Celestron C5 or OrionED80

[ha421]

Greetings,

I am a complete beginner, with a celestron C5 and an Orion ED80 available. Which one should I keep? Both?
I just bought a Bintel Skyview A-Z for them. If I keep ED80, could you recommend EPs for it?

Thanks,
Zbyszek

[dannat]

the ed80 is a better all round instrument, can do photography -does wide fields & is fine for planets and lunar
the C5 is more specialised for lunar planetary, will do brighter deep sky objects also- limited field of view die to the focal length, it has the advantage of being very compact for the aperture size

what do you want the scope for?

for ed80 prob a 4mm eyepiece for planets/lunar, a 25mm or thereabouts for wide fields/finder ep, maybe a 6mm for in-between the 2. what budget do you have for ep's?

[ha421]

Thanks Daniel,

I was just going to add what EPs I currently have when I noticed your reply:
32 and 25 celestron Pl
7mm TMB
2x barlow
I already upgraded the diagonal to GSO mirror dielectric.

Looks like I may have close to what you suggested. I Appreciate your suggestions. Thanks for others you may have.

Your question about the intended use... At this stage just occasional look at the moon and planets, but I guess at some point I would like to look deeper. I am looking at possibly replacing the C5 with C6 /C8 for DSO.
Would you agree? I may not be able to handle large dobs.


Thanks,
Zbyszek

[dannat]

in melbourne to be honest my experience is you need 8 or 10", if you're on the edge of the city the C5 will be fine - a C6 isn't much of an upgrade

you can prob barlow the 7mm to give roughly 160x, on the C5 use it as is

is your diagonal 1.25" or 2"

if you're thinking of going C8 then keep the ed80, it will complement the C8 for quick looks & quick cool down

[ha421]

Thanks Daniel,


I happen to be 20k from CBD, (Vermont Sth), but close to busy road ( Springvale rd).
My diagonal is 2" but I can use 1.25 EPs with it. And you are right, some time ago I nearly bought a C6 and was advised upgrading to C6 may not be worth it. I will keep my eyes opened for a C8.

[dannat]

vermont Sth should be fine, I've observed from bur wood & it is much better for DSo's than in the city

[brian nordstrom]

:question: I am going the other way , I owned and really loved a good ED80 for years . It was an awesome scope for what it was , and here lies its weakness , only 600mm focal length and if you want higher powers >200x ( which it is capable of :thumbsup: ) I found I had to start stacking barlows and use <3mm eyepieces , a huge pain as the jump from say a 10mm eyepiece ( in average Joe Blog eyepieces , not exotics worth more than the scope ;) ) down to 2-5mm eyepieces was an exercise in frustration , trust me at midnight in the middle of winter juggling eyepieces is a pain .

Whereas the C5 with its 1250mm fl is just cruzing at 200x , planets , double stars , globulars , smaller open clusters and the moon take on another scale , trust me it does make a huge difference ,, image scale is an often forgotten aspect of observing and an ED80 wont give the views a well columinated C5 can , jump to a C8 and the perspective really shows , especially at the 200x mark .

If AP is your thing then a good FR will work well with the C5 and it is easiler to mount than the longish ED80 tube .

My 5c as a visual guy :thumbsup:.

Brian.

[JimsShed]

I got into astronomy about 12 months ago with the purchase of a Skywatcher ED80 on an EQ mount. What a wonderful instrument it is. Even though I've recently complemented it with a c9.25, the ED80 is a keeper and over the course of a viewing session, I swap between the two. It is excellent for both wide view visual astronomy, and astrophotography and very easy to live with. Just accept that if you get into astronomy, any scope you get will not be your last ;)