Skywatcher Equinox 80ED plus extras
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OK, It's time to unload some good astronomy gear that has become surplus to my requirements. (The longer story here is that I just bought a cute little 60mm ED scope for wide-field imaging/guidescope use. So now it's time to pare down and pay for all the accessories I now need 
.)
Let's start with the scope:
Skywatcher Equinox 80ED refractor
This somewhat rare scope is a twin to the now-discontinued Orion EON 80. This is a sturdy, high quality tube assembly built around an excellent 80mm f/6.25 (500mm focal length) doublet apo lens incorporating FPL-53 glass. There is a sliding dew shield, a removable mounting foot compatible with Vixen-sized dovetail shoes or 1/4"-20 tripod heads, and a very nice rotating 2" 2-speed Crayford focuser with 1.25" adapter (compression rings on both). This focuser started me down the slippery slope of high quality 2-speed focusers, and to date, the only better one I've owned is a Feathertouch.
I bought this in near-new condition from a Canadian dentist about 10 years ago. He said it held up very well against his TeleVue 85. I haven't repeated this experiment, but I don't doubt the claim. "Ed" (what I call the scope, not the dentist) has served me nicely over the years, taking many great images, as well as being my grab-and-go scope for no-fuss, one-case-and-a-mount casual observing. You can get extremely wide fields of view using a low-power 2" eyepiece (my favorite was a 30mm TMB Paragon: 17x, 4 deg) one minute, then crank up the power for pleasing lunar & planetary views or splitting double stars the next. The theoretical maximum magnification for a good 80mm optic is 160x, but I've had it higher on the moon without image breakdown...200x? 250x??...I don't know, it was late, and there were Barlows involved. Really, the image gets too dim before it loses sharpness and contrast. Color correction is excellent to my eyes, with just the occasional hint of purple on Mag 1 and brighter stars at high magnifications.
In short, this is a scope that almost always gives you everything you could ask from 80mm of aperture. One evening, I took it out of a warm car and set it up next to my old 125mm f/8 achromat which had been out for several hours. "Ed" promptly trounced the larger refractor for detail on Jupiter. To put it another way, if the seeing is so lousy that "Ed" fails to please, you should either revert to binoculars or just pack it in.
Condition is excellent, especially considering its age. The only obvious blemishes on the OTA are the usual marks on the dovetail mounting foot, a few dings on the lens cover, and a slight mark on the tube from a camera mounting screw backing out. It's been a few years since I've cleaned the objective, so there are a few dust and dew spots on the outer lens surface. I can clean the lens before sale, or let the buyer do that if/when they feel the need. If I were keeping this I would give it another year or so before cleaning. As far as I know, there are no coating blemishes on any of the lens surfaces. The foam in the case still does the job, but could use a bit of glue to keep the layers together.
I will certainly miss this scope, but it's time to let someone else enjoy this beauty. I'm asking $500 for the Skywatcher Equinox 80ED OTA, red dot finder, Baader solar filter, & case. I'll cover shipping in the CONUS and any PayPal fees. I will ship elsewhere, but we'll need to negotiate that. If you're local and can pick up, I'll knock $50 off the price. Scope is now SOLD (Thanks, Bob!)
The buyer of this scope gets first dibs on the following accessories, which all work really well with this scope:
90mm hinged tube rings (note the wingnut on the camera piggyback screw to prevent accidental loosening!) $25 SOLD
Orion 0.8x Reducer Flattener for Refractors #08894. This is an excellent mate for this scope and an APS-C or smaller sensor, giving you a very well corrected 400mm f/5 imaging lens. The comet and horsehead nebula images were taken with this combination (& my Fuji X-M1 camera). No need to play flattener/reducer roulette, just add the appropriate t-ring for your camera and start taking some great images! Unfortunately, this won't cover a full-frame chip. $90
Thanks for looking,
-Brett
.)Let's start with the scope:
Skywatcher Equinox 80ED refractor
This somewhat rare scope is a twin to the now-discontinued Orion EON 80. This is a sturdy, high quality tube assembly built around an excellent 80mm f/6.25 (500mm focal length) doublet apo lens incorporating FPL-53 glass. There is a sliding dew shield, a removable mounting foot compatible with Vixen-sized dovetail shoes or 1/4"-20 tripod heads, and a very nice rotating 2" 2-speed Crayford focuser with 1.25" adapter (compression rings on both). This focuser started me down the slippery slope of high quality 2-speed focusers, and to date, the only better one I've owned is a Feathertouch.
I bought this in near-new condition from a Canadian dentist about 10 years ago. He said it held up very well against his TeleVue 85. I haven't repeated this experiment, but I don't doubt the claim. "Ed" (what I call the scope, not the dentist) has served me nicely over the years, taking many great images, as well as being my grab-and-go scope for no-fuss, one-case-and-a-mount casual observing. You can get extremely wide fields of view using a low-power 2" eyepiece (my favorite was a 30mm TMB Paragon: 17x, 4 deg) one minute, then crank up the power for pleasing lunar & planetary views or splitting double stars the next. The theoretical maximum magnification for a good 80mm optic is 160x, but I've had it higher on the moon without image breakdown...200x? 250x??...I don't know, it was late, and there were Barlows involved. Really, the image gets too dim before it loses sharpness and contrast. Color correction is excellent to my eyes, with just the occasional hint of purple on Mag 1 and brighter stars at high magnifications.
In short, this is a scope that almost always gives you everything you could ask from 80mm of aperture. One evening, I took it out of a warm car and set it up next to my old 125mm f/8 achromat which had been out for several hours. "Ed" promptly trounced the larger refractor for detail on Jupiter. To put it another way, if the seeing is so lousy that "Ed" fails to please, you should either revert to binoculars or just pack it in.
Condition is excellent, especially considering its age. The only obvious blemishes on the OTA are the usual marks on the dovetail mounting foot, a few dings on the lens cover, and a slight mark on the tube from a camera mounting screw backing out. It's been a few years since I've cleaned the objective, so there are a few dust and dew spots on the outer lens surface. I can clean the lens before sale, or let the buyer do that if/when they feel the need. If I were keeping this I would give it another year or so before cleaning. As far as I know, there are no coating blemishes on any of the lens surfaces. The foam in the case still does the job, but could use a bit of glue to keep the layers together.
I will certainly miss this scope, but it's time to let someone else enjoy this beauty. I'm asking $500 for the Skywatcher Equinox 80ED OTA, red dot finder, Baader solar filter, & case. I'll cover shipping in the CONUS and any PayPal fees. I will ship elsewhere, but we'll need to negotiate that. If you're local and can pick up, I'll knock $50 off the price. Scope is now SOLD (Thanks, Bob!)
The buyer of this scope gets first dibs on the following accessories, which all work really well with this scope:
90mm hinged tube rings (note the wingnut on the camera piggyback screw to prevent accidental loosening!) $25 SOLD
Orion 0.8x Reducer Flattener for Refractors #08894. This is an excellent mate for this scope and an APS-C or smaller sensor, giving you a very well corrected 400mm f/5 imaging lens. The comet and horsehead nebula images were taken with this combination (& my Fuji X-M1 camera). No need to play flattener/reducer roulette, just add the appropriate t-ring for your camera and start taking some great images! Unfortunately, this won't cover a full-frame chip. $90
Thanks for looking,
-Brett
Funding Member
