SW Evostar ED80 - How hard can you push this scope?

[Alan White]

Good evening all,

I am looking at eyepiece options with my ED80 Skywatcher.
How hard have you pushed these scopes on a good UK or European night?

Will my new to me Nagler 3-6 Zoom be about its limit like I think it might?

Your input is appreciated as always,
Alan

 

[Stu]

A lot depends on your eyes Alan! I found that around x160 ish was good in a Stellarvue 80ED I had, maybe a touch more on the TV85 but that was largely down to floaters in my eyes. Below 0.5mm exit pupil I find it tricky regardless of the optics. The Nag should certainly cover what you need with the scope, somewhere a little below 4mm was often the max I needed. Very nice, sharp little eyepiece, great for traveling.

[mikeDnight]

Hi Alan,

I had the 80mm Equinox for a while and thought it was a great little performer. I put it through its paces while observing the Moon, where it never failed to give razor sharp views at x119 in my binoviewer and X143 with a 3.5mm XW. I can't remember using higher powers than these though I could well have done! What I remember most about my 80mm ED is that it gave great views. The moon kept me entranced for hours and Jupiter revealed five belts, the Great Red Spot and shadow transits as black as Indian ink. With a 20mm and 31mm Nagler, the 80mm gave wide diamond dust views of the milkyway. Often, the 80mm ED showed more belts on Jupiter than my 120 Equinox, and was one of the reasons I decided to downsize the 120ED and buy the 100DC.

[John]

I've used up to 200x with an ED80 on the Moon and double stars. As it happens that was with a Nagler 3-6 zoom which I happened to own back then.

 

[Ben the Ignorant]

My friends own two ED80. 240x or 220x for doubles, somewhat less (maybe 170x) for Jupiter. But one of the scopes is sharper, it can do 220x or 240x on Jupiter, too. I have a nearly photographic memory of the image because it impressed me so much, with clearer and more colorful belts; on the downside the sharper objective displayed a shade more purple fringing at the same power.

[iPeace]

Based on my own experience with the TV-85 and the 3-6 Nag Zoom, I concur. You should be covered. While the TV-85 can go further, it does become a matter of preference from about 3.5mm down, I think.

[Paul73]

That is interesting Mike. I find that my ED120 easily outperforms the ED80 on planets. That isn’t to say that the ED80 is at all bad. But, I never felt particularly comfortable viewing at much past x150 with the little scope. x150/60 is good for Jupiter on most nights and gives nice contrasty views of Saturn. The wide fields were very lovely. 

I’d very much like to have a Tak 100 to compare against. But that will have to wait for the kids to have left home ?☹️. And a lottery win......

Paul

[Highburymark]

2 years ago, superb skies in Tenerife - Mars and Saturn showed incredible detail at 166x in Equinox 80ED. The only problem was my most powerful eyepiece was Nagler 3-6 zoom. With the right eyepiece (or Barlow), I think it would have happily taken 200x plus.

[John]

8 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

2 years ago, superb skies in Tenerife - Mars and Saturn showed incredible detail at 166x in Equinox 80ED. The only problem was my most powerful eyepiece was Nagler 3-6 zoom. With the right eyepiece (or Barlow), I think it would have happily taken 200x plus.

I've just remembered that the Equinox 80 ED is a faster scope than the ED80 Pro isn't it. F/6.25 vs F/7.5 ?

 

[Merlin66]

Yes, you are correct - Equinox 80 is 500mm fl and the Evostar 80 is 600mm (The don't seem to call it the SW ED80pro any more -I have the original "champagne" version)

 

[mikeDnight]

10 hours ago, Paul73 said:

That is interesting Mike. I find that my ED120 easily outperforms the ED80 on planets. That isn’t to say that the ED80 is at all bad. But, I never felt particularly comfortable viewing at much past x150 with the little scope. x150/60 is good for Jupiter on most nights and gives nice contrasty views of Saturn. The wide fields were very lovely. 

I’d very much like to have a Tak 100 to compare against. But that will have to wait for the kids to have left home ?☹️. And a lottery win......

