Astro photography, endless new and interesting ways to screw up. Yep or the same ones while you're rushing, or focusing on dealing with something else. A truly limitless hobby. :)
Ed, thanks for your videos. I've been around as an amateur astronomer for close to 35 years, and actually ground, polished and assembled my first telescope (A 78 mm f 9.6 Newtonian mounted in a pier similar to Sam Brown's example at the "All about Telescopes" book, I just replaced the wood block with a 1/2 inch galvanized pipe cross) for the 1991 eclipse here in Mexico City. I liked a lot this video, and you answered a question I had about this particular Telescope model. Yep, I was wondering to get one to try it for astrophotography and as a travel telescope that I can carry around. That being said, It is good that you point out objectively the good points and shortcomings of the telescopes you review, and you have a very good pitch to speak and explain your opinion, as a non native speaker, It was easy for me to understand you in full without subtitles. Thanks again for your reviews. I'm still undecided on this particular model since I'm taking some of the quarantine time most of us got to grind a soda-lime glass blank I had around since I made the ol' tiny reflector to step up in the ladder and make a 125 mm f/5 mirror that, yes, I'm intending for a travel and rich field astrophotography telescope. ¡Keep up the good job!
My comments won’t be quite as juicy as the first two! I have a Takahashi FS-60CB on a Sky Patrol Mount which is steady enough that attendees to the public star parties I attend can rest their phones on the eyepiece and get pretty good souvenirs of the Moon to take home! Excellent job of explaining a good beginner telescope. I think I’ve binged all your telescope videos! I know producing and editing such quality is so very time consuming! Thank you for what you do for the amateur astronomy community.
Hi Ed, Thanks for this great 2 part video on the Orion Short tube 80, it’s a great starter scope. I suggested it to my daughter, who is a retired English teacher. She has just taken a course on Astronomy and wanted to get into viewing. She purchased it through Amazon and it came complete with an equatorial mount, finder, right angle eyepiece holder and two eyepieces for less than 200 dollars! How can you beat that? She did go through some difficulty in setting up the equatorial mount at first but I gave her some advice and think she will be OK. She and her husband live on a 60 acre farm in northern NY far from city lights, so I think she will have a lot of fun viewing. I am going to tell her about your videos because you are really sincere and a very helpful guide to the world of astronomy. Thanks big guy!
Thank you Mr Ting for this wonderful channel! I have an ST-80 that I have used for terrestrial photography as well as astrophotography. I used it at Mount Rushmore and was amazed at the amount of magnification provided. There was a full moon that night and South Dakota skies are often clear so I was also able to get some decent pictures of the moon (using a focal reducer in the light path).
Awesome video as always! After many years, I started taking astrophotos again. I have a Sky-Watcher star adventure tracker, I was was using a 200mm telephoto for my camera. I found the post processing more challenging than taking the actual picture. I’ve been an army photographer for 15 years, and I was never a fan of photoshop to be honest.
I hear ya' about photoshop. I do landscape, wildlife, etc. photography as a hobby, and am disturbed to see that standard practice is now to take all of one's photos with the intention of fixing the errors in them in photoshop. That feels to me like doing the work twice, no thanks, I'd rather try and take "perfect" shots and never have to adjust them. I was looking forward to getting a telescope to get into astrophotography, but have come to understand that for proper shots one either needs a very expensive low noise sensor, and/or take many long exposure shots that are then stacked and computer processed to clean them up. So instead of that, I'll go with a Dobsonian 6 or 8 inch for some lunar and planetary photos, which with the typical 1200mm focal length will frame them relatively well, and those massive reflectors will allow for short exposure times, and just take in the pleasure of viewing the other things with my eye through the eyepiece.
