C80-EDR-- any experience or views? Considering a purchase and value comment.

[{CP}-Brooker]

Hi Guys

I ve been looking at getting a refractor as a quick grab n go for some time and have seen that the C80-EDR has come down by £200 as its been continued. Does anyone have experience with these? Would I see a significant visual advantage over say a St-80 or St-102 from Skywatcher.

I know there are other OTAs by WO etc similar price but I also need a mount and this comes with a CG-5.

Additionally bit of a newb question but once aligned does an eq -mount only need moving on one axis to catch back up to an object which has moved?

Cheers

CP

[russ]

The C80-EDR is a terrific scope. Miles better than either the ST80 or ST102, or any other 80mm achro. It's optics are identical to the Skywatcher and Orion ED80.......ie superb!!!! They punch well above their weight, well beyond the 50x per inch. Early last year i compared mine to Rob's Skymax 127 and we couldn't see a difference on the planets/moon. But the ED80 gave a better star image and Albireo was perfect.

Compared to the Skywatcher/Orion there is one negative and a couple of pro's. The negative is the focuser. It uses a rack and pinion style focuser that is inferior to the Crayford style focuser on the other two. But on the upside it has a smaller, lighter tube and a nicer finish.

You are correct about the EQ mount too. Once aligned, it only needs moving in RA to keep up with the target.

Regards

Russ

[{CP}-Brooker]

Hey Rus

Thanks for the quick comeback. If at a later date I wanted to swap out the rack n pinion focuser for a crayford is this an easy upgrade? I only get to spend my money once so wanted to go for optics first with the option to upgrade the niceties later on......

CP