SkyWatcher Equinox 80ED

[Littleguy80]

As some of you may be aware, I'm in the market for a travel scope. My intention is to very soon order a TS Optics photoline 72ED. However, I've come across a secondhand SW Equinox 80ED. It apparently has Schott glass in the crown element which I'm,lead to believe is a good thing! My breakdown on this is:

Pros

• Increased aperture
• Cheaper 

Cons

• Heavier (2.9Kg vs 2.1Kg)
• Longer. I'm not sure if there dew shield is retractable. I found one spec sheet that suggested it was but need to confirm)

Unknowns

• Which is better optically? The TS has FPL-53 glass which I think leads to little or no CA. I'm not sure if the Schott glass in the SW is better or worse)
• Focuser quality on SW. The TS is a R&P and is supposed to be very good. The SW has a Crayford, again, I'm not sure how good this is.

Any advice or knowledge of this scope would be greatly appreciated

Edited March 21, 2019 by Littleguy80

[John]

Schott glass will be the non-ED element. The ED one will be Ohara but I'm not sure whether it's FPL-53 or FPL-51 with the Equinox 80ED. The Evostar ED series (apart from the 72 and the 150) use FPL-53 with a Schott glass crown element.

Ohara and Schott are glass manufacturers with lots of different glass types in their catalogues.

 

 

[John]

I've just remembered that Orion (USA) had a version of the Equinox refractors which they called the Eon series. The Eon 80ED looks identical to the Equinox 80ED and is stated by vendors to have an Ohara FPL-53 ED element. So it's highly likely that the Skywatcher Equinox 80ED also uses FPL-53 in combination with the Schott crown element. The focal ratio of both these scopes is F/6.25 which is quite challenging in terms of CA control for a doublet even if there is an FPL-53 element involved.

 

[John]

Good review by Roger Vine of the Equinox 80ED here:

http://scopeviews.co.uk/SWEq80ED.htm

[Littleguy80]

Awesome. Thanks John! I know the TS has an Ohara element too. I’ll have a read of the review now!

[Littleguy80]

12 minutes ago, John said:

Good review by Roger Vine of the Equinox 80ED here:

http://scopeviews.co.uk/SWEq80ED.htm

Well it gets the thumbs in the review. He was comparing to a TV-76 which had the edge but didn’t sound like there was much in it. Focuser sounds good and he mentioned a retractable dew shield. All sounds very positive. 

[Nigel G]

I have the Equinox 80ED. It has a retractable dew shield, a good smooth duel speed & rotating focuser.

No dove tail bar, just a short 4 inch bracket, so I had to bolt it to a 12 dove tail bar to be able to balance it with a guide scope, which is mounted on the finder bracket.

All in all I'm happy with it.

Nige.

[vlaiv]

Equinox series from SW is "Evostar ED" series aimed at imagers. I think it has better focuser and some features that imagers require. It also has retractable dew shield and more robust tube. 80mm scope is faster than "equivalent" EvostarED - 80mm being F/7.5 while Equinox is F/6.25

[Star Struck]

I have an Equinox 80.

I use mine with a set of William Optics CNC rings on an ADM dovetail.

Very solid build quality, and the focusser is screwed on and not held by 3 silly little screws like the normal SkyWatcher focussers. Hence better alignment.

Having said that, I replaced my focusser with a MoonLite , but the standard focusser was still very good.

Works great visually, and is stunning with lunar imaging (I don't do any other kind).

[Littleguy80]

1 hour ago, Star Struck said:

I have an Equinox 80.

I use mine with a set of William Optics CNC rings on an ADM dovetail.

Very solid build quality, and the focusser is screwed on and not held by 3 silly little screws like the normal SkyWatcher focussers. Hence better alignment.

Having said that, I replaced my focusser with a MoonLite , but the standard focusser was still very good.

Works great visually, and is stunning with lunar imaging (I don't do any other kind).

Sounds good. What size rings did you use? Does the existing bracket get in the way at all? Is there somewhere to fit a finder. I have a Baader SkySurfer that I was hoping to use. 

[Star Struck]

The rings I used are 90mm, so the scope has a 90mm outer diameter. I saw a set of cheap 90mm rings on here or ABS today.

Mine never came with the bracket foot , but that is only held by a single screw anyway.

The later versions of this scope came with a single standard finder bracket, mine is an older version so it does not have a finder bracket. The Moonlite solved that problem for me with double brackets.

 

You need to check wit the seller if the scope you hope to buy has a finder bracket or not.

[Littleguy80]

1 minute ago, Star Struck said:

The rings I used are 90mm, so the scope has a 90mm outer diameter. I saw a set of cheap 90mm rings on here or ABS today.

Mine never came with the bracket foot , but that is only held by a single screw anyway.

The later versions of this scope came with a single standard finder bracket, mine is an older version so it does not have a finder bracket. The Moonlite solved that problem for me with double brackets.

 

You need to check wit the seller if the scope you hope to buy has a finder bracket or not.

