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Alternative to Skywatcher 80mm Equinox?

Beardy Bob

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Beardy Bob

Beardy Bob

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Hi folks,

I was all ready to buy an 80mm skywatcher equinox refractor to hook up to my DSLR (great reviews, readily available etc), but just as I had saved up the money the price went up from £400 to £500!!

I was all ready to shell out the extra cash and then thought it might be worth a rethink. Perhaps the equinox isn't such an outstanding scope now it is £100 more expensive? (For example, I saw an 88mm WO Megrez for about £540, but I haven't seen many reviews and the technical details on their website are a bit thin on the ground.)

Anyone have any suggestions of what to buy for wide field photography around the £500 mark?

Cheers,

Rob

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johninderby

johninderby

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Altair Astro still has the Equinox 80 listed at £398.99 so you could check with them to see if the price is correct.

http://www.bazaarbuilder.com/cgi-bin/nickaltair/myshop.php?merchant=nickaltair&prodid=995&sinprod=1

With the Equinox 80 at £500.00 it's just too expensive. The Megrez 88 is in a different league and only a few £'s more (£529.00 at FLO). Actualy the Megrez 72 is very close to the Equinox 80 in performance and cheaper again at about £289.00.

John

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Psychobilly

Psychobilly

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In my opinion ... Nicer focuser... and was a better match to the FFIII than the equinoxe... even with the longer FL I have ended up with the same "useable" FOV as I always had to crop images from the 66/FFIII combo becuase of the dodgy stars in the corners... I can use the full frame with the Meg72/FFIII

I also didn't like the rotating focuser arrangement on the equinoxe never seemed to lock properly you seemed to have to overtighten it and if you did get it to lock then it was a PITA to get it to unlock...not the sort of thing you wanted to do unless you fancied re-alignninng the mount afterwards...

Still got it I have given it to the OM as a spotting scope with an erecting 45 degree diagonal and a 8-24mm zoom EP/ he enjoys using it for bird and ship watching off the cliffs...I still drag it out now and again for some quick moon pics off a tripod...

Billy...

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steve51450

steve51450

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having had both yes the megrez is a better scope but it does need a very good quality field flattener as its a very fast doublet and the corners are none too flat. It does have a touch of colour to the stars but as fast more or less 90mm doublet for around £500 it is to be expected and not to be sniffed at when the next thing at a similar speed is a tmb triplet for £1500.00

but i would still buy the skywatcher and a flattener as the fact that you can get a decent scope and something like the televue tv2008 0.8 reducer flattener that will then give you a fast flat system for not much more than the megrez on its own. its almost as good a scope as the the meg88 for less :)

skywatcher equinox £388

tv reducer around £200/£220

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Beardy Bob

Beardy Bob

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Well, I can put the Equinox for £390 to bed. That's definitely the old price and no-one has them in stock at that price any more. So we're comparing Equinox 80mm at around £485 versus Megrez 88mm at £530 (best prices).

I have heard questions about the quality of the glass in the megrez 88. Their website is certainly cagey enough on the subject to make me worry.

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Psychobilly

Psychobilly

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Supposedly "optically" identical to the ED80 (and the equinoxe) and spare cash for other goodies...

single speed focuser and some of them have iffy "clamshells" according to posts on this forum but an bargain.... still trying hard avoiding buying one myself like the plague at the moment...

Billy....

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Beardy Bob

Beardy Bob

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I tell you what, that celestron is starting to look like a go-er. The listing says it's got FPL-53 glass (even though it doesn't say that in the 'further details' section). Is that right?

To be honest, I'm probably not asking the right person am I? I should e-mail First Light to check.

Does anyone have a particular aversion or words of warning regarding the aforementioned celestron from the clearance section of first light optics? It would be a first scope to attach my DSLR for some first attempts at wide field imaging (up to a minute or so exposures - so not ultra-deep space!).

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Beardy Bob

Beardy Bob

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Thanks for that link to the second hand megrez 90. It looks great, but it is unfortunately too far away from me.

