What am I missing? This looks perfect!!

[AntHart]

The Celestron Edge HD 8 inch ..........

• Experience our best optical performance with EdgeHD’s aplanatic, flat field Schmidt-Cassegrain optics for pinpoint stars all the way to the edge of today’s largest imaging sensors and widest eyepieces
• Versatile design accommodates 3 focal ratios: native f/10, f/7 with the addition of a focal reducer, or ultra-fast f/2 imaging with a removable secondary mirror and third-party accessories
• Celestron’s premium StarBright XLT coatings provide maximum light transmission 

Going over the specs.

 2000mm FL at f10
1400mm FL f7 with a 0.7 reducer
400mm Ish f2 with a ‘starizona’

Am I missing something here?lol

 

Sure it’s not portable, it needs a hefty mount but for about £3000 in a fixed pier/obsy setup would this be something to consider over 3 separate scopes?

 

Many of you probably know I’m new on here so constantly asking questions but if anyone has any feedback that would be brilliant.

Im not looking to go out and buy this being a beginner it’s more a question of the hunger for knowledge and wondering if one day this might be a really good setup to consider vs multiple/different scopes

 

Cheers

Ant  

 

 

[fwm891]

I'll chip in my thoughts here.

First look at the prices of these items new and add them up.

An edge HD 8 OTA will set you back (FLO's pricing) £1274

Edge HD reducer f7  £349

Starizona Hyperstar $999  £825.07 ( plus postage and taxes) (just VAT 20%) £990

Total: £ 2613.00 (approx.) 

I have owned an Edge HD 8 and I have to say I liked it very much so no problem with the OTA and images were good across the FoV with APS C formats but suffered a little with FX formats. A set of Bob's knobs is an essential to ease collimation (occasional tweaks against a bright star).

It needs a good mount (I have an iOptron CEM60 Standard - not EC) when using at it's f10 configuration, at f7 you'll get away with a smaller mount at f2 you'll need a mount to take the weight of the system as tracking requirements are reduced a little.

I never bought an f7 reducer for mine so I'll leave any comments on those to other users.

My interests have always been for wider FoV's so I seriously considered a Hyperstar unit for the Edge HD 8 and the more I researched the more I was put off in favour of getting the RASA 8.

What put me off the Hyperstar was the fact that users were having to re-collimate when the Hyperstar was added  to the Edge HD and again when it was removed and returned to an f10 or f7 configuration.

I will bow to Hyperstar users here too as I have not had any personal experience with a Hyperstar.

So I ended up selling the Edge HD 8 (because I wanted the wider FoV's much more than the f10 FoV). I bought an f7 115mm APO refractor and an 8 inch RASA and I'm now a very happy old man. Both scopes have been fitted with twin Losmandy dovetail bars and my guide scope (TS 80mm) has Losmandy rings on it so when I change the scopes over I simply swap over the guide scope too. My kit is observatory mounted.

You have a lot of research to do and I've found that 'the complete package' can be a compromise. The Edge HD 8 is a very good OTA and I'm sure it's dedicated f7 reducer is good too, would be an easy configuration change from f10 to f7. The Hyperstar (to me) is probably a luxury you can do without to start with. Put the £1000 towards a better mount, a mount you can live with for a long time, what ever OTA's you put on it...

 

 

[Shimrod]

19 hours ago, AntHart said:

The Celestron Edge HD 8 inch ..........

• Experience our best optical performance with EdgeHD’s aplanatic, flat field Schmidt-Cassegrain optics for pinpoint stars all the way to the edge of today’s largest imaging sensors and widest eyepieces
• Versatile design accommodates 3 focal ratios: native f/10, f/7 with the addition of a focal reducer, or ultra-fast f/2 imaging with a removable secondary mirror and third-party accessories
• Celestron’s premium StarBright XLT coatings provide maximum light transmission 

Going over the specs.

 2000mm FL at f10
1400mm FL f7 with a 0.7 reducer
400mm Ish f2 with a ‘starizona’

Am I missing something here?lol

 

Sure it’s not portable, it needs a hefty mount but for about £3000 in a fixed pier/obsy setup would this be something to consider over 3 separate scopes?

