Orion 80mm f/11.4

This scope, offered by Orion now has the same specs as one previous made by Vixen. Does anyone know if this one is as good?

Michael Tencza said:

This scope, offered by Orion now has the same specs as one previous made by Vixen. Does anyone know if this one is as good?

Michael:

A few thoughts:

- I have one of the Celestron/Vixen 80mm F/11s as well as a few of the Japanese Meades of the same configuration... They are available used and often at quite surprising prices if you know where to look. You might place a wanted ad here on AM.

- I also have one of the Nexstar 80GLs which is also 80mm F/11 but new. The optics in this one are not up to the same standards of those older Japanese scopes.

- An 80mm F/11 Achromat with a 1.25 inch focuser is a fun scope with some small amount of chromatic aberration. But the 1.25 inch focuser means that it will have a significantly narrower field of view than your 120mm F/8.3 and while there will be less false color on bright targets like Rigel, Jupiter and Saturn, you will not see as much detail due to the reduced aperture.

So: If you are looking for a portable scope to go along with your 120mmF/8.3, I suggest something with a shorter focal length and maybe a 2 inch focuser. The Orion ST-80 fills this bill or there are a variety of 80mm scopes at a variety of prices that are worth considering. Such a scope will provide nice widefields of view and be nice and portable as well as doubling as a simple birding scope.

(Photo is an A-P (Asahi Pentax 8)) 60mm f/13.3, Meade 314, Meade 310, Celestron/Vixen)

Jon

Attached Image: