Ann, I own the Orion ED80mm, and find it of excellent quality and and even better value. Chromatic abberation is almost non-existant- I found no difference between it an a friend's TeleVue. The focuser is a very smooth 2" Crayford-style. I use a red-dot style finder along with the Orion right-angle 8x50mm finder. If you plan on taking on an airplane, though, the TeleVue 80mm is slightly smaller physically. I have not used the Meade or Celestron refractors you mention. I highly recommend the ED80mm. I am currently saving my lunch money for the ED120mm. ;o) If you and your husband can get to a SPOC star-party sometime this month, I am willing to let you look through it if I can make it also. The small equatorial mount I use is about 20 years old, and extensively modified by me for various astro-photography configurations, so I can't recommend a currently available mount- perhaps another list member can help in that department. --- Ann Blanchard <blanchard-a@ugs.utah.edu> wrote:
We have an 11" Celestron CPC (our first telescope purchased this June), and we are really enjoying, but we have been thinking it would be good to have a smaller, more portable scope, for ease of use and perhaps some simple astrophotography. My husband, Craig has been looking at an 80 mm refractor such as the Meade ED triplet apo (series 5000), or the Orion ED apo, or the Celstron Onyx ED. Has anyone used these and have a recommendation? We also don't know what would be a good, but not too expensive equatorial mount for a refractor. Thanks for any advice you have, when you are just starting, there are so many choices, it's hard to know what might be best.
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