

[roarke80]

Ahh I ended up buying the Celestron 80Ed for about 200, I think it was the rush from bidding on items on auction, it's hard to think clearly! But I hope it was a good price and hoping it's a good scope but really worried about the focuser now after reading through this forum. Sounds really difficult and expensive to change, but hopefully this one will be alright.

[A McEwan]

Don't worry - it's an excellent buy and a very good price. The focuser may be fine, and if it's not it will be fix-upp-able with a little effort & patience. Also, check your last email!

Ant

[Stardust]

I bought a Celestron C100ed last year from here, bargain at £180 it cost about £120 to put a Skywatcher dual speed crayford on on it. I still consider it a bargain buy for a really nice scope.

You can get adaptor rings from Agena and Baader to attach the same focusser to your OTA.

[roarke80]

Blimey Stardust that's a brilliant deal! I'm cringing at how expensive the focusers are though. But I've got really nice advice (thanks Antony!) so might just take a shot at fixing it.

[Stardust]

To be fair the original focusser wasn't terrible and after a clean out of the sticky grease and a relube with lithium grease it was better, just thought the scope deserved the upgrade.

[A McEwan]

Completely off-topic, I'm thinking the C100ED would look luvverly in metallic gun-metal grey with an orange Moonlite and detail picked out in Celestron orange...