New AstroPhotography Setup Advice

[Diddykong]

3 hours ago, Shimrod said:

Are you comparing like for like? The WO73 is £550 for OTA only, the ED 80 is £379 OTA only (at FLO) and £485 including diagonal, finder and 28mm eyepiece. I can't really comment on the WO73, it has a much better focuser than the ED 80 - I recently bought the ED 80 and I'm very pleased with it, but I did also upgrade the focuser to a Baader Steeltrack at the same time. I had read several reviews that the standard focuser can struggle with the weight of camera and can slip.

Ah I think I was comparing the price for the diagonal, finder and eyepiece to the WO73.  Will I need to buy these for the WO73? Sorry I'm very new to this!

[Shimrod]

1 hour ago, Diddykong said:

Ah I think I was comparing the price for the diagonal, finder and eyepiece to the WO73.  Will I need to buy these for the WO73? Sorry I'm very new to this!

Yes, you would have to buy those to get the equivalent package of the £485 80ED DS PRO package. If you were using this purely for astrophotography you could forgo the diagonal and eyepiece, but I'm assuming you want to use this for visual as well. For AP, you would also need to consider the T ring and T adapter as well for your Canon (about £30 for both).

[Diddykong]

Thank you Shimrod.

I only plan on astrophotograhy however would be good to have the option for visual as well! So I guess is the WO73 worth an extra £200?  50% more

[Shimrod]

39 minutes ago, Diddykong said:

Thank you Shimrod.

I only plan on astrophotograhy however would be good to have the option for visual as well! So I guess is the WO73 worth an extra £200?  50% more

I can't really comment on whether it is worth the extra - it certainly has a better focuser and is well liked by other people on here. It was on my shortlist along before I decided that the 80ED was a better compromise as I wanted to do AP as well as use it as a travel scope. There are other scopes in the TS Optics and Altair Astro ranges that may provide better value for money that WO - hopefully some of the more knowledgeable people on here will chip in with some suggestions.