St 80 star diagonal upgrade.

[fiestazetecmk2]

Hi.can anyone recommend an improvement for my skywatcher  st80 star diagonal. The supplied one isn't great max spend £50:00.

thanks in advance ..

[RiponJas]

I felt the same about the one supplied with my Bresser AR152 and upgraded to a 2" dielectric one but that cost 100 quid. Well worth it though. Really improved the viewing experience no end. Can't say which is best but I'd try and get a bit more cash saved up first, you'll get a better long term item.. ? 

[mark81]

Hey,

Which Diagonal do you have?  is it the 45 degree or the 90?

And are you sure its the quality of the diagonal which needs replacing and not your eyepieces?  I find the one supplied with my ST80 to be pretty good..

 

[John]

You might get one of the Revelation/GSO 1.25" dielectric diagonal for around £30-£40 on the used market or even a William Optics 1.25" if you got lucky. Either would be an improvement over the stock item.

If you have the 45 degree diagonal, the 90 degree mirror type (even a stock one) will give better astro views.

 

[Knighty2112]

You probably won’t s much improvement in any images with a new diagonal (unless yours is extremely poor), but get a better finish/build quality than the plasticky one that you have now. 

[Red Dwarfer]

A used WO Dura-Bright or new Sky’s the limit diagonal would do - as pointed out above , you won’t notice a visual improvement , but the build quality will be much better plus the better ones will have a brass compression ring to protect new lenses / keep them looking new . 

[Red Dwarfer]

[fiestazetecmk2]

Bst eyepieces .

[fiestazetecmk2]

90.degree 

[Red Dwarfer]

2 minutes ago, fiestazetecmk2 said:

Bst eyepieces .

Good eyepieces - I have a 5 , 12 and 25mm BST

[parallaxerr]

Little tip: Altair Astro are selling a 1.25" diagonal for £70 which is basically a WO version in different clothing. Lovely piece of kit, I use one in my ED120. Worth the extra £20.

Edit: here it is https://www.altairastro.com/1.25-lightwave-premium-dielectric-diagonal.html

I can't see any difference between this and my Baader prism and build quality is solid.

[John]

The William Optics diagonal and it's clones are nicely made and perform well. The only thing that I don't like about them is the thick ring that is used down inside the eyepiece holder to connect it to the diagonal body. This ring reduces the effective field stop size of eyepieces such as a 32mm plossl and others that max out the 1.25" format so the true field presented is smaller than it might otherwise have been.

 

[fiestazetecmk2]

Thanks for all the replies.very informative. Will keep you informed. 

[parallaxerr]

1 hour ago, John said:

The William Optics diagonal and it's clones are nicely made and perform well. The only thing that I don't like about them is the thick ring that is used down inside the eyepiece holder to connect it to the diagonal body. This ring reduces the effective field stop size of eyepieces such as a 32mm plossl and others that max out the 1.25" format so the true field presented is smaller than it might otherwise have been.

 

Oddly this happens with my 32mm Plossl, but not the 24mm 68°. It must be just on the cusp of the field stops.

The 32mm plossl is too washed out anyway, so I stick with the better contrast and sharp field stop of the 24mm.