Capable Compact, great with mods.
Written: May 31 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Compact. Lightweight, Excellent Value
Cons: Diagonal and eyepieces okay, but easily upgraded
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| zagatt's Full Review: Orion ShortTube 80mm Rich-Field Refractor Telescop... |
This is an excellent choice for the fledgling stargazer, and not a bad choice for the advanced user who can't always carry their light bucket out in the field.
It's a compact, lightweight (under 4 pound) unit, mine was supplied with a 6x30 finderscope, mounting plate (you'll need a tripod, of course) correct-image (right side up)prism diagonal and two eyepieces (Kellner 25mm & 10mm, yielding magnifications of 16x and 40x - the magnification is the 400mm focal length, divided by the eyepiece). The newer models may have right side up finder scopes (better for terrestrial viewing).
The best thing about this scope is it offers good quality images (far better than the department store or science store 500X / $99 jobs, for less than just about any other decent quality telescope on the market.
There are practical limits to magnification based on many factors, and the cheapies give dim, fuzzy images, which may discourage budding astronomers. The ST80 offers bright clear images, and can be pushed to 100X without too much image degradation.
Even more intriguing is that this little gem can be easily modified to produce some really exceptional images. By you, in your workshop, without exotic tools, or being a professional machinist/optics expert/etc. Some excellent telescope hotrodding guidelines have been published, there is a discussion group which is dedicated to this particular type of scope, has a strong a following, and is recommended:
egroups.com/group/80f5
For viewing things on earth (scenery/birds/etc.) the scope is pretty good out of the box. The night sky view can be improved by adding a right angle mirror diagonal (less distortion than the 45 degree prism supplied, and easier on the neck than a 45, but everything will be inverted, which doesn't matter when you're looking at stars) and eyepiece upgrades are always worth a look.
Best bet: If you know someone who is into telescopes, get their advice, or try to find out when a local star party is going on, and see what looks good.
Orion had some of these on scratch & dent sale for under $150, but the $199 price is still a bargain. A decent tripod will be needed, and the padded carrying case is recommended.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
zagatt
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Reviews written: 23
Trusted by: 5 members
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