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Jimmy
11-01-2005, 02:32 PM
These are to 80mm refracting telescopes. Does anyone know anyone with them or who has used them before? They are from
AOE telescope-binoculars-optics. (Aquila optical and electronics).

Here is the email they sent me about my enquiry "Hello,

Thank you for your enquiry and interest in AOE. We are pleased to provide you a price for the AOE80L. We have attached an image of the AOE80L as the one on our website does no truly represent what we are currently supplying, we will be updating our website details in the coming weeks. The AOE80L is an 80mm F=900mm achromatic refractor. It uses a high quality fully multicoated objective lens. It is mounted on an EQ3 with Aluminium tripod and accessory tray. The whole setup is very sturdy and provides extremely stable views unlike 80mm telescopes supplied on smaller mounts. Standard accessories are a large 6x35 finderscope, 3 high quality Plossl eyepieces and a star diagonal. It is a very nice instrument which does allow excellent observations.

This whole setup is $399.00 plus delivery. We hope you find this is a good price for a high quality 80mm refractor. I have also attached an image of our new AOE80S it is the same price but is more intended for terrestrial observations in mind with an F=600 and AZ mount.

We hope we may have helped a little and we look forward to hearing from you again soon.

Thanks again for your enquiry."

Im not sure what to do. I want to view planets with crisp images and like the portability of the refractor. Please help. Im so desperate here!!!

Thanks so much. James.

The 80L is longer. The tripods look the same as this dodgy one i bought for 200 bucks from dick smith. Exactly the same, so im wondering if they came out of the same manufacturer.

Hmmmm.

Let me know.

Jimmy
11-01-2005, 02:35 PM
Heres the other scope.

mch62
11-01-2005, 04:46 PM
OK ,I am not familiar with the brand or the company although the EQ 3 mount is Chinese and of reasonable quality for the money.
You will find that the tube it is most probably Chinese and most of these are the same just in different colours.

For planetary use in an Achromatic refractor go for the longest focal ratio as possible.
Achromatic refractors suffer from a chromatic aberration problem which gives a blue purple tinge to brighter objects like the planets moon and stars.
The longer the focal ratio the less this problem is.
Also it is magnification prone as well meaning the higher you try to push the scope the worse the colour problem is.

80 mm f5 400mm fl achromatic refractors are great for low power wide field views but suffer badly from colour.
An f10 will be a whole lot better but not perfect for that you need exotic glass and $$$$$$.
A rough general rule is for a reasonable corrected achromatic lens you need the focal ratio to be 3 times the lens diameter in inches.This is only a rough rule of thumb.
There is a formular but it gets to technical for this forum.

Mark

[1ponders]
11-01-2005, 05:00 PM
Are you sure thats an eq3 mount Mark. My eq3 looks much more robust, I thought it looked like a 1 or 2 at the most.

[1ponders]
11-01-2005, 05:08 PM
Quick image of eq3

iceman
11-01-2005, 06:44 PM
Go for the dob, those look ok but for the $$ you're better off with a dob, especially while you're learning.

And I agree with Paul, that mount looks a bit flimsy too.

Check out the reviews page (http://www.iceinspace.com/?reviews) for Mark's review of a good refractor - but as we've said, good refractors come at a price.

Striker
11-01-2005, 06:55 PM
Yeah I recommend a DOB for sure......lol

http://www.iceinspace.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=474

mch62
12-01-2005, 09:17 AM
Yep Paul your right , my mistake it is only an EQ 1 or 2.
Don't go that scope with the small mount .
Paul is the EQ3 O.K. for that size scope .
You mentioned a few things to me about it that night.

Yes a dob is a good all round scope but if his main interest is PLANETARY than a good long focal ratio refractor on a EQ3 with a RA motor is a better choice.

You guys with dobs know what it is like trying to keep a planet in the FOV at high power.

But remember that an 80mm aperture is not going to give great visual views of deep sky objects unless you use the motor and a camera to take pics.