Paul

It surprised and dissapointed me when the 120 struggled for so long to reveal a great view of jupiter.  It was a truly great scope that had given me some mind blowing views of the giant planet, so good in fact that it would have put Voyager to shame! All I can imaging is that for some reason my local seeing was at an all time low, and the little 80mm was less effected by it. The Tak strangely doesn't seem to be troubled too much by seeing conditions. Perhaps thats due to the smaller aperture, or possibly better optics, but whatever the reason i now seem to get good views nearly every time. 

 

[Stu]

55 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

All I can imaging is that for some reason my local seeing was at an all time low, and the little 80mm was less effected by it.

Mike, to be clear, you are saying that on a good night the 120ED easily beat the 80ED but on one occasion, with poor seeing, the 80ED performed better?

If that's the case it is much easier to understand, and makes total sense.

[mikeDnight]

14 minutes ago, Stu said:

Mike, to be clear, you are saying that on a good night the 120ED easily beat the 80ED but on one occasion, with poor seeing, the 80ED performed better?

If that's the case it is much easier to understand, and makes total sense.

That's pretty much it Stu, except the 120 had more than one occasion where it showed only two belts on Jupiter, while the little 80 revealed five. I got to the stage throughout the winter of 2014/15 where I observed more with the 80 than the 120. I'm not sure what was going on as the 120 normally gave excellent views, very Tak like! It was really out of character, but it got me thinking about buying a small high quality scope, and so i put all my TV eyepieces, the 120 and the 80 up for sale and bought the FC100DC. The FC has only once struggled to reveal intricate detail on Jupiter while it was high in the sky, which occurred last April. At that time it gave a view just like the 120 had done on those nights two years earlier. This leads me to believe its something in my locality that's the problem and not the scopes. I'd seen amazing things through that 120 over the years and in a way I miss it, but the Tak is just a joy to use because its so small and lightweight. The FC seems to offer the best of both worlds to me!

[Alan White]

Thanks guys,

Thank goodness no one said ED80, what have you got that for, same applies with the Nagler 3-6 zoom.
I had a feeling it would hold up ok, so far only gone to 5mm Tak LE but felt on lunar at least it would and could do more.

Now please stop going off on a Tak fest Stu and Mike; its getting unbearable 

The name of the ED 80 has indeed changed, its now listed and marked Evostar ED80.
Same scope other than decals in appearance though.
Wish they made it in a more slim tube though.

 

[mikeDnight]

Sorry Alan, My fault! I shall refrain from using the T word from now on, though I might need light sedation! ?

[Peter Drew]

Akahashi doesn't seem to have the same ring to it!  

[Alan White]

Thank you Mike, medication in the post........

I like the Akahashi idea Peter, has a ring to it, sounds like a Lager.

[Alan White]

Well in answer to my own question, on a reasonable but not the best nights seeing it stood up, just with a 3mm setting on the Nagler zoom so abou 180x on the Moon and 4mm the morning before on Jupiter, the morn8ng was poorer seeing.

I now know I can push my little scope more than I thought, very pleased, roll on a stable, clear and wonderful seeing day.

[chiltonstar]

With my ED80 (Orion), 3.5mm is about the limit on planets before there's some loss of sharpness in average conditions, although when the seeing has been exceptional, Saturn has still benefited from 3mm (x200). Doubles of course can take more, and x200 is fine if the stars are bright enough to see well with the small aperture.

Chris

[Alan White]

I had really underestimated this scope, rather taken aback with it now.

Been a slow burner so far, almost rejected for my 150p, but then I wanted pin point stars, retried using it and I am smitten, had to give it a push and bought the zoom to give it a run for its money. 

Now I am left wondering about trying to push further, but with what.

[John]

28 minutes ago, Alan White said:

....Now I am left wondering about trying to push further, but with what.

 

[Alan White]

Thanks John, was a more rhetorical comment really.

The 2-4 looks to have been dropped by Televue.

[John]

Yes, no longer produced. Just as good as the 3-6 though, judging from mine which gets far more use than I thought it would.