SW Apo's which is best?

[crazyjedi]

Hi all.

As some of you will know from a recent thread of mine, I am looking into getting an Apo for A/P and was looking at the SW Pro 80mm ED. I was browsing FLO's web site and wondered what the essential differences were between the above mentioned frac and SW's Equinox 80mm? There is only about £60 difference in price between the Equinox (which comes with case, lens, diagonal etc and the Pro series 80mm 'kit' which includes the same stuff that you get with the Equinox. Is the Equinox a triplet? If not why the difference in price? They both have the same Ohara glass in their lens elements. Or maybe I am missing something?

[John]

Optically the Equinox 80mm is an F/6.25 ED doublet which uses one element of FPL-53 glass wheras the ED80 pro is an F/7.5 ED doublet with the same type glass used for one element. With the 100mm and 120mm scopes the optics are the same in the Equinox's and the ED Pro's.

I guess the additional cost of the Equnox's is for their higher quality of fit and finish.

[Marki]

Hi Crazyjedi - I think you misread the blurb...the equinox comes in a case, but does not come come with a diagonal or any of the stuff in the Pro kit. The fourth bullet point on the listing on FLOs site says "Supplied without Eyepieces and Star Diagonal".

That makes some of the difference in price. The equinox is a very nicely built scope though, and is "faster" than the ED80 (guess that might be useful for imagers; I think you can get a focal reducer for the ed80 though..). I've seen some criticisms of the rotatable focusser, but mine works fine.

[crazyjedi]

The ED 80 kit comes with a reducer I think?. So optically the only difference is the speed. I'm purchasing the scope for A/P . How much of a difference is there when it comes to imaging?

[Marki]

There is a SW reducer available - x0.85 and so gives the ED a fl of 6,37 and the Equinox is at 6.25 anyway - I guess that is effectively no difference for all practical purposes. By all accounts the ED pro is a good scope and the kit is a really good deal, and people get some really excellent images with them too. I'd just check the reducer is included though, as opposed to being available as an extra (the way I read the bit on the FLO site gave me the impression the reducer is an extra...might be worth sending them an email to comfirm?). I've not done any imaging with my equinox so can't say anymore about that - I use it as my grab and go for now (I need to get a much better mount before I get into imaging).

EDIT - looking at the FLO site again, it seems the reducers are available separately and cost an additional £160.

[ollypenrice]

A focally reduced ED80 has a similar F ratio to the unreduced Equinox BUT it also has a large flat field thanks to the reducer flattener. What we need to know for the Equinox is, What diameter is its image circle? (the area covered without distortion.) FLO link to a fairly costly flattener for the Equinox, so to compare ED80 with Equinox you have to compare the ED 80 with reducer-flattener to the Equinox with flattener.

I've heard it said that the faster Equinox gets more blue star bloat than the reduced ED80 but I don't know how true this is.

The scope manufacturers who don't quote an image circle are a real pest. It's vital information and well within their power to provide.

Depending on your chip size the flattener may or may not be essential. For a DSLR it certainly will be.

Olly

[crazyjedi]

Oops after re-examination of the web site the 80 mm ED kit includes the finder, EP and star diagonal but not the focal reducer. That will teach me to post so late at night

[Uranium235]

Get the ED80 plus 0.85x FF/FR, its a cracking setup for the price. In fact, they're so good I brought two of em! They may appear workman-like and less flashy than the Equinox, but I dont care what it looks like as long as it does the job. Having said that, SW have made some minor changes to the ED80 since I got my first one - like the solid dovetail bar (that now uses hex bolts) and a slightly sparklier(?) black paint job.

There is virtually no optical difference between an Equinox and a reduced ED80, apart from what was mentioned earlier in the way of a much flatter field for the reduced ED80. Additionally, with the ED80 FF/FR you get an ultra rock-solid connection to the focuser drawtube becuase it screws directly on to the drawtube in place of your EP holder.

The FF/FR is not included in any package, so if you want to buy just the OTA and reducer it will cost just over 500 quid. You dont need the 9x50 finder (unless you want to make a finderguider) or the diagonal (though it is a nice diagonal!).

http://www.firstligh...ds-pro-ota.html

http://www.firstligh...l-reducers.html

Ive noticed you have a CG5 mount, in that case... defiinitely get the ED80 as the Equinox carries too much unnecessary weight. An ED80+Camera+Reducer and Finderguider will see you at about 5kg - which on that mount, will make your life a lot easier.

[crazyjedi]

Get the ED80 plus 0.85x FF/FR, its a cracking setup for the price. In fact, they're so good I brought two of em! They may appear workman-like and less flashy than the Equinox, but I dont care what it looks like as long as it does the job. Having said that, SW have made some minor changes to the ED80 since I got my first one - like the solid dovetail bar (that now uses hex bolts) and a slightly sparklier(?) black paint job.

There is virtually no optical difference between an Equinox and a reduced ED80, apart from what was mentioned earlier in the way of a much flatter field for the reduced ED80. Additionally, with the ED80 FF/FR you get an ultra rock-solid connection to the focuser drawtube becuase it screws directly on to the drawtube in place of your EP holder.

The FF/FR is not included in any package, so if you want to buy just the OTA and reducer it will cost just over 500 quid. You dont need the 9x50 finder (unless you want to make a finderguider) or the diagonal (though it is a nice diagonal!).

http://www.firstligh...ds-pro-ota.html

http://www.firstligh...l-reducers.html

Ive noticed you have a CG5 mount, in that case... defiinitely get the ED80 as the Equinox carries too much unnecessary weight. An ED80+Camera+Reducer and Finderguider will see you at about 5kg - which on that mount, will make your life a lot easier.

Yes I think I will go for the ED 80. For the money it looks like a good deal. Also I have heard nothing but good comments about it. I'm hopefully getting an HEQ5 to mount the new frac on so weight shouldn't be an issue hopefully