My New Skywatcher ST80

[waynezilla]

I decided to get one of these to see just what can be achieved with a small, cheap scope. Its destined to become a guide scope, but for now I'm going to us it "as is". Heres my review...

Yesterday when I arrived home from work I had a nice large parcel waiting for me! I wasn't expecting it quite so quickly so it was a pleasant surprise.

Once I'd got my son Jack to bed and had something to eat I set about unpacking things. A bit like russian dolls, there were boxes in boxes! I went straight for the one which was likely to be the telescope. Opening it I saw the classic Skywatcher blue colour and quickly set about removing the bubble wrap.

First impression was that the scope seemed pretty solid with some weight to it. A good sign in my book.

About half an hour later, the pretty simple assembly instructions were completed and I had a rather nifty little telescope on an EQ1 mount. The mount is obviously going to be a limiting factor for any photography. No problems for visual stuff though. Also with the whole thing assembled I couldn't help but think what absolutely fantastic value for money this setup is. Everything went together well, and nothing struck me as particularly tacky or cheap. Well done Skywatcher!

The first task was aligning the spotting scope using a distant chimney. Again a simple task. The metal guide rings and adjusting screws were far more accurate than the plastic abomination on my other cheap scope.

Lukily for me, it looked as though the sky was clearing and I might just get to have a peek at the heavens. Unluckily for me I have and early start in the morning, so with the bright skies of summer any vieweing would be brief.

It was around 10pm and I was looking to the SW for Arcturus (Vega was hiding behing my house), and eventually my eyes latched onto its blazing red. It was a little too light for Polaris and some cloud still remained to the north so aligning the mount was out for the moment. I swung the spotting scope over towards my target and caught it in the view. I needed to loosen the lens a few turns to bring it into focus, but I was greeted with a sharp pinpoint. Moving to the eyepiece (25mm) Arcturus was dead center. Some small adjustments of the focus and I had nice pin point of orange.

By now, Vega had risen above my roof so I swung the scope towards it. With the 25mm eyepiece I could just get Vega and the double-double in the field of view. Quite a sight, with the viewfinder brimming with stars.

I decided to let the star darken a little and headed indoors to contemplate some targets. As Lyra and Hercules are right overhead I decided to see how well the scope would perform by chooseing M57 and M13. I was under no illusion has to how tricky it would be to snag M57 with such a small aperture and magnification, but I do like a challenge.

Heading back outdoors, I did a rough alignment right on Polaris. I noted that the slow motion controls were quite good. Their response showed that there was little discernable backlash in the gears. This was a good omen for adding a motor drive later.

I homed in on the area between Sheliak and Sulaphat. I noticed that I could see one of Sulaphat's companions quite nicely. I just sat and took the view in, letting my eyes adjust. After about 10 minutes, more and more stars were appearing and I was certain one of those was M57. I decided to try the 10mm eyepiece, but this was a little disappointing. The stars lost much of their crispness and I was sure I could actually see more with the 25mm. I swapped back to the 25mm, but I'm confident that if I was to attach my webcam an image of M57 is definitely on.

The next target was M13. The sky was getting darker, but becoming less transparent so I had to hurry. I identified the keystone of Hercules and scanned for the globular cluster. With the bright wide views of the scope this was a very easy target to find. The magnification was low, so M13 was little more than a smudge, but clearly visible without using averted vision. I tried the 10mm eyepiece again. While M13 was larger I couldn't really see any more. By now it was midnight and some high clouds were beginning to form so I packed away for the night.

All in all I am very satisfied with the scope. Very portable, and even though some fringing and abberation were apparent, the wide views were very pleasing. A useful addition to any astronomers arsenal. As expected, the eypieces aren't too great, but for the money paid that may be just expecting a little too much.

Wayne M

[jgs001]

Nice Wayne. It's a cracking little widefield scope. I used mine with Hyperions and you get a really good view, but I found that pretty much any ep gave a better view then the Konus provided ep's... A SemiApo filter is a good investment as you're wanting to image with this scope, it will make quite a difference to the CA. I posted comparison photo's of the three Baader CA filters, it's on here somewhere, that I used with mine.

[albedo0.39]

Hi there Wayne - thanks for taking the time to write up the report. I only have one scope but reading your report made me wonder if I ought to find houseroom for another scope to just "grab and go" - an APO or something about 75mm sounds about right.. Your scope looked interesting.

[bish]

Thanks for the review Wayne. I have been looking into getting a guide scope/small 'grab and go' . I can't afford the pro series or equinox so the ST80 is a strong contender

[athlon]

I have two ST80's, one for a quick spotting scope, and one that i used as a finder on my 12" dob, and for the money, i find them to be excellent instruments.

Its a good purchase, enjoy !!