First light for my SW Evostar- ED 80 DSPRO Apo refracter

[alfingido]

It was delivered last Thursday, I got home just as FedeX was delivering it. A lucky break indead, if I had missed them its a 60 mile round trip to their depot.

Anyway, it came in a really nice aluminium case that was wrapped in a huge box with loads of packing.

Aluminium box out of the cardboard box.

It was a lot bigger than I expected, so I opened it up and ahhhh, that new telescope smell......

Everything was packed in plastic bags in the box inserts. It really is a nice case and everything fits nicely. Time to get it all out of the bags....

Finder is ready assembled in its mount, tuberings and dovetail on the OTA, beautiful looking diagonal and a huge 28mm 2" eyepiece. A 2" to 1.25" adapter and some sort of camera adapter.

Fitted all the bits to the OTA,

Then went and fitted the oTA to my new EQ5 Synscan mount.

Very cloudy that night, so the first time out properly was tonight. Nice clear sky, but we have lots of trees about and my two small neices are visiting so I kept it near the house ( and trees so they could have a look before bedtime.

Polar alignment was pretty easy. My mount has the polar finder

as the HEQ5/6 but without the red light, still it was easy to align and set the tripod level with the bubble leveler.

Set the time, date location etc in the handbox and tried for a 2 star align. Both stars were in the 28mm ep fov and quickly centred, Align Successful, were cooking on gas!

I had a very limited view of the sky, but we easily found Andromeda which was very impressive for an 80mm scope, then looked at a few doubles and when Jupiter appeared from behind the chimney for a few minutes, we had a good look at that.

Nice and crisp with the 28mm, 4 moons and we can see 3 or 4 bands on the planet. I fitted a 10mm ep, still crisp with loads of detail of the cloud belts, then the 10mm ep and a 2x barlow. Still crisp, more detail, but only for a couple of minutes before it disappeared from view.

I then tried a 3 star align, failed, then another and success. I blame the operator for the first fail!

Another search through the sky, everything was easily in the 28mm ep, beautiful pinpoint stars against a black velvet sky, it really is a nice view through this 80mm scope. Then, I could see the moon, low down to the south, tried a goto from Jupiter, moved a few degrees then stopped. Miles away from the Moon. Darn, it was going so well.

Parked the scope, another 3 star align, success again, over to Jupiter as it appeared again. Then goto the Moon, no, didnt want to, it just slewed a little to the right.

I dont understand this, everything else was fine. I shall have to double check my position, time etc and try again tomorrow.

All in, I was very pleased with this OTA ( and the mount) The finish is superb, the focuser ( two speed) is so smooth, it could be running in butter bearings, the ep, first 2" one i had ever used, is nice and the views I got exceeded all expectations.

Once I get that moon position sorted out, it will be even better!

I bought the scope mainly for planetary and moon observing, but its deep sky ability is pretty good too. I will try some imaging in the future with my Meade DSI pro II.

Sorry about the long post, but its gone cloudy again!

Allan

[milan]

Thanks for the review. Great to get first hand experiences from actual users. Im the process of looking at one of these or the Equinox version.

[A McEwan]

These ED80s (whichever Skywatcher/Synta/Celeston etc brand) are excellent scopes, and yours looks real nice in that sparkly black diamond livery. Sounds like you're already having fun with that setup - I'm sure it will continue to impress you!

Ant

[Telescope40]

Hi. Looks a very nice piece of kit. Good review. Could i ask. How long is this OTA ? Am looking to use as a grab and go set up.

Many thx John

[adamsp123]

Very nice, good choice of scope Allan.

Pete

[alfingido]

Hi. Looks a very nice piece of kit. Good review. Could i ask. How long is this OTA ? Am looking to use as a grab and go set up.

Many thx John

Hi John, sorry I missed this post. The OTA is 67cm long with diagonal and dewshield fitted ( about 26.5 inches) Without the dewshield and diag, it is 47cm. Width of the OTA is 10cm.

It fits perfectly on an EQ5 and is very easy to move as one unit.

The OTA comes in a case, 67 x 29 x 20 and is all pretty light.

As a grab and go ( what I bought it for ) it is excellent.

Allan