SW 200P Reflector or 80 ed pro refractor

[gareth65]

Hi all

Apologies if this question has already been raised (sure it has but could not find it).

I have a SW 200P on HEQ5 pro mount. EOS 40D with ST80 guide scope. I have read many positive comments about the SW 80ED Pro and wonder if it would be an improvement over the 200P for deep sky imaging.

[nephilim]

100 fold!! Great little frac & very easy on the mount.

[RikM]

The ED80 with the field flattner / focal reducer would give you a wider field of view, no diffraction spikes round bright stars, would be easier to guide for longer subs and wouldn't catch the wind so you should keep more of you subs. You also dont have to worry about collimation. It isn't as fast optically and doesn't give quite as good colour correction as the Newtonian. I would say they are complimentary scopes. ED80 for large objects, 200P for smaller fainter things. The ED80 is certainly less hassle and gives great results.

[Pete Presland]

The ED80 with the field flattner / focal reducer would give you a wider field of view, no diffraction spikes round bright stars, would be easier to guide for longer subs and wouldn't catch the wind so you should keep more of you subs. You also dont have to worry about collimation. It isn't as fast optically and doesn't give quite as good colour correction as the Newtonian. I would say they are complimentary scopes. ED80 for large objects, 200P for smaller fainter things. The ED80 is certainly less hassle and gives great results.

i could not put it better myself, that is exactly why own both

[tich]

I've got Celestron's version the C80ED & I finally gave it a test last weekend, both visually & a quick image session & I was very surprised at how well it performed. As it's a refractor it just plug & play so to speak so no fiddling around collimating. I still need a field flattener for mine but a test session on the elephants trunk nebula which did bring out some detail in bright moonlight;

Unguided 5 minute subs using a modded DSLR, this one won't win prizes but it was only a test just to see how it performed. Oh & I'd suggest getting some dew bands as mine dewed up within an hour.




However I wouldn't give up with the 200P either as been mentioned above by Rik as they work well on the fainter objects, you can never have to many scopes

[lensman57]

perform

Hi all

Apologies if this question has already been raised (sure it has but could not find it).

I have a SW 200P on HEQ5 pro mount. EOS 40D with ST80 guide scope. I have read many positive comments about the SW 80ED Pro and wonder if it would be an improvement over the 200P for deep sky imaging.

Hi,

200p is a fine scope for both imaging and DS observing and it will give  you much better results with more detail for planetary imaging using a decent webcam or for imaging faint small galaxies using a sensitive CCD due to it's longer focal length and narrower FOV than ED80 but it has two problems, one is the bulk that makes it difficult to guide and keep steady when the breeze becomes,  wind, two:  is that it is a NEWT and to perform well the collimation has to be spot on. It also needs a coma corrector for sure if you were to use it with a DSLR however, on an NEQ6 PRO and in the right hands it is an awsome scope for imaging. SW ED 80 is plug and play by comparison, it too needs an FF/FR as at it's native F7.5 it is slow for imaging so you either need a very sensitive CCD or one of the cleaner DSLRs to be able to image.

A.G

[ollypenrice]

I'd agree with the thrust of what's been said above, though DSLRs perform best with fast F ratios. Get the 200P right in terms of guiding and collimation and it would beat the ED80 on many targets, but getting it right might not be dead easy.

Olly

[Astrosurf]

Yep, ditto above. I use my 200P for small objects such as galaxies and planets and my 72mm Megrez for nebulae which can be huge! I wouldn't part with either.

[laser_jock99]

The ED80 will be easier to use- but many find the focal ratio too slow for DSLR work. The two scopes are too different to compare with each other to be honest. The short answer is you probably need BOTH. You can justify this many ways but having access to a portable, short focal length scope is a usefull addition. If budget allows though I would get an even shorter FL ED80 triplet as the Skywatcher is so slow.

[autonm]

Very interesting post.

I am in the same boat.

I have a dob 200p... So I can either buy an heq5 an mount the 200p. Or buy an eq5 and mount the 80ed.

[RikM]

The Dob version 200P if f/6 rather than f/5 so it a bit too much for the HEQ5. I deally, you want the NEQ6. It's not the weight, but the extra focal length (and physical length) swinging about.