Recieved my Skywatcher ED80 from My Astroshop and this is straight out of the box, the finish is not the same as the Orion Express, but it looks ok to me! Cloudy and rain now but will try for some lunacy later and some photos to test it out.
Ah, ED80. I wish I had one. Looks great. Much nicer than boring black Saxon or the grey Orion. I still can't get over what a great deal that is for $549. And the rings even have piggyback camera adapters! But I'll wait a couple of months till they start throwing in a diagonal and finder with it too. Maybe by Christmas it will come with a goto mount and CCD for $499.
Congrats on another scope { }, like Geoff my Orion was adjusted by Bintel before shipping , looking at the pics you attached looks like the focuser hasnt been adjusted for collimation be worth it to check after first light BTW if your interested Scopestuff sell some camera adapters and a compression ring visual back to suit these refractors when you get that modified Canon 300d
I am in the process of making one as a unit and when it is finished will send it to you to try out with the ED80 and the Canon.
By unit I mean a Canon T-mount at one end and 2" nosepiece the other with FR mounted inside. Will also take 48mm filters.
Congrats Huffy.....you will see a huge difference in performance now you have a canon and a ED80.
How are you going to mount it and with what configuration...?????
let me see, it could be by itself, or on top of the C8, or side by side with the dual mount bar with either the c8 or the m500, or if I don't sell it the Orion Express, the orion on the c8 and the ed80 on the mount bar. The orion is a lovely scope but not for imaging through. It is however a far beter scope mechanically and functionally than the ED though, and looks nicer
h0ughy, it the skywatcher a true 80 mm tube or is it the same as the orion, 100mm with an enlarged lense cell?
the lens cell is 111mm diameter, the objective is 80mm spot on. Dang forgot to measure the tube diameter, I would guess slightly less than 100mm, look at photos
h0ughy: congratulations! You have now officially surpassed the required quantity limitation of scopes to sink a battleship. Between you and Tony you have enough equipment to make most grown men cry!
Looking forward to seeing some of the images you manage to get with that new toy. Looks like an awesome purchase for the price!
Well huffy, I expect a full report by tomorrow. I was going to order a rail, camera adapter and rings at around $200Us, so rings with camera adapter included is good value.
Well huffy, I expect a full report by tomorrow. I was going to order a rail, camera adapter and rings at around $200Us, so rings with camera adapter included is good value.
Looks great. Much nicer than boring black Saxon or the grey Orion. I still can't get over what a great deal that is for $549. And the rings even have piggyback camera adapters! But I'll wait a couple of months till they start throwing in a diagonal and finder with it too. Maybe by Christmas it will come with a goto mount and CCD for $499. 
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BTW if your interested Scopestuff sell some camera adapters and a compression ring visual back to suit these refractors when you get that modified Canon 300d