Fab. Thanks for the info  

[SamAndrew]

I had an Equinox 80 and used it as a travel scope, I was able to take it in hand luggage. You can use the foot thing and screw it directly to a camera tripod. Performed very well for visual work. Would consider getting another one if I saw one at the right price  

Edited March 21, 2019 by SamAndrew

[Highburymark]

It makes an excellent travel scope - and if you are going to dark skies, those extra 8mm make a difference. It's relatively fast at F/6.25, but the optics/CA control are very good indeed - I would recommend it without hesitation

[mikeDnight]

I'm purely visual and can tell you that the Equinox 80ED is a fantastic visual scope. I bought one six or seven years ago and found that i observed more with the 80ED than with my larger Equinox 120ED.  I would nip out for a quick 5 minute look in the middle of winter and still find myself observing over an hour later, completely engrossed in the view. With my cheap binoviewer I could easily see five belts on Jupiter, see festoons, the Great Red Spot and follow shadow transits, that appeared as black as Indian ink, as they crossed the disc. The Moon was gorgeous in the Equinox 80ED and any residual CA was kept to an absolute minimum by the superb FPL53  (fluorite glass) element in combination with its Schott counterpart. The focuser tension can be easily adjusted and the fine focus was a joy to use. 

[Littleguy80]

Thanks for all the responses. They’ve all been really helpful. No response from the seller so I fear I may have missed out. Fingers crossed though!

[Chinapig]

12 hours ago, Littleguy80 said:

Thanks for all the responses. They’ve all been really helpful. No response from the seller so I fear I may have missed out. Fingers crossed though!

Just seen your post.  I have an Equinox 80, which I am planning to sell.  If your other potential deal falls through, do PM me, and I can send you photos etc.  The scope has a finder bracket, and I also have a pair of mounting rings, which are currently fitted to a Losmandy plate.

[Littleguy80]

22 minutes ago, Chinapig said:

Just seen your post.  I have an Equinox 80, which I am planning to sell.  If your other potential deal falls through, do PM me, and I can send you photos etc.  The scope has a finder bracket, and I also have a pair of mounting rings, which are currently fitted to a Losmandy plate.

Hi. Many thanks for this. It looks like I’ll be purchasing the Equinox 80 but if that doesn’t work out for any reason you’ll be top of my list of people to contact  

[John]

I'm sure we all know the rules here folks - no buying and selling outside of the "classifieds section".

Many thanks

[GazOC]

I have one of these for quick looks. They are slightly heavy for what they are but still mount easily on a decent camera tripod, I've moved mine to an EQ3/2 as I missed the tracking.

It's pretty much colour free to my eyes and gives great views allowing for the aperture, it's a bit of a fingerprint magnet though if that sort of thing bothers you

Shame the range got discontinued, they were a great option for buyers after doublets with a bit of extra build quality and bells and whistles

[JG777]

I also have the Equinox 80 and the TS72 you mention, the 80 does pull ahead visually with the extra aperture but the 72 is easier to take on planes. Both scopes are really very good and very well constructed, sometimes the rotating focusser on the 80 is an advantage. I did add a dovetail plate to the bracket as well. I would say the 80 for a better experience visually but the 72 is no slouch and far easier for aircraft travel with a focusser that feels bullet proof. Quite impressed with the 72 overall and  considering adding the 100 F7 and maybe selling the 80 to help fund it !

[Littleguy80]

1 hour ago, JG777 said:

I also have the Equinox 80 and the TS72 you mention, the 80 does pull ahead visually with the extra aperture but the 72 is easier to take on planes. Both scopes are really very good and very well constructed, sometimes the rotating focusser on the 80 is an advantage. I did add a dovetail plate to the bracket as well. I would say the 80 for a better experience visually but the 72 is no slouch and far easier for aircraft travel with a focusser that feels bullet proof. Quite impressed with the 72 overall and  considering adding the 100 F7 and maybe selling the 80 to help fund it !

Thank you. I was really hoping for a comparison from someone who had both. I’d come to the conclusion that I was sacrificing a bit of portability for better optical performance. There seems to be plenty of people using the Equinox as a travel scope in the way I want to do so it seems like a good trade off. 

[Chinapig]

On 23/03/2019 at 02:26, John said:

I'm sure we all know the rules here folks - no buying and selling outside of the "classifieds section".

Many thanks

Yup, my bad, picked this up from Recent Posts, and realised too late it wasn't in Classifieds - apologies, and your reminder duly noted!

[John]

7 minutes ago, Chinapig said:

Yup, my bad, picked this up from Recent Posts, and realised too late it wasn't in Classifieds - apologies, and your reminder duly noted!

No problem at all

[Littleguy80]

Took a little road trip today...

The seller was very nice and even provided lemonade and biscuits for my two youngest kids who made the journey with me. It has a “Powered by TeleVue” stick on it (See picture above). The seller thought the sticker indicated it being a special edition of the scope. Can’t find anything to that effect online though. He also included the 2” Williams Optics diagonal. Total cost was £375 which seemed like a good deal to me. Just have to wait for my birthday to play with it now!