i agree totally with your advise to wait a year before taking pics thru the telescope ......... that is what i have been doing this past but started ordering everything last spring ..... with supplies so low and everything backordered im glad i started ordering and while waiting for orders to arrive i have got to get out and do plenty of observing in the meantime ......... i dont think i will ever go to just astrophotography because i still get a kick out of seeing those little fuzzies in deep space ....... it could be a star cluster, a galaxy or a nebula who knows ....... just knowing how far away it is is still the thrill for me ..... thanks for all of your posts ...... very low key and easy to understand and follow ....thanks
This is a classic for good reason, but is a little known choice to newcomers to the hobby. I recently acquired two of these used Synta 80mm F5 scopes. I have better scopes, but for the past 2 weeks i have spent more nights outside than usual because this little contender punches higher than expected, and is so light and easy to use. Of course its not a high power scope... but i CAN NOT believe that i could glimpse the Great Red Spot on Jupiter a few nights ago, and yet it is true - i did. Using the cap with the 43mm hole can improve contrast a bit but compromise with slightly dimmer image. For wide field viewing the views are fantastic. For wide field i have been a binocular-holic for that past few years, but this scope has me switched over from large 80mm+ binoculars to these 80mm F5 scopes . 50mm binoculars are where it stops for me now - larger binos have a hard time to compete with this little scope for wide field. Reasons are: 1. It's light. 2. It's easy to mount and use. 3. It's more comfortable than straight through binos. 4. It's more versatile. Magnifications can be varied. 5. And most importantly - it's less expensive. Some of the above can be accomplished with Binocular telescopes, but for literally 10x the cost, or more!! As Ed recommends a 6" or 8" Dob is the best place to start. But if i could send a scope back in time to myself as a kid... it would be this one. I could take it everywhere - It's a keeper. Thanks for this review, Love your videos and website ED.
I got into this hobby in August 2023. My goal was to take celestial photographs. I am taking pretty good photos now with an asi585 and asi294 and with 11 different optical tubes, including the Celestron 80mm ST refractor. Expect to start posting them as soon as I learn to use the video camera, video editing software and learn to post on You Tube.
I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY! i (thought) i bought an orion st80 off amazon. a day later i looked at the ad again and.....AAAAAK!! that item is a CT80- not the same internally as an st80. sooooo, when it gets here i'll return it. i've already ordered an st80 directly from orion. SO- now i have 2 scopes en route. count 'em. jeez. sometimes i am SUCH a maroon. well, not the end of the world. amazon will take it back and shipping was free. meanwhile i am shopping for a couple of mid-grade eyepieces. one might be a zoom.
From what i have read the CT80 is built differently, but is not bad for a finder scope. There are mixed reviews but some experienced users do give it a good rating for what it is.
I just bought this telescope as a finder scope for my 8" Classical Cassegrain. It made much more sense to buy 80mm Achromat than to buy a 50mm finder scope for almost as much money as SW ST80 and I can still take it off of my main rig and use it on a photo tripod.
As a beginner I'm not planning to spend more then 100-200$ for the telescope which is good enough to look at the moon and other bright objects. Your recommended equipment would cost much and much more, so not very helpful. But I liked you pictures of moon and nebula made through the beginner telescope (would like to see planets too), which shows what quality of visible images to expect from it. The effect of not good focus at the borders of the image was quite interesting. Thank you.
i would consider $200 the minimum to get started in the hobby. By the time one factors in a decent tripod and a better eyepiece ( the 25mm are usually ok but the 9mm or 10mm are usually terrible), it will cost this much. An alternative that people rarely consider is... binoculars! I myself used small scopes for many years but never used binoculars on the night sky. A decent pair can be found in your budget and are portable and easy to use - and useful for daytime too. Using binoculars has more more enjoyable than i expected. 10x50 is just the all round universal standard workhorse configuration, like Bushnell Legacy 10x50 or Nikon Action Extreme. Magnification of 10x can be shaky for some so other configurations that are easier to hold are 7x50 or 8x42 ( 8x56 is another option). Of course if you shop around somethings come up on USED markets and you might be able to purchase both telescope and binos eventually.
Well, if you are willing to chip in a few dollars more and wait for christmass or other discounts then you can get a very decent telescope, with a good mount and standard eyepieces. I very recently got my first telescope a Skywatcher 90/900 with an AZ3 mount and it also came with a prism and 2 eyepieces (25mm and 10mm). It is winter so I have not had the chance to use it much yet, but I have to say that I am VERY impressed by how sturdy it is on the mount and how easy it is to use those AZ knobs for a complete beginner like me. The *COST* now was 260 euros plus shipping. This very same model mr. Ting reviewed but by StarWatcher with an AZ3 mount was 225 euros. I mean that is not really that far above the budget you set. Personally, I just noticed that with the discounts I could have taken the Skywatcher 102/500 for like 15 euros more and in what universe an increase from 90 to 102 aperture only costs 15 euros, but it is what it is :)
Hey, thanks for the great beginner videos, Ed. A comment: Your voice is really quiet compared to the ads. I have the volume cranked up to hear you clearly and everytime an ad comes, well, it's painfully loud.
