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[gettr]

First off, let me state that I'm a newbie. Sorry if this isn't detailed or worded correctly.

My scope arrived last night. Ordered on Monday, here on Friday. Very nice compared to my over 2 month wait from Meade.

The scope comes with a soft bag. Fitted foam with cutouts for EP's, a big one that fits my Barlow nicely. A good size square cutout that fits my Televue diagonal, lunar filter, and another EP with my suppied soft foam for bracing/padding.

Fit and finish is the best I've seen. A gloss black that is just beautiful. My wallet is really in trouble after playing with the focuser. My Meade's and ST80 feel like they have sand in them compared to this.

The views were pretty impressive. The contrast seems much better than my ST80. I went to Saturn first and was impressed. The seeing wasn't the best, but in the few moments it cleared, the views were good. Alot better than my ST80. The only complaint is that there was just a touch of color. (But I was expecting a little) M42 was next. Lots of definition, good contrast. M31, more of the same. I went out to see Jupiter this morning, again, very clean crisp views. And again, a little color. I also checked out the sliver of a moon. Lotsa nice details there.

I am VERY pleased with this scope. For performance vs. price, one of the best deals out there. One thing that really impressed me was how sharp and contrasty the views were. Almost like the sky was darker. I tried doing a star test on Sirius. Perfectly concentric rings. (By no means can I say I know what I'm doing here)

Complaint dept. If I really wanted to get picky, I could complain about a touch of color and the fact that higher powers start to wash a bit(could've been lousy seeing too). But honestly, none of these things bother me. ;D

--------------------
Dennis
AR6, SN10 UHTC, WO Zenithstar 80, Alpen 8x42 Binos, ST80 gone, but not forgotten

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Dennis,

I must say that I did not know what type of scope you were referring to...really sounded like a televison set....

But after researching a bit, it's a pretty cool looking scope! I like the black finish on it and the gold plating on the knobs and rings...

I would very much like the chance to peer through this when we get together somethime this spring for a Chicago Astronomer get together. I would have preferred a hard case for the instrument...Teak is my choice.

What encouraged you to get this scope?

Well done.

[gettr]

What encouraged me? (Not much if you ask my wife...lol)

I bought my father a Meade 60mm push-to type refractor for Christmas (Well meaning kids...lol) and decided that if he was going to use it more than once in a while, I'd get him something a bit more serious. I decided to get myself a better grab-n-go and the Orion ST 80 would go to him.

I put a price limit of 400 and started looking. The one I bought, the nighthawk, and vixen80ss were all candidates. I'll be honest, (and I'm probably not the first) I fell for the paint job. And the fact that it's a semi-apo.

I would welcome the chance to let you use it. And I'm looking forward to a springtime get together.

[jglover]

gettr said:

I put a price limit of 400 and started looking. The one I bought, the nighthawk, and vixen80ss were all candidates. I'll be honest, (and I'm probably not the first) I fell for the paint job. And the fact that it's a semi-apo.

This looks like a terrific little scope. I would have seriously considered this had it been available when I got my ED80. The William optic scopes have such a nice mechanical finish to them, it pretty much blows away a stock ED80 from a mechanics standpoint. Heck any of your three choices there are terrific. I'd love to have the chance to cmpare my ED80 with a WO scope. I saw one of their first Megrez APOs at the Riverwalk here in Naperville when the Naperville club held a public viewing session and it was very *nice* scope.

Have fun!

[gettr]

I really like the sounds of the ED80... (Enough people rave about them ) I tried to justify it as a candidate, it was just a little out of the budget I had set for myself. A peek thru one just might send me over the edge...lol!

[jglover]

gettr said:

I really like the sounds of the ED80... (Enough people rave about them ) I tried to justify it as a candidate, it was just a little out of the budget I had set for myself. A peek thru one just might send me over the edge...lol!

The views are quite nice. Another member on here, Alan, has the ED100 and I am dying to get a look through that one as well! I was lucky when I decided on the ED80 as Orion had one in their clearance section for right at $400. I haven;t seen many ED80 back on the clearance page but there is usally an ED100 there.......if you got a spare $800+!

Actually though my ED80 is worth about that now as I've added a Moonlite single speed focuser (www.focuser.com) and that really bring sup the finish of the scope. The Moonlite is a gorgeous piece of engineering and the focus is incredibly smooth and accurate. That's probably about the best modification one can make to the ED80 class scope is to upgrade the focuser. The stock Crayford is nice, but the Moonlite's are up there with the Feathertouches and high end JMI's. It makes using the scope a real joy.