Differance between EQ1, OTA, AZ3

[Lion]

Hello There everyone.

I'm thinking about purchase a telescope(I'm 100% new). I came over Astrobiscuit's youtube channel just randomly by a recommended video . one of his clips was where he and some other youtubers whos doing astrophotography, did a comparison on different scopes to use for different thing(best budget, best observer, best astrophotography and best allarounder), one of them was a budget scope(wich im looking for to start with) was Sky-watcher-80... My local store/webstore has different versions of the 80mm. so i wonder whats the actual differance between these 3?

Sky-Watcher Startravel-80 EQ1 vs Sky-Watcher Startravel-80 OTA vs Sky-Watcher Startravel-80 AZ3..

 

[pregulla]

EQ1 and AZ3 are mounts included with the telescope. OTA is just the telescope, no mount. 

[jonathan]

OTA = Optical Tube Assembly, I think.

If I were you I'd look at the AZ3 one, the number usually refers to the weight carrying capacity so to my mind 3 > 1, and I know from experience that an EQ1 is rather weedy even with a lightweight refractor such as the ST80 (a short tube refractor).  As a beginner the AZ3 might be easier for you to get your head around as well, although I've never actually used one myself.

Edited January 7, 2021 by jonathan

[happy-kat]

I've used an ST80 on an AZ3 and it's a nice setup. It is easy to add a modification to the tripod head to add stability when viewing high altitude objects if you find it necessary. The ST80 comes in two flavours.

One is with tube rings and a 90 degree star diagonal. (Likely with eq1 bundle)

The other is a mini fixed dove bar and a 45 degree erect image diagonal. (Likely AZ3 bundle)

The rest of the OTA are the same.

Mine is the second flavour and for me it works great as the mini dove bar and this fits my other mounts plus it has a camera tripod thread in it. I bought a 90 star diagonal to improve night observing comfort.

Edited January 8, 2021 by happy-kat
Typo