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Having owned a Saxon ED80, SkyWatcher ED80 and Vixen ED80 I found them to perform equally as well visually and photographically however I never really liked their mechanical construction. The focusers are pretty so so and the general finish pretty ordinary. Mind you, I still have an Orion ED100 which is great for a grab and go telescope owing to its lightness and long focus travel.
Only a couple of weeks ago I took advantage of William Optics free shipping and special price on their 70ED. It also included the aluminium case which is a real bonus. The 70ED arrived about 4 days after my order and cost $460 landed and an extra $73 for their RDF complete. This was certainly a far better deal than Andrew's at $549 and no case. One has to consider the extra 10mm diameter of the ED80's however. At F6.1 (F6.2?) of the 70ED compared to F7.5 of the ED80's this also ads another factor.
I have only had one opportunity to use the 70ED last week and viewed the Moon, Jupiter and regions in Saggitarius and Scorpio. No colour on the edge of the Moon, some very small amount on Jupiter however it wasn't very high and the stars were pretty well pin point with perfect collimation. In and out focus was at variance and showed slight under correction which is probably deliberate for a balance between visual and photographic use. I used both 6mm and 12mm Radians with a WO dielectric quartz 2" diagonal.
In actual fact I bought the 70ED as a guidescope for my WO FLT-110 mainly because it has the same tube finish, gold dew cap and gold enhancements as the FLT, very superficial I know. The quality of the 70ED is outstanding and is over engineered considering its weight and size. I did look at the Megrez 72 APO however a number of reports said that although it had slightly better colour than the 70ED it wasn't quite as sharp. Factoring in that the Megrez was over a $100 dearer and no case, the 70ED seemed to be a better choice for my purposes. I also purchased a a pair of WO collimating brackets which bolt straight on the FLT's tube rings, beautifully made and at $90 they were a bargain.
Steve
Winmalee, NSW
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