bought the York Optical ED80!

[Robert_T]

Hi All, after a couple of weeks of thought (more than I usually give such things) and tossing up this over that, I lashed out today and bought a York Optical ED80 to couple with my Canon 40D for deep sky imaging (please forgive me all my planetary pals).

What's a York Optical ED80? Well some pics attached give an idea. It's a rebadged "something" by York obviously. The build quality and finish makes it look like one of the Orion Eon ED80s... close to quality of a WO ED80, but not quite.

It comes with a nice alum case, mounting rings and dovetail bar, sliding dewshield and 2 speed focusser with mm readout. It all feels pretty solid and smooth. I star-tested tonight and was very pleased - as close to perfect concentric in an out of focus as I could tell at ~150x. Moon wasn't high enough to try colour correction test.

I'd actually decided on the Skywatcher ED80 which York has for $499 at the moment and was going in to pick it up. The York Optical was sitting next to it, and, well . Retails for $999, but I got them down a looong way on that, with Canon EOS ring and T-adaptor extender into the bargain, so I'm pretty happy.

It's also slightly faster at F7, 560mm FL instead of 600mm with the skywatcher. I'm hoping with 0.8x flattener this will be a great little scope to start my DSLR imaging career with.

Now I just gotta get brave enough to put the camera on it

cheers,

Rob

[wavelandscott (Scott)]

Looks and sounds like a nice little scope. I hope you get lots of use and enjoyment out of it!

[Matty P (Matt)]

Nice looking scope. Looks like you have got the perfect companion for your DSLR.

Looking forward for first light.

[bluescope]

Looks nice Robert, I like the engraved focuser tube for easy reference !

What price did you get it for ?

Or did you have to sign a confidentiality clause ?

Have fun !

[Robert_T]

Originally Posted by bluescope

What price did you get it for ?

Or did you have to sign a confidentiality clause ?

Hi Steve, in the end I got it for $810 of the cold hard papery stuff with the canon T-ring and filter-threaded T extender included (they would have taken $750 for the OTA).

cheers,

Rob

[iceman (Mike)]

Excellent, Robert! You're diving straight into this DSO stuff! Can't wait to see the results.

[Robert_T]

Originally Posted by iceman

Excellent, Robert! You're diving straight into this DSO stuff! Can't wait to see the results.

you an me both Mike

[bluescope]

Originally Posted by Robert_T

Hi Steve, in the end I got it for $810 of the cold hard papery stuff with the canon T-ring and filter-threaded T extender included (they would have taken $750 for the OTA).

cheers,

Rob

Sounds ok to me .... an SW ED80 Pro would probably cost similar when you include case and extras. Will look for your images !

[cookie8 (Vincent)]

It's a little beauty Robert. I like the mm readout for precise reproducable focusing. A bonus for photography I guess.Does SW ED80 Pro has the same feature?

Vincent

[Robert_T]

Originally Posted by cookie8

It's a little beauty Robert. I like the mm readout for precise reproducable focusing. A bonus for photography I guess.Does SW ED80 Pro has the same feature?

Vincent

Hi vincent, no the SW lacks both that and the micro-focusser which is a nice addition that you pay a lot to add to the standard ED80. cheers, ROb

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

Originally Posted by bluescope

Sounds ok to me .... an SW ED80 Pro would probably cost similar when you include case and extras. Will look for your images !

True Bluescope, I dont think the Pro ED80 has a 10:1 microfocusser on the crayford, but you can get them with the aluminium case (OTA only) from Andrews for $599 with free freight and 5 yr warranty. The lens on the SW one is also listed as FPL-53, I cant find the same reference for the YO one.

I keep banging on about it because its such hot value in my opinion.

Cheers

Chris