Coincidentally, my first career was as an audio engineer (recording, concerts, theatre) but I left that industry in the early 90's. If I remember correctly, normalizing hunts for the loudest transient peak in your entire audio track and stretches the entire track's dynamic range to fit the maximum available bit depth. Now what happens if you normalize the track when most of it is quiet but there is one loud section or even just a short loud spike? In that case the normalizing doesn't accomplish much because the peak is already loud. That's what could be happening. I don't know what kind of control you have, but if you are able to view the waveform of your entire audio track, you can maybe find and lower the level of some loud sections before normalizing. We did this when mastering in the studio. Sometimes there was a really loud transient spike you couldn't even hear that caused the normalizing to be ineffective. Hah, good memories. Good luck, Ed.
Thanks for sharing good information from this ST80A. What Eq mount are you using in the video? I am considering getting this refractor, I have always liked having it 👍🏻
So Ed .... I hate to "date myself" ... But I have been doing astronomy since I was nine years old. How long ago was that? Let's just say my first telescope was an 80mm Sears Discoverer. I have done observing & astro-photography too back in the film days. Recently, started doing photos with DSLR and I have basically had to re-learn everything! I actually bought one of these scopes & used it for about a year before moving up. I have since "gifted" the telescope to my youngest daughter who wants to do photos as well. It would be fun to somehow connect & share notes / trade stories some year.
I picked up the same telescope for the on-the-run type of deployment. There is a knob on the telescope rings that I noticed also was on my older Celestron Omni 150 Reflector. It is the black knob that goes into the top. What is that for?
ED, my main focus is to view and take terrestrial photos while getting started in the astronomy world, I was looking at the Orion Short Tube 80T configured for daytime terrestrial viewing of wildlife, birds, and scenery or casual nighttime sky watching. My question is how much does the nighttime sky watching quality suffer compared with 80ST if any thanks.
A normal T ring terminates in an M42 thread. The threaded end of the ST80 is....I don't know what. It's a much smaller diameter. Anyone else out there know?
Something you don’t mention or at least if you did, I missed It. This is small enough to piggy-back on a larger telescope. Trying to find one to piggy-back on a 10” SCT. For visual, auto-guide,etc
Deciding between a 3 or 4" refractor (such as this one) or an 8" SCT as my first "real" telescope. I took an astronomy class and did some casual observing back in college (10 years ago) but am quite a newbie. I live in a very light polluted big city and would be primarily using the scope while camping for the weekend in dark sky areas. Anyone have thoughts on what would be a better starting choice?
If you buy the refractor, the mount is soooo important. I would actually spec the mount first, then figure out what you can put on it. There is almost no such thing as too much mount. I would still recommend a 6" or 8" Dob as your first scope. They aren't perfect but they hit the sweet spot for price and performance.
@@edting Looking at a Celestron AVX mount. One requirement I have is that the telescope can be packed into my SUV with my wife, kid, dog and camping gear. Moreover, we do a lot of overland travel on forest roads (to places I would want to use the scope!) so it would be great to choose something that can handle some bumps (while appropriately secured/padded). Love your videos and find them very informative.
You can try the various filters out there but I don't like any of them. There is no such thing as a free lunch! Those filters always introduce some other kind of distortion elsewhere. I just use these achromats naturally and deal with the false color.
I'd like to know how this compares to the Gskyer 90x600 telescope. Picking a first scope is so hard. On one hand you need to ease in at a low cost, on the other you need something good enough to actually see something. Do I want to see planets or deep space, does it need to be portable, should it also be good for land viewing, can it be used as a spotting scope for target shooting, will the kid find it useful, can I take pics,ect, ect...
You want to be sure that the telescope is focused for infinity (eyes relaxed when looking through the eyepiece) with a big exit pupil. Then the phone position is not as sensitive.
