Upgrade advice please

[Imd]

Hi,

I fancy the idea of buying myself a present for Christmas. I usually just get socks and pants and I want to spoil myself.

I have a SW ST102 which I find is very portable and fast at F5 but I wonder if I can remove the chromatic aberration at a reasonable price. I mostly use the scope for imaging with a cannon dslr.

Is there a fast portable apo for around £500 which stands out amongst the rest?

I hear the SW Ed80 might be good but do you think it's worth spending the extra money for the difference in quality that can be expected (I don't have bags of money)?

Please could you let me know your suggestions?

Thanks

Ian

[ronin]

If it is for AP then you do not necessarily need great aperture, this means that something like the WO ZS 71 falls into budget - start at £370 and go upwards depending on what you add on.

The new batch of GTF-81's are out but they are £725 and upwards, but you get an imaging scope you will probably never upgrade.

On CN someone mentioned a good scope, problem is I cannot recall the exact name, something like "Barista". It sounded both good and inexpensive, think it was a triplet. Again lack of knowledge means no idea on the spec, or cost, not sure they are available anywhere in the UK.

TS (always worth a look) do a couple:

80mm f/7 ED at about £430

80mm 500mm (FPL53) at about £520 (it is an ED as well)

TS sell the Astro-Professional range and 2 in that which are 80mm f/7, again £400-600 area

For an aperture of 100mm you are looking at the £700-750 area.

[rwilkey]

I think the Sky Watcher 80 ED Apo is good value for money, either for visual or AP here: http://www.firstlightoptics.com/pro-series/skywatcher-evostar-80ed-ds-pro-ota.html

[Imd]

Thank you for your advice. There are some models described which I had not considered. I will monitor the classified adds to see if I can get a good deal on a used one.

Cheers

Ian

[Imd]

I have seen one of the TS scopes sold by a German supplier at F7 but I would rather go closer to home to get a more local service. Modern Astronomy do a TS triplet but its outside of my price range.

I thinking I'm leaning ore to skywatcher which is a brand I have become more familiar with.  But if I am to buy an Evostar ED80 and then consider a  reducer , it brings to into the price range of the Equinox 80 Pro.

The EQ80 is faster, same optics and I am told has a better Crayford focuser, but the ED 80 seems more popular. I would hate to buy ED80 and then wish I had bought the EQ80.

Does anyone have an opinion on the Skywatcher range ED80 vs EQ80 that might steer me one way or the other?

Perhaps the faster EQ80 shows more aberration visually than the natively slower ED80?

Please could you let me know your thoughts?

Many thanks

Ian