604 replies to this topic

[Cpk133]

Well i have used 600x on Venus and never saw rings. I just see a huge disk taking up the whole FOV in a 4" scope.  

I’ll try again next time i have decent seeing, its been cold and windy here for a few days now, seeing is a -1 on a scale of 0-4.  

[mneder]

I bought my AT80EDL Dec 27, 2022 and received SN00009. I purchased the Sky-Watcher AZ-GTi to go with it as a grab-n-go setup. I'm sad to say that I've only used this setup once so far, but I plan to do better. I really don't have enough experience to be a good review of this telescope/mount combination, but the one time I used it I thought the stability was very acceptable and as I recall vibrations dampened in a second or two. The go-to function of the mount is very good, the tracking was excellent and overall it is a very user friendly mount. . 

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[Oldfracguy]

I bought my AT80EDL Dec 27, 2022 and received SN00009. I purchased the Sky-Watcher AZ-GTi to go with it as a grab-n-go setup. I'm sad to say that I've only used this setup once so far, but I plan to do better. I really don't have enough experience to be a good review of this telescope/mount combination, but the one time I used it I thought the stability was very acceptable and as I recall vibrations dampened in a second or two. The go-to function of the mount is very good, the tracking was excellent and overall it is a very user friendly mount. . 

I have a good CN buddy who has been using his AT80ED (regular, not the EDL) on a SW AZ-GTi for a long time.  One problem he ran into, as others have as well, is that when you use a 2" diagonal and those big heavy 2" Wide-Angle eyepieces the scope becomes very back heavy, so you have to slide it more forward on the AZ-GTi mount in order to balance fore and aft.  That will minimize the load on the Altitude positioning stepper motor gears. What he did was to just rotate the scope inside the tube rings so the focuser axis is vertical.  That way you can slide the scope far enough forward to achieve balance.  Then just rotate the diagonal back to its original position.

Edited by Oldfracguy, 14 October 2023 - 10:11 AM.

[PhotogTom]

I reckon I can join the group, thanks to another CN member selling me his 80EDL. 
 

now, if the skies would just clear out…

[wrvond]

I reckon I can join the group, thanks to another CN member selling me his 80EDL. 
 

now, if the skies would just clear out…

Congratulations! 

[desert_sage]

I’ve only had my 2nd hand 80 EDL (SN #50) a couple of months, but it continues to impress.  It was bought as a travel/gng to supplement the bigger SCT’s, but has become my favorite scope.

 

Sharp as a tack across the field, with good eyepieces.  I had the 24 Pan in it last night and just marveled at how well it worked for the clusters visible currently.  

 

Later I easily split Albireo and the Double Double at about 125X with an ES 82* 4.7mm.

 

Generally it seems that a 4mm eyepiece is about it’s limit, a 3mm Delite is too much, for example, even on Jupiter & Saturn.  But inside that range it is wonderful.

[coopman]

There may be times when the 3mm will work if the sky conditions are very good.  I refer to mine as my Techahashi.

[Oldfracguy]

I’ve only had my 2nd hand 80 EDL (SN #50) a couple of months, but it continues to impress.  It was bought as a travel/gng to supplement the bigger SCT’s, but has become my favorite scope.

 

Sharp as a tack across the field, with good eyepieces.  I had the 24 Pan in it last night and just marveled at how well it worked for the clusters visible currently.  

 

Later I easily split Albireo and the Double Double at about 125X with an ES 82* 4.7mm.

 

Generally it seems that a 4mm eyepiece is about it’s limit, a 3mm Delite is too much, for example, even on Jupiter & Saturn.  But inside that range it is wonderful.

That's exactly what I experienced about a month ago with a basic clone of the AT80EDL, a WO ZenithStar 81.  After doing some experimenting, I specifically bought a 4mm eyepiece just for the purpose of getting the maximum magnification I could get while still maintaing good detail on Jupiter and Saturn. That eyepiece is almost as sharp as using an ES 3x Focal Extender with a Fuyiyama 12.5mm Orthoscopic for 134x, but a lot more convenient.  I did try the ES 3x Focal Extender with a Fujiyama 9mm Orthoscopic for 187x (0.43mm Exit Pupil), but the subtle details on Jupiter and Saturn start to get mushy, even though the planets themselves appear larger.  That's why I dialed it back to a 4mm eyepiece for the planets.  On the other hand, you can go way over 200x on double stars with the AT80EDL, as high as you can before the Airy Disks start to show up.