Orion now has lots of 80mm refractors like "Observer 80ST", "GoScope 80mm", "ShortTube 80mm", "StarSeeker IV 80mm". I'm quite confused. Are these different optically or just equivalent core component with some different accessories? Hmmm... they look different at least on price? The Observer 80St is half the price of ShortTube 80mm...
The AR102 will have some Chromatic aberration. You can research about what that is, and there are lots of videos and articles about it. That being said - if you get a good deal for one used - then it's a good scope to start out. You can still get decent pictures. If you are serious about photography - then i would not buy a one new just for that. I would save up for something better if buying new. It would probably be better to buy an 80mm "ED" glass or "APO" ( triplet or doublet) of smaller size like 72mm or 80mm than an "Achromat" of 102mm. The colours in the smaller scope will be better and its amazing what a small scope and camera can do. Also if you are interested in planetary - then colour correction is even more important and in that case large 102ED scopes and bigger are more expensive and a better choice might be an SCT or Maksutov. However - If you are new to this hobby - jumping into photography is the deep end of the pool - be careful not to drown in frustration! Whatever scope you get - you might be better to learn the sky first and use your cell-phone for pictures and see how you take to it.
Thanks for the video and hope you will make more. You spoke at a star party I went to and you are a good speaker. I had an early version of the Short Tube 80 but later sold it. The false color was very bad on some targets and for daytime use. I would not recommend this scope except that it is inexpensive.
The chromatic abberation (false colour) is quite noticeable on very bright objects. But if the telescope is used as a rich field (low power) instrument it does its job quite well.
i just got the cheap adapter for my phone, i also just got a new telescope, an 8se and i will use the phone, to me the pictures are good enough, to be honest if i want to see really good pictures there are more online the i could ever look at i just wanted a photo of jupiter and mars in the same field, 45 years ago i bought a telescope and that one night was what i was waiting for all this time
I’m looking to Buy on Amazon the Orion CT80mm with eq mount. Is that a good scope? Looking to try and mount it on my NexStar mount in the future. The Orion ST80 is hard to find I guess they call it the CT80 now.
@@edting The ST80 is no longer available, but I looked at Orion’s website it is back ordered till May for $179. I’ll try the CT80 just see if I will like it. There are mixed reviews on the CT80. I ordered the OTA just by itself for $79 to try out.
OK, see what you think. ooofff, $79 sounds way too low for a telescope. Save all your packaging in case you need to return it. The last one of these I saw was very cheaply made.
@@edting Amazon had it on sale for $79 dollars originally $99. Going to try it on my NexStar 8se mount. What are your good recommendations on a good refractor to use on my NexStar mount until I decide what route to go. I enjoy my 8se but wanting to try a refractor without spending a lot of money. Sometimes I have a two hour window for me in work days so I was looking at a refractor because of the cool down time being very minimal.
Hi Ed,I Know This Is A Cpl Years Old,But,I Think You Have Me Sold,Been Looking For A Decent MidSize Refractor Easier To Move Around Than My 102/1000..And Would Go On My Nexstar 6se Mount…I Think,Maybe For Viewing,But My Sky Watcher For Astro,Thank You,Stay Safe,God Bless,and Clear Skies❤️🙏🏻🌏✨🔭Its $199,No Case..But Has The Rings and 8x40 Finder,and Decent EP, Includes 90-degree mirror star diagonal, two quality Sirius Plossl eyepieces, tube rings, and a Vixen-style dovetail mounting bar..Let Me Know What You Think,I Would Appreciate It🙏🏻❤️🙏🏻
I took some phone pics on my 6" reflector and as long as you don't over-power the scope they come out fine. Over-power? If you're looking at the Moon or Jupiter and it is a shimmering blobby mess back off on the power. What good is a picture of Jupiter you cannot see any details? It isn't going to be big unless you have a big scope. I see videos online of the Moon looking like the heat waves of a hot desert road is under it, too much power for the scope and or the conditions. If I want really good pictures there is the Hubble catalogue. Kind of hard to beat that.
Getting the counter weight figured out for your telescope with your Nikon camera has been a new kind of hell for me to discover. Good advice, back off from photography.
Astro photography, endless new and interesting ways to screw up. Yep or the same ones while you're rushing, or focusing on dealing with something else. A truly limitless hobby. :)
I like the way you ROLL!
