f/5 to f/7 80mm Ref for overseas??

My wife and I teach observational astronomy overseas. After a couple countries of experience, our current best choice for an inexpensive system for our recipients (which are usually disadvantaged groups overseas that have no money or power or internet) is an 80-mm refractor between f/5 and f/7 for many reasons (toughness, packaging, application to simple alt az mount, etc.). The best choice we can find that fits our technical and financial budget is the 80T Orion short tube refractor. Before I order, does anyone have a better idea or source we should check?

We teach the recipients either in the US or in their country then give them the refractor, maps, planispheres, and currciulum at no cost. We must minimize hardware, avoid battery driven things, and any complexity. Our mount is our own design for the same reason and we minimize hardware on that as well as use local materials to make it. We teach basic sketching as the method of recording observations made with the equipment.

We have to move on something within days, so if anyone has any other ideas, we will listen. You can check our site if you wish: www.christworksministries.org.

Thanks for reading

Roland Beard

You can check our site if you wish

We don't.

Dmitri

Perhaps the 4" Starblast ?
http://www.buytelescopes.com/product.aspx?p_id=6334&store_id=2&did=1

Celestron's little 3" newt comes to mind also, but it is really short in focal length so some magnification with it requires the added complexity of barlows and or additional shorter focal length ep's that are easy to look through.
http://www.optcorp.com/product.aspx?pid=12821&gclid=CK6OhpOoyZwCFQoMDQodezTCJQ

Thanks for all the ideas, folks. I have not looked at the ST-80 or its super version at all, so I will take a look. Antares also has a program that might help us and they have a suitable refractor. We may end up with a couple solutions because we occasionally can buy a used thing that will work or get something donated. Then, ideally, if a vendor comes up with a good repeatable solution for the longer term and higher numbers of folks we will be training, that would be especially good. I will keep me ears out and monitor this for any new ideas.

Roland