80mm ED comparison

[[1ponders]]

Has anyone come across any reviews comparing the Orion 80 ED, the Saxon 80 ED (same scope I understand?), Zenithstar 80 (I like the colour :) ), and the Megrez 80 II ED. And what standard accesories does each come with.?

Yep you guess it, its time to start my upgrading.

[rumples riot]

Paul I would have loved the Megrez and even considered buying it as my guide/widefield scope, but one thing killed it. It was perfect but the price completely killed the idea so I got the Orion 80mm ED.

The Saxon is made by the same company Synta I think, who also owns Celestron.

As for the Orion, I have nothing but praise for this little scope. Collimation was perfect upon delivery, when focusing the stars snap into focus and the is no chromatic aberration whatsoever. Images of Jupiter while small always lack any colour fringing. As does the moon. I would highly recommend this scope especially for the price.

That said, if the megrez was cheaper I would have bought that in a snap, purly because of the reputation and the quality of the optical system.

Sorry, I dont know about the other scope you mentioned.

[Starkler]

I read one report that the Megrez shows slightly more colour than the Orion80 due to its shorter focal length, and is also otherwise slightly optically inferior .
On the plus side for the Megrez is outstanding build quality worthy of a much more expensive scope.

If the Orion/Skywatcher/Synta ED80 wasnt around , everybody would be talking about the Megrez.

[Stephan]

Paul,

I have not seen a review comparing the 80ED (Orion,Saxon,SkyWatcher,Vixen, etc.) with one of the 80 Megrez telescopes. That brings up the question which Megrez are you talking about? There are 4:

Megrez 80 Fluorite APO 80/480 (TMB-lens)
Megrez 80 Fluorite APO 80/600 (TMB-lens)
Megrez 80 II ED Triplet APO also called 80 EDT
Megrez 80 II SD referred to as semi APO

I have seen optical test reports of the Fluorite Apo's (I am sure you can find some online) and of the ED80.

Both Fluorites are much better colour corrected that the ED80 and while the fluorites both had Strehl ratios of above 98, the ED80 had just below 90 as far as I remember (could have been just over 88, the diffraction limit).

The reviews on the Megrez 80 II SD suggest that the colour correction is worse than the one from the ED80. The Megrez 80 II EDT has about the same colour correction as the ED80 according to a dealer who sells both.

Geoff,
Which Megrez did you mean?

Stephan

[[1ponders]]

The ED Triplet Stephan (If that's the one for between $1100 and $1300 available at the moment). I'd love to got a Flurite APO but its just not on unfortunately.

[gbeal]

Whatever you get, don't expect it to be as good as the last ED80 you looked through, nudge nudge.

[Stephan]

That would be the 80EDT. Its optical performance is comparable to the Chinese ED80 but the mechanically quality is much better and it is shorter ! Apparently the TeleVue 0.8 reducer/flattener works well with it and together with your EOS 300 D you have a great astro graph at F5.6.

[[1ponders]]

That's the sort of line I was thinking.

[robin]

I'm about 3 seconds away from bagging me a WO Zenithstar 80 as my little scope on the run, guide scope for the LX200 etc.Heard nothing but absolute praise for it.Cloudy Nights gives it a very good review.
Oh yeah, i LOVE the colour & look too!

[[1ponders]]

Me too Robin. I would look extremely funcky on my black losmandy, black refractor and me in my darth vader outfit. :P Only problem is I'd have to get all the chromey bits on my gear reanodized gold. Swiiish:D

[Stephan]

The WO Zenithstar 80 may be a nice build short tube telescope but it is not suitable for photography and the colour correction is certainly not up to APO standards. As the review on Cloudy Nights says clearly its colour correction is very good compared to a short tube achromat.

Stephan