 

I've owned an 8" EdgeHD for about 12 months now, and I thought a similar way - I bought the reducer at the same time. However on subsequent reading around there is a whole separate set of challenges imaging at F/2 do to with camera set up. Also note the hyperstar is for imaging only, and you will need to buy a dedicated astro camera as a DSLR will block too much light on an 8" EdgeHD - so add another £1000+ for that!

I may still buy a hyperstar at some point in the future, but it's easier to accept that you will have/need more than one scope depending on what you want to achieve. I bought a Skywatcher 80ed ds prod to start with widefield photography using my DSLR and even with some upgrades that cost significantly less than the hyperstar adapter.

[MattJenko]

Something I found in my experience in this hobby is that it is worth finding a configuration that works and sticking with it. This comes from having a setup and tweaking over and over again over the course of session after session to fine tune how it works and behaves. Having a scope which requires basically disassembly to convert between use cases breaks this and sets you back to square one each time and is the classic case of jack of all trades, master of none. I don't doubt the Edge 8 is awesome in whatever configuration it is capable of, but that will come from being in that configuration for an extended period of time, making the flexibility of that scope a little of a double edged sword. If I was to buy one of these scopes, it would be for a particular purpose, not because it could in theory do many things.

[AntHart]

On 18/05/2020 at 09:27, MattJenko said:

Something I found in my experience in this hobby is that it is worth finding a configuration that works and sticking with it. This comes from having a setup and tweaking over and over again over the course of session after session to fine tune how it works and behaves. Having a scope which requires basically disassembly to convert between use cases breaks this and sets you back to square one each time and is the classic case of jack of all trades, master of none. I don't doubt the Edge 8 is awesome in whatever configuration it is capable of, but that will come from being in that configuration for an extended period of time, making the flexibility of that scope a little of a double edged sword. If I was to buy one of these scopes, it would be for a particular purpose, not because it could in theory do many things.

That’s a very very good point! ...like I say it’s just for information, not intending to buy 👍🏼

[AntHart]

On 16/05/2020 at 04:47, fwm891 said:

I'll chip in my thoughts here.

First look at the prices of these items new and add them up.

An edge HD 8 OTA will set you back (FLO's pricing) £1274

Edge HD reducer f7  £349

Starizona Hyperstar $999  £825.07 ( plus postage and taxes) (just VAT 20%) £990

Total: £ 2613.00 (approx.) 

I have owned an Edge HD 8 and I have to say I liked it very much so no problem with the OTA and images were good across the FoV with APS C formats but suffered a little with FX formats. A set of Bob's knobs is an essential to ease collimation (occasional tweaks against a bright star).

It needs a good mount (I have an iOptron CEM60 Standard - not EC) when using at it's f10 configuration, at f7 you'll get away with a smaller mount at f2 you'll need a mount to take the weight of the system as tracking requirements are reduced a little.

I never bought an f7 reducer for mine so I'll leave any comments on those to other users.

My interests have always been for wider FoV's so I seriously considered a Hyperstar unit for the Edge HD 8 and the more I researched the more I was put off in favour of getting the RASA 8.

What put me off the Hyperstar was the fact that users were having to re-collimate when the Hyperstar was added  to the Edge HD and again when it was removed and returned to an f10 or f7 configuration.

I will bow to Hyperstar users here too as I have not had any personal experience with a Hyperstar.

So I ended up selling the Edge HD 8 (because I wanted the wider FoV's much more than the f10 FoV). I bought an f7 115mm APO refractor and an 8 inch RASA and I'm now a very happy old man. Both scopes have been fitted with twin Losmandy dovetail bars and my guide scope (TS 80mm) has Losmandy rings on it so when I change the scopes over I simply swap over the guide scope too. My kit is observatory mounted.

You have a lot of research to do and I've found that 'the complete package' can be a compromise. The Edge HD 8 is a very good OTA and I'm sure it's dedicated f7 reducer is good too, would be an easy configuration change from f10 to f7. The Hyperstar (to me) is probably a luxury you can do without to start with. Put the £1000 towards a better mount, a mount you can live with for a long time, what ever OTA's you put on it...

 

 

Some very good points you’ve mentioned...like I say though this is purely for information, not intending to buy, was just one of my many questions I have 👍🏼 Cheers