Ed, thanks for your videos. I've been around as an amateur astronomer for close to 35 years, and actually ground, polished and assembled my first telescope (A 78 mm f 9.6 Newtonian mounted in a pier similar to Sam Brown's example at the "All about Telescopes" book, I just replaced the wood block with a 1/2 inch galvanized pipe cross) for the 1991 eclipse here in Mexico City. I liked a lot this video, and you answered a question I had about this particular Telescope model. Yep, I was wondering to get one to try it for astrophotography and as a travel telescope that I can carry around.
That being said, It is good that you point out objectively the good points and shortcomings of the telescopes you review, and you have a very good pitch to speak and explain your opinion, as a non native speaker, It was easy for me to understand you in full without subtitles.
Thanks again for your reviews. I'm still undecided on this particular model since I'm taking some of the quarantine time most of us got to grind a soda-lime glass blank I had around since I made the ol' tiny reflector to step up in the ladder and make a 125 mm f/5 mirror that, yes, I'm intending for a travel and rich field astrophotography telescope. ¡Keep up the good job!
Excellent series, Ed. Always a pleasure to watch, listen and learn from your experience.
My comments won’t be quite as juicy as the first two! I have a Takahashi FS-60CB on a Sky Patrol Mount which is steady enough that attendees to the public star parties I attend can rest their phones on the eyepiece and get pretty good souvenirs of the Moon to take home!
Excellent job of explaining a good beginner telescope. I think I’ve binged all your telescope videos! I know producing and editing such quality is so very time consuming! Thank you for what you do for the amateur astronomy community.
Hi Ed,
Thanks for this great 2 part video on the Orion Short tube 80, it’s a great starter scope. I suggested it to my daughter, who is a retired English teacher. She has just taken a course on Astronomy and wanted to get into viewing. She purchased it through Amazon and it came complete with an equatorial mount, finder, right angle eyepiece holder and two eyepieces for less than 200 dollars! How can you beat that?
She did go through some difficulty in setting up the equatorial mount at first but I gave her some advice and think she will be OK. She and her husband live on a 60 acre farm in northern NY far from city lights, so I think she will have a lot of fun viewing.
I am going to tell her about your videos because you are really sincere and a very helpful guide to the world of astronomy. Thanks big guy!
Thanks for the update!
Just bought the Celestron 7x50 binoculars for my kid and I. I appreciate the advice. We will first graduate from binoculars and then get the telescope
Thank you Mr Ting for this wonderful channel! I have an ST-80 that I have used for terrestrial photography as well as astrophotography. I used it at Mount Rushmore and was amazed at the amount of magnification provided. There was a full moon that night and South Dakota skies are often clear so I was also able to get some decent pictures of the moon (using a focal reducer in the light path).
Awesome video as always! After many years, I started taking astrophotos again. I have a Sky-Watcher star adventure tracker, I was was using a 200mm telephoto for my camera. I found the post processing more challenging than taking the actual picture. I’ve been an army photographer for 15 years, and I was never a fan of photoshop to be honest.
I hear ya' about photoshop. I do landscape, wildlife, etc. photography as a hobby, and am disturbed to see that standard practice is now to take all of one's photos with the intention of fixing the errors in them in photoshop. That feels to me like doing the work twice, no thanks, I'd rather try and take "perfect" shots and never have to adjust them. I was looking forward to getting a telescope to get into astrophotography, but have come to understand that for proper shots one either needs a very expensive low noise sensor, and/or take many long exposure shots that are then stacked and computer processed to clean them up. So instead of that, I'll go with a Dobsonian 6 or 8 inch for some lunar and planetary photos, which with the typical 1200mm focal length will frame them relatively well, and those massive reflectors will allow for short exposure times, and just take in the pleasure of viewing the other things with my eye through the eyepiece.
