Hi yes the Skywatcher ‘Equinox’ is the upmarket version of the Gold Pro. With black gloss paint, 2 speed focuser and improved assembly and finish. I got mine on special order from a South Island dealer here in N.Z who imported some. You are correct they are not available in Oz. However ‘Orion’ have just released there ‘EON’ APO line which are now available in Australia. The EON’s are basically identical to the Equinox’s and come in 72mm 80mm and 120mm sizes. All the Synta Doublets have the FPL-53 glass. [Except 72mm which has FPL-51 glass] They do not use pure Fluorite. FLP-53 has similar optical properties to Fluorite. Pure Fluorite glass is fragile. Actually - there was a unconfirmed rumour on the ‘Cloudy Nights’ forum that the ED120 uses a slightly different mating lens to improve CA – this however has never been confirmed. I wrote to the Synta distributors in Canada but never received a reply. The ED127 triplet uses FPL-51 glass which has an ‘inferior’ CA correction then FPL-53 [at the same F/L] but using the triplet design improves CA and SA. It is important to get the triplet design and finish exactly right or you will have aberrations. FPL-53 is about 3x times the price of FPL-51 glass. The Abbe number [which measures CA] of Fluorite is 95, FPL-53 is also most the same and FPL-51 is 81. FPL-51 still gives good CA correction - esp. for visual use. If you get the S.W. Gold Pro or Orion ED120 versions it is easy to upgrade to the GSO 2x speed focuser that is available at dealers like Andrews.The EON range is below:
http://www.sirius-optics.com.au/index11.htm