Williams 80mm refractor in AS&T

[robin]

Hi guys, In the test report section of this months Aust Sky & Tel, there's a cool 80mm Williams refractor.I need a smallish refractor to take away on family holidays, to act as a guide scope mounted to the LX200 & to pull out for quick, 20min views during cloudy nights.Would this be a good scope to get? It looks fantastic & reads really well.Like I said, would it make a good guide scope as well ?........

[gbeal]

I have an 80mm refractor (not a W/O one though), and love it. (try my latest posting in the Deep Sky Images section).
I would suggest however you try one if possible. 80mm is only 80mm, and if you have been used to bigger you may find it isn't all you expected.
Not sure about the W/O, but mine is tooooo big for a guidescope.
Gary

[Astroman]

I was looking at this scope and wondered if there was a review between that and the very popular Orion 80mmED.

[beren]

Robin decisions decsisions hey , welcome to the club , the Zenithstar as far as i can tell has built a excellent rep amongst users . Its a achromatic but colour correction is supposed to be very good and the build quality awesome , been tempted to buy as well but the difficulty is that its the same price practically as the Orion 80mm ed which is another great scope .Comes down to your preferences on build quality vs potential better colour correction plus tasks to be undertaken guiding ie: WO ZS f/6 vs Orion f/7.5 or general wide feild viewing

[robin]

Thanks for that guys.What you've posted has been a big help.
Gary,I had a look at your latest image.Fabulous mate.Love the almost wideangle look of it.I'm used to my 10" LX200 so a smaller scope will be a drop in fire power but as i said, I'm after a smaller one to take on holidays & act as a guide scope etc
The orion looks nice too Stuart.How right you are...decicions, decisions!