I will listen to your advice about photography Ed ✌️😀
I'll listen to you. You explain things very well. Thank you. Cheers!
i agree totally with your advise to wait a year before taking pics thru the telescope ......... that is what i have been doing this past but started ordering everything last spring ..... with supplies so low and everything backordered im glad i started ordering and while waiting for orders to arrive i have got to get out and do plenty of observing in the meantime ......... i dont think i will ever go to just astrophotography because i still get a kick out of seeing those little fuzzies in deep space ....... it could be a star cluster, a galaxy or a nebula who knows ....... just knowing how far away it is is still the thrill for me ..... thanks for all of your posts ...... very low key and easy to understand and follow ....thanks
Hi Ed. Have the skywatcher st80.great grab and go scope for holidays.another great video
Ed , honestly , God bless you keep it up brother , i Wish i had someone like you around my Life ,while i hope i become some like you in someone Life
Excellent review and great advice!
This is a classic for good reason, but is a little known choice to newcomers to the hobby.
I recently acquired two of these used Synta 80mm F5 scopes. I have better scopes, but for the past 2 weeks i have spent more nights outside than usual because this little contender punches higher than expected, and is so light and easy to use. Of course its not a high power scope... but i CAN NOT believe that i could glimpse the Great Red Spot on Jupiter a few nights ago, and yet it is true - i did. Using the cap with the 43mm hole can improve contrast a bit but compromise with slightly dimmer image.
For wide field viewing the views are fantastic. For wide field i have been a binocular-holic for that past few years, but this scope has me switched over from large 80mm+ binoculars to these 80mm F5 scopes . 50mm binoculars are where it stops for me now - larger binos have a hard time to compete with this little scope for wide field. Reasons are:
1. It's light.
2. It's easy to mount and use.
3. It's more comfortable than straight through binos.
4. It's more versatile. Magnifications can be varied.
5. And most importantly - it's less expensive.
Some of the above can be accomplished with Binocular telescopes, but for literally 10x the cost, or more!!
As Ed recommends a 6" or 8" Dob is the best place to start. But if i could send a scope back in time to myself as a kid... it would be this one. I could take it everywhere - It's a keeper.
Thanks for this review, Love your videos and website ED.
Thanks for letting us in on your journey!
I got into this hobby in August 2023. My goal was to take celestial photographs. I am taking pretty good photos now with an asi585 and asi294 and with 11 different optical tubes, including the Celestron 80mm ST refractor.
Expect to start posting them as soon as I learn to use the video camera, video editing software and learn to post on You Tube.
Ed, I'm looking to get my first EQ mount, and am very interested to know the make and model of the one featured in this video. Many thanks...
Most of the mid-sized equatorial mounts you see me using are either the Celestron AVX, or its predecessor, the CG-5.
ST-80 is a very good budget telescope 👍
I like the wide field view very much🥰
I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY!
i (thought) i bought an orion st80 off amazon.
a day later i looked at the ad again and.....AAAAAK!! that item is a CT80- not the same internally as an st80.
sooooo, when it gets here i'll return it. i've already ordered an st80 directly from orion.
SO- now i have 2 scopes en route. count 'em. jeez. sometimes i am SUCH a maroon.
well, not the end of the world. amazon will take it back and shipping was free.
meanwhile i am shopping for a couple of mid-grade eyepieces. one might be a zoom.
From what i have read the CT80 is built differently, but is not bad for a finder scope. There are mixed reviews but some experienced users do give it a good rating for what it is.
I just bought this telescope as a finder scope for my 8" Classical Cassegrain. It made much more sense to buy 80mm Achromat than to buy a 50mm finder scope for almost as much money as SW ST80 and I can still take it off of my main rig and use it on a photo tripod.
As a beginner I'm not planning to spend more then 100-200$ for the telescope which is good enough to look at the moon and other bright objects. Your recommended equipment would cost much and much more, so not very helpful. But I liked you pictures of moon and nebula made through the beginner telescope (would like to see planets too), which shows what quality of visible images to expect from it. The effect of not good focus at the borders of the image was quite interesting. Thank you.
i would consider $200 the minimum to get started in the hobby. By the time one factors in a decent tripod and a better eyepiece ( the 25mm are usually ok but the 9mm or 10mm are usually terrible), it will cost this much. An alternative that people rarely consider is... binoculars! I myself used small scopes for many years but never used binoculars on the night sky. A decent pair can be found in your budget and are portable and easy to use - and useful for daytime too.
Using binoculars has more more enjoyable than i expected. 10x50 is just the all round universal standard workhorse configuration, like Bushnell Legacy 10x50 or Nikon Action Extreme.