The max useful power for an 80mm is going to be 50-60X the objective diameter in inches.
So about 180-190X , although I have already pushed my 80mm grab and go to over that , but it is an ED lens and the night was good.

Have a look at Andrews Communications , his prices and range are very good.

You really have to think hard on , if you want to specialise on Planetary viewing or deep sky or both.

Aperture is not absolutely everything , quality and contrast is also very important in viewing the solar system.
The contrast of an unobstructed refractor is hard to beat .

You need a Newt with under a 20% obstruction ratio .

I have attached an image from my 80mm of Saturn , this was after the lens had dewed over but it gives you an idea of what to expect from that size. This is also an ED lens so it will be
relatively free of false colour as compared to and Achromatic lens.

Paul you have refractor , whats your thoughts on this for the planets?

Mark

ving
12-01-2005, 09:29 AM
no attachment mark?

[1ponders]
12-01-2005, 10:47 AM
I can't comment really on the Relflector /refractor comparison only having an SCTand a lower to middling range refractor, but I do like the depth of contrast you get with a slower scope, like an f/10 refractor. Plus they are relatively light and portable. Unfortunately without spending around $15000 (thats about the price of a 6 " apo isn't it (shudder)) you just can't compete with the relectors for light gathering power

My mount "handles" my celestron well for viewing but IMHO its too light to put anything else on. I may be able to do a bit of webcamming with it but I'd need to do another overhaul on it. My experience (limited as it is) has been with the eq mounts and I find that the earlier ones just had too much slop in them. They need to be completely pulled down, the glue for grease removed, repacked with something like superlube, and tightened down more than they are off the shelf. I also find they have a lot of backlash that needs to be adjusted. This is only my experience of eq's up to 4. No comment on anything heavier

Its a lot of work for someone just starting out. It almost put me off going further into astronomy when I got my first eq (previously had an old 60mm tasco alt/az).

As much as I like using an eq mount (a good one :) ) for a starter who wants to experience it all :) I'd suggest a good dob. Unless Jimmy you are prepared to spend a bit more (well quite a bit more then $400 really) then the skies the limit, and we can *really* start talking about *scopes* :D

Good luck Jimmy

mch62
12-01-2005, 11:29 AM
:doh:

mch62
12-01-2005, 11:54 AM
I started out with a 70mm f13 refractor on an EQ mount many year ago and still have that tube assemble less mount .
The mount only had RA drive and a simple controller.
I now use it as a guide scope for my larger Newt.
It gives great planetary images with little false colour at f13.
These simple EQ mount with a little help from some one more experience at first , are not that difficult to master and with a web cam will give satisfactory results for imaging.
Learning to use an EQ mount helps in understanding the sky .
I have shown a few newbies how to set up an EQ mount and they love the ability of not having to continualy recentre the image.
You can also with a simple tracking mount like this put a camera piggy backed and dabble in Deep sky wide field work , if he gets the urge.
How ever you could get the Dob and latter on put that onto an EQ 4-5 .
The photo bug will get you eventually and you need to keep that in concideration.
You only have to read the forums of Dob owners to see there coments on taking even web cam images and keeping them in the centre of the FOV.
I have included a pic of my old set up before I built the planetary Newt .The white 70mm guide scope is my first scope and is sitting on my old 6"refractor.

Mark

Starkler
12-01-2005, 12:19 PM
Less difficult than trying to view planets at high power on a shaky eq1 aluminium tripod mount I would suggest :P



How about resolving power? A scope with greater aperture will allow resolving of finer details given the seeing is good.

The original poster is a raw beginner looking for a budget solution.This being the case I couldn't recommend anything other than a dob. It will do everything much better than the refractors in his price range IMO.
Given the opportunity to observe all classes of objects well, he might find through experience what really interests him.

Jimmy
12-01-2005, 02:16 PM
It's Official, I'm Going with the 8" DOB!!!!!!!!!!!

THanks All!!!!!!!!!!!!