AT66, WO66 and Astrotelescopes 66ED

Any one have any information on the 66ED being offered by Astrotelescopes, an ebay dealer? It looks like the AT66ED and the WO66ED. Perhaps all are made by Long Perng? And, will the WO focal reducer (II) work? My motivation is DSLR photography and I understand that a focal reducer is necessary with these scopes.

Another possibility is the new WO70ED. Anyone tried it?

Thanks, Ed

Edward Wiley said:

Any one have any information on the 66ED being offered by Astrotelescopes, an ebay dealer? It looks like the AT66ED and the WO66ED. Perhaps all are made by Long Perng?

Could be. Who knows? I've never heard of this dealer, and my Spidey Sense tells me: "Don't buy telescopes on Ebay."

I'd stick to AT or WO, bubba.

8)

Edward, I am not an expert but I'll try to answer your question as best as I can. As far as I know, all of the brands of ED66 telescopes are made my Long Perng of Taiwan, but I could be wrong. Every brand does seem to order them with minor differences. A while back, AT and Stellarvue sold the same telescope but SV had the collimatable lens cell. SV dropped this from their lineup and at some point AT began sell them with an adjustable lens cell. I don't think WO has an adjustable lens cell, but they do offer more than one type of lens, at least I think they are both still available. I seem to remember also that many people liked the rotating focuser better on the WO. I have the Stellarvue brand. These are really nice telescopes IMO and every brand has good reviews. They are a bit short on light grasp but their resolution is great for this size scope IMO. The views are tack sharp and the contrast is great. On bright targets like the Moon there is VERY little color in focus. On very bright stars like Vega, I can begin to see some color but nothing like your typical achromat.

I don't know anything much about imaging with the 66ED's but I've seen some really nice pics of various brands and they look good to me. I think, with the bit of chromatic abberation you will get with these scopes you might have to deal with some blooming around bright stars. I guess with any telescope you have to work with the strengths and weaknesses. Maybe someone with some imaging experience can answer that question better.

I don't know anything about the WO70ED, but it looks really close to the Orion 72mm Eon.

I know I didn't give you much but I hope this helps.

David E