As for the celestron, I'd be interested in hearing from someone who has used it for imaging. When I say it would be my 'first scope' I mean first dedicated imaging scope. I've done some preliminary photography at prime, piggybacked and eyepiece projection on a skywatcher 130mm reflector, so my new scope would have to show me a noticeable improvement over that. I'm also switching over to refractors because of the time it takes to collimate every time. Grrrrrr.

So yeah, anyone who has an opinion on, or has used the Celestron 80ED refractor here:

http://firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=celestron_c80ED_ota&cat=49

I would be very interested in hearing from.

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johninderby

johninderby

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Another possibility. The Equinox 80 is available from Telescope House under their own name the FPL 53-ED Astrograph at £362.12 delivered. Identical lens to the Equinox. The only difference between the two is the tapered part of the dewshield, and being all black of course. See photo below for one with diag, finder, etc added.

http://www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/info_FPL53.html

John

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johninderby

johninderby

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Hi

I've always found Telescope House to be reliable. and wouldn't hesitate to order from them. I have found that 99% percent of the time they do deliver next day, and if their website says that it is stock it usually is.

That's a photo of one that I used to have. Sold it to help pay for an OO OMC140C deluxe. I actually prefer the all black look of the scope compared to the Equinox 80 anyway.

John

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jgs001

jgs001

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Nowt wrong with the C-ED80 as your "First scope" Where John (JGS001) when yah need him.... as he uses a C-80ED with a DSLR to great effect...

I'm here... I missed this thread, so this might be a little out of date now :)

The C80ED focuser is a single speed rack and pinion. Obviously not as good as a crayford, but it's a helluva lot better than the other R&P focuser's I've seen (ok, I've not seen many :mad:). Optically I think it's an absolute cracker. I've used it with an old olympus 2x teleconver to get some really nice moon shots, I've used it with the 2xTC, a 2x and a 5x barlow to get 20x magnification for a shot at Venus and on the moon with the 450d (it's a pig to focus though :)). I don't actually use the clamshell unless I camera mount it, the OTA uses 90mm tube rings, I had a set of those for my Konus so it was just a case of swapping the OTA's ;).

I bought it at the bargain price as I wanted a better scope for imaging with than the ST80. Visually, I've used it at 240x on the moon, and I have to say that even though that's overpowering it by a huge amount, the view was surprisingly good. (I forgot about the difference in the focal length, compared to the 400mm ST80 when I dropping in the 5mm Hyperion and barlow :()

The Telescope house tube is 500mm compared to the C80ED @ 600mm

At the small price of the C80ED it's a real bargain, although the Telescope house looks a bargain too (but it's £140 more).

Here's a couple of threads with my images in using the C80ED

http://stargazerslounge.com/showthread.php?t=75828

http://stargazerslounge.com/showthread.php?t=75245

http://stargazerslounge.com/showthread.php?t=73318

HTH Bob.

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John

John

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Wow, that has put a spanner in the works. I will have to see if the price is still current. Have you dealt with telescope house before?

I've bought lots of stuff from Telescope House including some quite expensive eyepieces (ahem :) ). Their service is excellent and their website generally very up to date.

John

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Beardy Bob

Beardy Bob

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Well, it is looking more and more like a straight fight between the telescope house version of the equinox for £365 and the celestron ed80 for £215. The main difference seems to be the focuser (and of course the different focal length), but your images prove that it doesn't make it impossible to achieve good focus.

In your opinion, do you think that your task of focusing would be made considerably easier by having a dual 'speed' crayford style focuser as in the 'equinox'? Do you lose much time through focus issues?

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jgs001

jgs001

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Not an easy question to answer from my perspective Bob, I've never used a Crayford. I've normally got the focus sorted out within 5 minutes by using the 10x liveview feature on the 450d. Then a test sub and zoom all the way in to be sure.

It does take a delicate touch to sneak the focus into place, and the Crayford would probably make that easier. I'll be adding either a motorised focuser of a jam jar lid at some point... actually, it'll be a jam jar lid to start with as it's a lot cheaper :) and I've spent way too much already over the past month...

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