I've seen mention of the OTA in a few posts here and there, but much more on the Chinese-made A80Mf. Anyways, I think I may be very fortunate in finding what might have been the last available A80Mwt available in the U.S. from a store in Michigan. I received the OTA yesterday, but it has not seen first light as of yet (except for a quick look out the window). As a prior Vixen owner (ED80Sf and VMC110l, both Chinese-made), I can certainly say that the construction on this one is very consistent, although perhaps just a little bit nicer, especially the focuser. Actually, one of the smoothest focuser's I've ever placed my hands on!
Also, the desciption I hear about the optics differs from the A80Mf. Is the objective different, seeing that it is manufactured in Japan? Here is a description I found from a European website, "Achromatic lenses, composed of convex crown glass and concave flint glass elements, reduce chromatic aberration and produce the bright and stable images associated with refractor telescopes. All air-to-glass surfaces on the objective lens are multi-coated to maximize light transmission."
If anyone has any personal experiences, please let me know. I bought this for double star obervation and I'm thinking this will really work nicely on open clusters as well. I'd love to hear what the pros and cons are of this OTA. BTW, it is simply beautiful…and very long! Much different than the ED80SF I used to have!
Thanks - sierra88
