celestron 80ed question

[stafford_stargazer]

Ok having had this scope a while im pleased with it.

But!

How does it compare to other makes of the same type of telescope?

What glass does it use?

Thanks Gary

[Deneb]

It uses FPL-53 Glass, same as the SW 80ed Pro, the orion 80ed & the equinox 80 (but I think it also uses schott glass in the equinox).

Nadeem

[step_hen]

The C80ED also uses schott glass Nadeem, same as the equinox, with the ED element being FPL-53 as you say. Optically it is equal to or better than all its rivals. The bits that let it down are the clamshell and the focuser, and you could say its not as nicely finished as the others- oh, and the paintwork on mine chips dead easy :-(

[jgs001]

The clamshell is easy to deal with, get some 90mm tube rings and a dovetail. It's a narrower OTA than the SW equivalent, the 80ED, so presumably a bit lighter. The focuser is it's only letdown, and that depends on what your comparing it to... It's much better than the focuser on my Konus, and with the addition of a few strips of teflon tape is much much better, not crayford but still much better.

I've not used any others so can't really comment about how it compares.

[John]

I've used a number of ED80 variants (Celestron, Skywatcher, Orion (USA)) and found them all unformly excellent. I moved from one to a William Optics Megrez 90 and found, with the exception of the additional 10mm aperture, the WO was optically no better. I think you would have to pay a lot of £'s to get noticably better performance in an 80mm refractor.

[johninderby]

I've used the C80-ED and the Orion 80-ED and they were indeed the same optically, which is to say very, very good. The C80 just needs a better focuser to get the best from it.

As for bettering the 80mm FPL-53 Doublet you will have to spend more. However the new FPL-53 80mm Triplets such as the Orion-80EDT or the TS 80mm Triplet which are selling in the £550.00 to £600.00 range are not that big a leap in price considering that they are FPL-53 triplets (and with good focusers). Wonder what these new triplets will do to the price of the Maede FPL-51 equivalent triplets?

John

[kniclander]

IMHO the diagonal is not brilliant. The right-angled one is apparently ok; the 45 deg one that mine came with is poor and the difference when I upgraded was very obvious.

[step_hen]

yes the 45deg diagonal is indeed a poor prism type. Its fine for daylight use, but better replaced with something else for astro.

[stafford_stargazer]

Cheers, was on about tube assembly and glass to be honest,I have WO di-electric for diagonal.

Focusser on mine does not have any play and since regressing it with recommended lithium grease it's pretty good.

John what price is the new one you have bought And have you had chance to try properly yet?

Cheers gaz

[johninderby]

Hi Gaz

The TS 80/480 Triplet was £550.00 which is a bargain for an FPL-53 Triplet. I've only managed one brief look so far, and I'm still waiting for a proper first light.

However what I did see was very encouraging. On first impression it was sharper with more contrast than an ED80 and absolutely no CA. About what you would expect of an FPL-53 triplet compared to an FPL-53 doublet. Although I'd heard rumors that the TS triplet was built by Synta that's not correct. Synta buys the scope from the same source as TS and then re-badges it as an Orion scope.

Actually this could be good news price-wise If anyone was thinking of an Equinox 80, The Equinox will have to come down in price as it's only £50.00 less than the TS triplet and £100.00 less than the Orion EDT80 triplet (a 2" dielectric diag is included in the EDT80 price).

Interesting times ahead I think.

John.

[Steve_Max127]

I'm looking at a new diagonal for my celestron 80ed as already mentioned here it is not all that good. I'm looking at either the Revelation quartz 2" or the Skywatcher 2" di-electric assuming the 2" will work ok in the 80ED. Any comments most welcome.

Also John what is the trick with the teflon (PTFE tape?) tape and the focuser?

[johninderby]

I don't think that there's much to choose between the Revelation Quartz and the Sky-Watcher dielectric diagonals. Both are good diagonals but the Revelation is a better buy.

The main difference between these two diagonals and the William Optics dielectric is the quality of the mirror coatings. The WO has many more layers of coatings which results in a better, smoother and more durable coating. However in actual use you won't see that much of a difference.

John