Edited by Oldfracguy, 20 October 2023 - 09:15 PM.

[desert_sage]

…but the subtle details on Jupiter and Saturn start to get mushy, even though the planets themselves appear larger.  That's why I dialed it back to a 4mm eyepiece for the planets.  On the other hand, you can go way over 200x on double stars with the AT80EDL, as high as you can before the Airy Disks start to show up.

 

 

Interesting.  Mushy is a good description.

 

I admit that until I had a nice refractor that the lure of doubles had escaped me … now I get it.

 

I do have an ES 82* 8.8. and a TV 2.5X Powermate, which would give me a 3.5mm equivalent, one more thing to experiment with.  But it’ll take better seeing than usual.

Edited by desert_sage, 20 October 2023 - 10:18 PM.

[desert_sage]

One thing I noticed was a slight haze about Jupiter at high magnification.

 

I have read this might be due to scattering from the diagonal, mine is an inexpensive Astromania 99% reflective unit, and I never noticed it before this.

 

Do others see this in their EDL with better (TV,Baader) diagonals?

[Cpk133]

One thing I noticed was a slight haze about Jupiter at high magnification.

 

I have read this might be due to scattering from the diagonal, mine is an inexpensive Astromania 99% reflective unit, and I never noticed it before this.

 

Do others see this in their EDL with better (TV,Baader) diagonals?

If you had an extension tube, you could go straight through (the ultimate low scatter diagonal) and see for yourself.  I think some of that “haze” is forward scatter or possibly even atmospheric dispersion depending on Jupiters elevation.

[Cpk133]

There may be times when the 3mm will work if the sky conditions are very good.  I refer to mine as my Techahashi.

Thats a real compliment considering the scopes in your sig line.

[CHASLX200]

There may be times when the 3mm will work if the sky conditions are very good.  I refer to mine as my Techahashi.

I use a 2.5mm and barlow with my AT80ED.

[Echolight]

I use a 2.5mm and barlow with my AT80ED.

but normal people with lesser eyesight might run into a problem with floaters,... and lack of light.

[desert_sage]

If you had an extension tube, you could go straight through (the ultimate low scatter diagonal) and see for yourself.  I think some of that “haze” is forward scatter or possibly even atmospheric dispersion depending on Jupiters elevation.

 

 

That’s a good idea.  I may have something, I admit to never having tried straight through with this scope.  Worth a try. Elevation was reasonable, maybe 60 degrees around midnight?

[CHASLX200]

but normal people with lesser eyesight might run into a problem with floaters,... and lack of light.

That was on the double double and moon. No planets or deep sky.

[PhotogTom]

We had a small local star party last night - I brought the 80EDL with the ES24, 16 and 9 Naglers, and 5 mm Delite. Used my MC2 mount with my home-made setting circles on it. Anyway, great views, and the crowd loved looking at Saturn, and then later, Jupiter with the 5 and 9 mm eyepieces. Both brought very crisp views, though with the 5 mm and Jupiter being low in the sky, there was occasional atmospheric instability. Still, very impressive.

 

Capped the evening off with Pleiades which had just cleared the tree line. With the 24mm eyepiece, it looked great.

 

This 80EDL is a winner.

[PhotogTom]

Just dropping in to say - Wow! This little doublet, as many have said, punches way above its price class.

 

We had a small star party/demonstration for some young scouts yesterday. I had my 80EDL, while others brought reflectors (a 6", an 8", and a 9.25"). The largest of the reflectors was set up on an AM5 mount, with cameras and gear, for EAA, Electronically Assisted Astrophotography. It was a big hit, as expected, and marked a direction that I wish to head in the future. Beautiful images rendered on his portable projection screen, in just minutes, with the guide camera maintaining near perfect tracking. Beautiful, colorful nebula materialized before our eyes.

 

The other 3 telescopes were all set at various sky objects that lend themselves well to visual observation. We had good skies, and viewed Saturn, Jupiter, M13, and Persei, the double cluster. Great views for all, but I was very impressed, especially on Jupiter, with the clarity that the 80EDL presented. And I received complements on that clarity by people that had first looked through the two reflectors. They thought that my 80 was a sharper, more contrasty image.

 

I was curious about that, as the reflectors, especially the 8 inch, ought to have given decent views. I did notice, on the 8 inch, that the focus was off on various objects, and that was certainly giving the viewer a reason to see a superior image on my 80. At one point, I did manually focus the reflector (I believe it was on the double cluster), and was presented with a very good view. More like what I expected.

 

But I have to say that on objects that present pinpoint stars and sharp detail, the 80EDL really did give a better image. Color me impressed with the junior version of the 102EDL. 

 

I will note that the gentleman with the 8 inch reflector is a bit older than I (and that's already getting up there in years) and he may have been having some visual issues. His glasses were even thicker than mine, and so if he focused without them, his eyesight would be way off in focus compared to the corrected eye.

 

Normally, I like to view with my glasses off. I can adjust for my near-sightedness with the focuser, with no problem. But when I'm sharing views with others, particularly others whom I don't want to touch the focuser, I prefer to do my final focus with my glasses on, to best match the near- or far-sightedness of normal eyes. It makes a big difference to how the final image appears to others. If I did not do this, what they were seeing would be a bit out of focus and that would take a bit away from the views that they ought to see.

[coopman]

I refer to my AT80EDL as my 80mm Techahashi.

[rnyboy]

Last night I finally had the opportunity to take AT80EDL out again after five weeks of mostly poor evenings.  I now have everything in the new setup working well, including autoguiding the AVX.  It was really nice having the new setup working with no hiccups.  The only minor fly in the ointment last night was that I upgraded to SharpCap Pro v4.1 from v4.0 yesterday and it had a bunch of new additions, some of which I didn't understand, for me to tempt the rath of the imaging gods with.

 

Here's a link to a couple of image postings in the EAA forum from last night's session...

 

https://www.cloudyni...8#entry13065229

 

https://www.cloudyni...8#entry13065237

[Nightskyman]

Can anyone tell me where to download a pdf of the manual for this scope?

[Oldfracguy]

Can anyone tell me where to download a pdf of the manual for this scope?

I have scanned the 4-page manuals that come with both the ATxxxEDL and ATxxxEDT scopes.  Unfortunately, the PDF files are too big to upload to a CN post.  If you send me a PM, I can e-mail the four pages to you as attachments.

[Nightskyman]

What targets are best suited for this scope, which are worst,
and what size eyepieces are best suited and why?

[balcon3]

I have this scope (the TS version of the same scope). It is an excellent, high-quality all-around instrument suitable for many targets. It can get to a wide field of view (almost 5 degrees), so it is great for large open clusters (Pleides) and Milky Way sweeping. It is very sharp with essentially no chromatic aberration, so it works very well for resolving double stars. For planets, it gives sharp, contrasty views, but it does hit a 0.5mm exit pupil at around 160x, so planets can get dim if you push the magnification much beyond that. Certain objects, such as globular clusters, really do benefit from aperture, so I would say that for GC's I prefer a larger scope. For eyepieces, a broad range of eyepieces go well with this scope. Certainly a widefield 2-inch eyepiece is a must. I have an ES34mm 68 degree eyepiece, but  40mm XW or equivalent will go even wider. For 1.25 inch eyepieces, I use the a 32mm Plossl alot for wide field and as a finder. Then I usually skip down to 18mm, and use a range from 4mm-18mm . 

[johnfgibson]

Agreed with balcon3 that this is an excellent scope for wide-field sweeping. My favorite eyepiece for it is the 2" ES 24mm 82deg, for learning portions of the sky and finding things. For higher power I find a 17.5mm Morpehus is a useful next step, then I move among 12.5mm and 5.5mm eyepieces as the seeing supports. I tend to view clusters, nebulae, planets, and moon.