Sky-Watcher ED80 Pro (Gold Tube)

Equipment Buying Advice
3 replies•203 views
Jeff Donaldson avatar
Jeff Donaldson avatar
I am going to look at this scope, its used but well maintained and I am replacing my very old Orion 8" F4 Newtonian.  The rust is coming through the primary mirror.  I was looking for a smaller scope for widefield and the like.

I have a Celestron Nightscape 8300 Camera and concerned about Focus, is this a good Imaging scope?  And do I need a reducer?
Jeff Coldrey avatar
Jeff Coldrey avatar
Great imaging scope - I enjoyed using one for 10 years with several APS sized cameras.
But be sure to get a flattener for it, with or without reduction.
I used a Williams Optics pflat2 (0.85x).

The skywarcher and orion flatterers are understood to work well to.

When imaging smaller items (which will be heavily cropped), just remove the flattener.

Cheers,
Jeff
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Richard Horn avatar
Richard Horn avatar
I have the "normal" ED-80, and I think it looks great.  I'm a newbie, but at the last star party I did, many of the old timers were raving about the optics for the price I paid.

I added the SkyWatcher x.85 flattener/reducer when I added the mono camera.  I have a hell of a time focusing, but it is probably my old eyes.  When I get it, its plenty sharp.  I'm going to add an auto-focuser to solve this…

All in all, this is everything and more than I expected in a scope for less than $1k.

Hope this helps.
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Carastro avatar
Carastro avatar
I have the black diamond version of the ED80 but the gold version of the ED120 and find both to be good scopes.  I like the design and ease of mounting and mounting other things on it.

I would however recommend a focal reducer/flattener as it will speed up the optics a bit.

Carole
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