ST80 vs WO66 SD for guiding

[jnc71106]

hello all

can i get people opinions on which is the better scope for guiding the kit in my sig

cheers

[Earl]

Id go with the ST80 as its probably lighter. Lighter is always good.

[Starlight 1]

I go st80 as well.

[ollypenrice]

I use both. The ST80 is better. It is lighter and faster, so more guide stars to choose from. Also WO make their tubes too short and are frequently guilty of making over extended, bendy, drooping, slipping focusers ( 'the famous William Optics fit and finish' is how they describe it). This is NOT what you want in a guidescope. The ST80 is a cheapo scope but you can clamp it all down hard and never touch the focuser again. It is far cheaper and leaves the 66 free for imaging, which it isn't bad at if you are careful with that darned focuser.

Olly

[Chris]

I second the point about the focuser drooping on the ZS66, it does on mine when I hang a DSLR of it and gives me some orthoganality issues and it can slip as well, all as Olly says. Great little scope apart from this though. The only plus side I can think of in terms of guiding is thats its a very compact scope and still pretty light, it hardly weighs a thing so the ST80 must be very light indeed:)

[russ.will]

I'll second (third, fourth?) the ST80 for guiding. I have a WO Zenithstar 80mm for SLR based AP and the focuser's best quality is that is pretty.

I don't suppose it would struggle with the weight of a QHY5, or the such like, but like Oly says, you focus the ST80, do up all the screws tight and it doesn't budge thereafter. At the £50 they can be picked up for, it's a no brainer.

Russell

[jnc71106]

will stick with my st80 then only considered it as there is a wo66 for sale in my astro club