Magnification of 10x can be shaky for some so other configurations that are easier to hold are 7x50 or 8x42 ( 8x56 is another option). Of course if you shop around somethings come up on USED markets and you might be able to purchase both telescope and binos eventually.
Well, if you are willing to chip in a few dollars more and wait for christmass or other discounts then you can get a very decent telescope, with a good mount and standard eyepieces. I very recently got my first telescope a Skywatcher 90/900 with an AZ3 mount and it also came with a prism and 2 eyepieces (25mm and 10mm). It is winter so I have not had the chance to use it much yet, but I have to say that I am VERY impressed by how sturdy it is on the mount and how easy it is to use those AZ knobs for a complete beginner like me. The *COST* now was 260 euros plus shipping. This very same model mr. Ting reviewed but by StarWatcher with an AZ3 mount was 225 euros. I mean that is not really that far above the budget you set.
Personally, I just noticed that with the discounts I could have taken the Skywatcher 102/500 for like 15 euros more and in what universe an increase from 90 to 102 aperture only costs 15 euros, but it is what it is :)
Hey, thanks for the great beginner videos, Ed.
A comment: Your voice is really quiet compared to the ads. I have the volume cranked up to hear you clearly and everytime an ad comes, well, it's painfully loud.
Hey thanks for that. Not sure how to fix this. I normalize my audio to -6 db. Any louder and the audio will clip. Let me look into this.
Coincidentally, my first career was as an audio engineer (recording, concerts, theatre) but I left that industry in the early 90's. If I remember correctly, normalizing hunts for the loudest transient peak in your entire audio track and stretches the entire track's dynamic range to fit the maximum available bit depth. Now what happens if you normalize the track when most of it is quiet but there is one loud section or even just a short loud spike? In that case the normalizing doesn't accomplish much because the peak is already loud. That's what could be happening. I don't know what kind of control you have, but if you are able to view the waveform of your entire audio track, you can maybe find and lower the level of some loud sections before normalizing. We did this when mastering in the studio. Sometimes there was a really loud transient spike you couldn't even hear that caused the normalizing to be ineffective. Hah, good memories. Good luck, Ed.
@@100amps Mic pops are especially harmful in this regard, they can easily be 10 to 20 db higher than the loudest spoken part of a spoken audio.
Thanks for sharing good information from this ST80A. What Eq mount are you using in the video? I am considering getting this refractor, I have always liked having it 👍🏻
Hello Ed, what is the cheapest ota that you would recommend for astrophotography?
So Ed .... I hate to "date myself" ... But I have been doing astronomy since I was nine years old. How long ago was that? Let's just say my first telescope was an 80mm Sears Discoverer. I have done observing & astro-photography too back in the film days. Recently, started doing photos with DSLR and I have basically had to re-learn everything! I actually bought one of these scopes & used it for about a year before moving up. I have since "gifted" the telescope to my youngest daughter who wants to do photos as well. It would be fun to somehow connect & share notes / trade stories some year.
I picked up the same telescope for the on-the-run type of deployment. There is a knob on the telescope rings that I noticed also was on my older Celestron Omni 150 Reflector. It is the black knob that goes into the top. What is that for?
ED, my main focus is to view and take terrestrial photos while getting started in the astronomy world, I was looking at the Orion Short Tube 80T configured for daytime terrestrial viewing of wildlife, birds, and scenery or casual nighttime sky watching. My question is how much does the nighttime sky watching quality suffer compared with 80ST if any thanks.
Hey Ed! it's hard to notice, but i believe the end of the ST80 focuser is actually T-thread, so you dont need the T-to-1.25" adapter on the T-ring!
A normal T ring terminates in an M42 thread. The threaded end of the ST80 is....I don't know what. It's a much smaller diameter. Anyone else out there know?
@@edting unfortunately i cant past photos here, but i can thread a T-ring directly to the end of my ST80, give it a go!
@@edting Emailed you a photo using the email listed on your website
Hey, you're right! You're right! I just tried it on mine!
glad i could help!
Something you don’t mention or at least if you did, I missed It. This is small enough to piggy-back on a larger telescope.
