Walter Schmitt said:
I am debating between the WO Zenith Star and the Celestron Onyx, both 80ED,
and put either on a NexStar 60 SLT mount. Can either be fitted and who has the better optics? Please help me. Walter
Hi Walter:
Since you haven't gotten any answers, here's my two cents:
- Both these scopes are pretty nice scopes and quite similar. I have not used either of them but I have a lot of eyepiece time looking through a WO 80mm Megrez II FD (FPL-53 glass). Here's a few educated guesses...
- Both were probably made at the same factory...
- It is not clear which glass the Onyx uses, probably very similar to the Zenith Star, the color correction in the ZS is likely to be a bit better because of the longer focal length.
- The William Optics scope has a two-speed focuser, a nice tough but I am not sure it is worth the extra $100...
- I am not sure that the Nexstar SLT 60 mount is a good match for these scopes. I tried my WO Megrez II FD with a Nexstar 80GLT mount, essentially identical, I guess I would say it was adequate but a mismatch in the sense that it would a very nice scope on less than ideal mount. This violates Jon's number one rule:
"There is no faster way to ruin the performance of a telescope than to put it on an marginal/inadequate mount."
Personally I like an 80mm Refractor on a solid ALT-AZ mount with a 2 inch diagonal and a good 2 inch widefield eyepiece. The solid alt-az has the added virture that it functions nicely for terrestial viewing. These 80mm's make nice scopes for birding and digiscoping.
Jon
P.S. I have a current glut of 2 inch diagonals, I might have one for you as well as a mount like this one:
