Celestron 80ED received and examined

The good news: Initial indications are that the optics are of the
spherical and color correction quality of the Orion 80ED I reviewed on
s.a.a the day they became available. More to come, as soon as the wind
and turbulence die down.

The weight and heft does not seem to be subjectively worse than the
Orion, which I no longer have to directly compare. If anything, the
3.5" OD tube and the 21.5" length to the 2" focuser visual-back make
it feel less bulky. The dust plug fits inside the aluminum thread-on
dewcap, a nice touch that won't damage the outside finish over time.

The clamp however is a problem--instead of two tightening knobs, its
snap-hinge design means you cannot finely control the tightness of the
clamping action, and it is hard to open and close even at its
least-tight position. Even though the tube was wrapped in paper with
the clamp installed outside the wrapping, the tube finish as received
is marred and I do not see anything that can be done about it. The
paint is obviously soft, the black stippling from the imprinted paper
and felt pattern catch the light, although it is a surface texture
effect, not through the paint.

Did others receive theirs this way?

Aside from the finish issue and the weird clamping action, the clamp
itself has a molded-in dovetail directly compatable with GP-type
mounts. All of the accessories shown on the Celestron website were
received along with the OTA at the remarkable $409 price from
Anacortes.

Even with the issues this looks like the most budget-APO bang for the
buck yet. Almost as remarkable--and an indicator of how far things
have come in the last couple years--is that the words budget and
apochromat can be used in the same sentence.

Doug Peterson wrote:
....
The clamp however is a problem--instead of two tightening knobs, its
snap-hinge design means you cannot finely control the tightness of the
clamping action, and it is hard to open and close even at its
least-tight position. Even though the tube was wrapped in paper with
the clamp installed outside the wrapping, the tube finish as received
is marred and I do not see anything that can be done about it. The
paint is obviously soft, the black stippling from the imprinted paper
and felt pattern catch the light, although it is a surface texture
effect, not through the paint.

Did others receive theirs this way?
....
Mine has slight marring on the paint on the OTA from the clamps. The
primer seems to be about 10 times thicker than the top coat ! Don't
really care because it's all going to get painted bright white along
with the dew shield.

Eric.

Eric wrote in message news:9lUqd.14123$cE3.1087@clgrps12...
Doug Peterson wrote:
..My Celestron 80mm APO also arrived with the paint all messed
up,but I'm going to have it repowder coated. Also the entire front
lens assembly fell off when it arrived due to poor threads cut into
the tube. One thing that the Chinese still can't do is cut a half
decent thread, I've had the same problem with Chinese finder scopes as
well That problem was easily taken care of though, and the optics are
just outstanding, I have used a 9mm eye piece with 2X barlow and have
seen no hint of colour even around bright objects such as the Lunar
limb and no image breakdown either very sharp images.Outstanding value
but maybe needs a little TLC,a great focuser to boot.
Brian Morse Vancouver..
The clamp however is a problem--instead of two tightening knobs, its
snap-hinge design means you cannot finely control the tightness of the
clamping action, and it is hard to open and close even at its
least-tight position. Even though the tube was wrapped in paper with
the clamp installed outside the wrapping, the tube finish as received
is marred and I do not see anything that can be done about it. The
paint is obviously soft, the black stippling from the imprinted paper
and felt pattern catch the light, although it is a surface texture
effect, not through the paint.

Did others receive theirs this way?
...
Mine has slight marring on the paint on the OTA from the clamps. The
primer seems to be about 10 times thicker than the top coat ! Don't
really care because it's all going to get painted bright white along
with the dew shield.

Eric.

Now that seeing conditions have improved, I can confirm that the star
test on mine is very good indeed, spherical correction 1/8 wave or
better and round fresnel rings.

I don't see color wedge that is commonly a problem with Chinese
refractors even when everything else is fine. I also don't see coma,
or astigmatism, meaning collimation is on target. No pinching at
temperatures close to freezing. Tests were performed with the Nagler
2.5 and Nagler 3-6 zoom for up to 240x.

Only a little violet around the fresnel rings out of focus; in focus
no color halo, only a little tight violet that pumps in and out as the
focus changes randomly from the mediocre seeing. No color halo. All
told, I can believe the optics are identical to the Orion ED.

The glass itself is very clean. Multicoated all four surfaces, not
quite as transparent as Takahashis, say, but all the colors coming
back are a uniform green tint.

The focuser is definitely stiff compared to the Orion crayford,
although it has the usual adjustments. It appears parts-similar to the
regular Synta rack and pinion with a different cast housing that has a
flared opening dovetail-slot for the finderbase, another good idea.
The aluminum knobs are a nice touch instead of the cheesy plastic
typical nowadays. The accessories appear the same as other Syntas.

Others have complained about the thread on black aluminum dew shield,
but I think it is an improvement, kinda like the good old days of Tele
Vue's black powdercoated thread-on dewshields. Obviously a retractable
would be ideal, but I guess you can't have everything for four hundred
bucks.