Orion ED80 doublet APO Refractor

I have owned this scope for 8months now and thought I would provide the site with a review of this wonderful scope.

Delivery and Construction

When I took delivery of the scope several things occurred to me. First, the packaging impressed me. It was well packed with plenty of Styrofoam and bubble wrap protecting the objective and the Crayford focuser. It also arrived with instructions on its use, these I must say were a bit light on for detail, and in fact given the quality of its build and packaging I was a bit annoyed that the instructions were so brief.

The next thing I noticed was how big this little scope was. I had thought it would be lot smaller given that the objective is only 80mm. The tube has an outside diameter of 100mm and it is nearly 700mm long. The OTA is of a very solid construction with all parts made of metal except for the dust cover. The image below gives a better view of the scope in its raw state.

Looking at the business end of the scope I immediately noticed that the objective presented all the all marks of multi-coating. The objective looked clean with no visible marks and the doublet is quite plain to see. I then inspected the Crayford style focuser and noted that it was smooth in its operation. Do take care not to loose the pressure knob on the underside though.

The tube itself was scratch and dent free and gave a silky feel. In other words it did not present as being of shoddy construction. By now I was very excited by the prospect of using this scope. As it turned out that night it was clear, however I did not have anyway of mounting this scope nor a mount to use it with. I resorted to leaning against a post on my fence just to get an image of a star or Saturn. As you can imagine, I could not really gauge any of its abilities by doing this.

Several months later, I had the mounting rings and a spare diagonal (the scope does not come with a diagonal incidentally, and you cannot focus the scope without one). I would have thought it would come with a diag. Perhaps I was expecting too much.

First Light

On the night that I actually first used the scope I turned it toward the setting constellation of Orion and focusing in on its great nebula. I began to focus the image and noted that it immediately snapped into focus. I have not owned a refractor for a long time and had forgotten how refractors do this. The star images were pinpoint and the nebula was crisp in appearance. So far so good.

Next I performed the obligatory star test. The scope was in perfect collimation. All diffraction rings were perfectly centred in both sides of focus. This was looking like a nice scope. I then refocused the image and gazed at the nebula. I could make out 5 stars in the Trap, but due to insufficient diameter I could not see the sixth. This was still a good sign though.

I then turned the scope toward Jupiter and could clearly make out the belts, polar bands and four moons. I noted little if any aberration or colour fringing. The ED glass was doing its job. However, the image was very small and I was a little disappointed, but knew that this scope did not have the focal length to do this sort of work. It is after all an F7.5. I then turned the scope toward the moon, once again no colour evident on the limb, nor on any crater. The scope passed the test and was worth the money I had paid for it. It was an impressive performer.

Astrophotography

In the months that followed, I decided to utilise this scope for astrophotography. I must say that it really surprised me what it would produce. The images showed colours and detail that I thought only larger apertures were capable of. The images below give an indication of what this scope will do under light polluted skies.

Under darker skies with a nice mount it might be capable of much more.

In the final analysis, this scope has been a complete joy to use. I frequently use it to look at the moon and many wide field targets. It does a very fine job with certain astrophotography targets, however don't expect too much out of it. Furthermore it also makes a very good guide scope. It does not work well on planetary targets, but that is to be expected. For the price it is worthy as a starter scope or as a wide field scope for the more advanced user.

Paul Haese