ED 80mm - crazy price in Melbourne!

janoskiss (Steve H) · #1 03-08-2005, 04:12 PM

I have just ordered a Saxon 80mm ED refractor. $550 + $8 postage within Melbourne direct from Saxon (i.e. Splendour Trading, see Saxon website for info). The price is better than any other I've seen for this sort of ED scope sold under the Saxon and other brand names. I'll let you know if it gets here in one piece, and if it's any good. Fingers crossed!

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #2 03-08-2005, 04:14 PM

It would be nice to know if they are really any good or just advertising hype!

Thanks Steve. Keep us informed.

At least it has a 2" Crayford!

atalas · #3 03-08-2005, 04:22 PM

Ken I have one and can tell you they are good scopes and worth every cent !
Good price Steve,the best around that Ive heard of.

Louie

robin · #4 03-08-2005, 05:31 PM

So its an apo right Steve? How soon till you get your hands on it?

janoskiss (Steve H) · #5 03-08-2005, 05:37 PM

Soon I hope. It's only got to travel about 20kms from the warehouse to my house.

Starkler (Geoff) · #6 03-08-2005, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ballaratdragons

It would be nice to know if they are really any good or just advertising hype!

I have the same scope with Orion written on the side of it.
It does a good job for what it is, but Im not getting much use out of it as theirs not enough aperture to punch the magnification up to overcome light polution. From a dark sky site the wide field views are glorious with pin sharp stars in good seeing. I guess I was being spoiled by 10 inches of aperture.

Janos what are you planning to mount it on ? Did you order a diagonal too ?

janoskiss (Steve H) · #7 03-08-2005, 06:03 PM

Diagonal is on its way from AOE. I only have a somewhat flimsy EQ mount and a sturdy camera tripod at this stage.

robin · #8 03-08-2005, 10:21 PM

This Saxon looks almost a duplicate of the Orion Geoff. Is it? And is it an apo?

janoskiss (Steve H) · #9 03-08-2005, 10:33 PM

They're supposed to be the same scope with a different paintjob. (At least that's what I learnt on these forums.) Astro-optical sell them too; theirs is neither Orion or Saxon, but Bauer (IIRC). Yes it's meant to be an apo.

ausastronomer (John Bambury) · #10 03-08-2005, 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robin

This Saxon looks almost a duplicate of the Orion Geoff. Is it? And is it an apo?

Robin,

I believe they are sold as "Semi Apos". They are way better than an achromat and probably offer 85% to 90% of the performance of a premium 80MM Triplet APO at 20% to 25% of the price of a triplet. They are also marginally inferior to a 2 element Flourite like the Vixen FL80S. They use a 2 element objective with 1 element being ED glass to reduce chromatic aberration. At that price of $550 probably 1 of the best bargains going at the moment and highly recommended if your looking for an 80mm refractor.

CS-John B

Starkler (Geoff) · #11 03-08-2005, 10:41 PM

Is it an APO ?

If I look at Sirius at high power I can detect a faint violet halo if I look for it, but otherwise I never notice any colour. Close enough to an apo that I wouldnt pay any more just to improve that attribute.

Janos, yes I believe the Orion and the Saxon 80ED are the same scope with a different paint job.

asimov (John) · #12 03-08-2005, 11:01 PM

Hell...just when I'm trying to sell all my gear, along comes a deal like this! GRRRR!

robin · #13 03-08-2005, 11:47 PM

Interesting stuff.....As Beren & a couple of others know,I've been eyeing off the Orion 80ED & the WO Zenithstar 80. (the orion is an apo, the Zenithstar,an achro)I need a good get up & go/travel/quick observing between the clouds scope & also to mount on the LX200 as a guidescope.Could this be a good option?

Robby · #14 04-08-2005, 12:05 AM

Be keen to here how you like it. I've had my eye out for an ED for awhile now. This could be just the ticket. Hope they can ship to New Zealand
Cheers

johnno · #15 04-08-2005, 12:51 AM

Hi All,
I have the Skywatcher version of the ED80,I believe they are pretty much all the same Scope,in my opinion,a Brilliant piece of gear.
Regards.John

beren · #16 04-08-2005, 10:30 AM

Good one Steve im sure youll enjoy your new scope , ive had the Orion variant for a couple of weeks and ive been well pleased with its performance

Are these scopes APOs? This has been hotly debated in lot of forums and John sums it up well and from my own brief experiance views and images taken through the scope have been as far as i can tell free of any noticable CA.

janoskiss (Steve H) · #17 04-08-2005, 10:41 AM

All sounds very good guys! Only thing I'm concerned about is whether giving up dealer support for $50 was worth it. Like, for example, if I need help with collimation, I'm pretty sure the Saxon people wouldn't have a clue. My guess is that they're just importers & nothing more. Hey, they advertise the ED as being made with extra-low dispension glass!

beren · #18 04-08-2005, 11:17 AM

Thats what i was worried about Steve , i went through Bintel for my Orion and they highlighted the fact they would collimate and do a checkup for me . When the scope arrived i checked the focuser assembly to see if it had been adjusted for collimation {the objective cell isnt adjustable} and noted it was angled and this suggested either the guys at bintel or the orignal factory had done it .A star test revealed nice symmetry so im happy.

Starkler (Geoff) · #19 04-08-2005, 02:01 PM

Bintel did it for me too. I noticed one of the original screw holes had been elongated to allow collimation.

janoskiss (Steve H) · #20 04-08-2005, 02:21 PM

I can see I'll be coming back to Iceinspace for collimation instructions.