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Skywatcher 80ED DS Pro


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Hi

I’m in the market for a new scope. I’m looking at the 80ED (comes recommended from here) I have the Atik 414EX mono camera, and I gather that the 80ED is a good match.

Couple of questions… 
1. Will the 80ED fit on my Celestron Advanced VX mount without modifications? 
2. I have the Orion Magnificent Mini Autoguider with its 50mm guide scope. Will this fit straight onto the finder shoe on the 80ED?
3. Do I need / is it possible to fit a red dot finder (or additional 9x50 finder scope) on the 80ED? Or would i just use my guide camera as the finder scope (for aligning purposes)?

Thanks
Joe

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As to your questions:

1) Yes, it will fit your AVX mount as its a Vixen format dovetail

2) Yes, the guidescope will fit the finder shoe as long as its a standard Synta foot on the finder bracket

3) Yes, its a good idea to fit an additional finder or RDF to the telescope for mount calibration. Preferably you would have the finderguider mounted on an inverted dovetail bar on top of the telescope for good balance (you would need to buy an spare shoe, and drill/tap a couple of holes in the bar). But, you could just use the RDF in the existing shoe to get aligned, then swap it over to the finderguider once your mount is calibrated (as you wont be using the RDF again for that session).

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Oh... one more thing, if you find the scope a little back heavy a good solution is to use a strap-on leg weight (0.5kg) at the front end of the scope to even it out. That will save you having to slide the dovetail bar a long way forward. Once youve found good balance just mark it with a bit of tape or a sharpie so you can make it repeatable night after night.

PS: Dont do your balancing until all your cables are hooked up, as they can throw the balance out a bit.

And... if you've got the spare dosh, invest in the 0.85x FF/FR - well worth the money.

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Thanks . Very helpful. I was considering the FR too. 

Yeah well used to playing the balancing game with the 6SE! It can be a pain sometimes. 

I'll have to get Dad involved for drilling / mounting the inverted dovetail . My DIY skills are somewhat lacking. :) I'll have to google some pics too. 

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31 minutes ago, joecoyle said:

Thanks . Very helpful. I was considering the FR too. 

Yeah well used to playing the balancing game with the 6SE! It can be a pain sometimes. 

I'll have to get Dad involved for drilling / mounting the inverted dovetail . My DIY skills are somewhat lacking. :) I'll have to google some pics too. 

You wont need to drill the inverted dovetail bar to mount it on top of the tube rings, all you need is couple of 1/4" whitworth bolts. But for now, just go with the swapping method - it only takes a moment and it will save you a few quid.

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I use a 460ex with this scope (my first and only scope) and find it great. Very easy to get going each night and with guiding settle on 15mins subs. It'll do more but there is always a trade off between longer exposures and losing subs to funnies like guiding errors, wind wobbles, large planes etc.

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  • 1 month later...

Skywatcher ED80 Pro = winner.  A superb scope for AP.   Indeed, I'd go as far as to say it compares 95% favorably with my FSQ85 which is 10x the cost.

Superb scope for visual on the moon and wide field views of star fields.  Some of the best views I have ever had of the moon are through my ED80 and a 20mm EP on a good night.  Spectacular.  Spectacular view of the North American Nebula on a clear night two years ago.

You cannot go wrong with the ED80 from SW.

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