Trying to find one to piggy-back on a 10” SCT. For visual, auto-guide,etc
Deciding between a 3 or 4" refractor (such as this one) or an 8" SCT as my first "real" telescope. I took an astronomy class and did some casual observing back in college (10 years ago) but am quite a newbie. I live in a very light polluted big city and would be primarily using the scope while camping for the weekend in dark sky areas. Anyone have thoughts on what would be a better starting choice?
If you buy the refractor, the mount is soooo important. I would actually spec the mount first, then figure out what you can put on it. There is almost no such thing as too much mount. I would still recommend a 6" or 8" Dob as your first scope. They aren't perfect but they hit the sweet spot for price and performance.
@@edting Looking at a Celestron AVX mount. One requirement I have is that the telescope can be packed into my SUV with my wife, kid, dog and camping gear. Moreover, we do a lot of overland travel on forest roads (to places I would want to use the scope!) so it would be great to choose something that can handle some bumps (while appropriately secured/padded). Love your videos and find them very informative.
Sir which filter did you use to counter fringing around stars and get natural star colours?
You can try the various filters out there but I don't like any of them. There is no such thing as a free lunch! Those filters always introduce some other kind of distortion elsewhere. I just use these achromats naturally and deal with the false color.
@@edtingthank you sir. Btw how did you deal false colour. Pls tell
Need an opinion my good man if I use an apo eyepiece will it improve image i see using an achromat refractor
I'd like to know how this compares to the Gskyer 90x600 telescope.
Picking a first scope is so hard. On one hand you need to ease in at a low cost, on the other you need something good enough to actually see something. Do I want to see planets or deep space, does it need to be portable, should it also be good for land viewing, can it be used as a spotting scope for target shooting, will the kid find it useful, can I take pics,ect, ect...
Gysker Is trash
You want to be sure that the telescope is focused for infinity (eyes relaxed when looking through the eyepiece) with a big exit pupil. Then the phone position is not as sensitive.
Orion now has lots of 80mm refractors like "Observer 80ST", "GoScope 80mm", "ShortTube 80mm", "StarSeeker IV 80mm". I'm quite confused. Are these different optically or just equivalent core component with some different accessories?
Hmmm... they look different at least on price? The Observer 80St is half the price of ShortTube 80mm...
Don't buy the Observer series. They are cheaply made. Get the "regular" version. You get what you pay for!
Now on Amazon, there is only the Orion Observer 80 ST. Some reviews say it is not as good as the old version. What do you think?
Hello Ed,
Need your opinion about Bresser AR 102/460 AT-3 Refracter telescope.
Is this telescope good for astrophotography?
Please do advise.
The AR102 will have some Chromatic aberration. You can research about what that is, and there are lots of videos and articles about it. That being said - if you get a good deal for one used - then it's a good scope to start out.
You can still get decent pictures. If you are serious about photography - then i would not buy a one new just for that. I would save up for something better if buying new. It would probably be better to buy an 80mm "ED" glass or "APO" ( triplet or doublet) of smaller size like 72mm or 80mm than an "Achromat" of 102mm. The colours in the smaller scope will be better and its amazing what a small scope and camera can do.
Also if you are interested in planetary - then colour correction is even more important and in that case large 102ED scopes and bigger are more expensive and a better choice might be an SCT or Maksutov.
However - If you are new to this hobby - jumping into photography is the deep end of the pool - be careful not to drown in frustration! Whatever scope you get - you might be better to learn the sky first and use your cell-phone for pictures and see how you take to it.
I would love to bay this telescope but unfortunately I can't find anywhere in UK anyone to sell new or used one...
Thanks for the video and hope you will make more. You spoke at a star party I went to and you are a good speaker. I had an early version of the Short Tube 80 but later sold it. The false color was very bad on some targets and for daytime use. I would not recommend this scope except that it is inexpensive.
The chromatic abberation (false colour) is quite noticeable on very bright objects. But if the telescope is used as a rich field (low power) instrument it does its job quite well.
Just love your comment at the 9:10 mark. :-)
i just got the cheap adapter for my phone, i also just got a new telescope, an 8se and i will use the phone, to me the pictures are good enough, to be honest if i want to see really good pictures there are more online the i could ever look at i just wanted a photo of jupiter and mars in the same field, 45 years ago i bought a telescope and that one night was what i was waiting for all this time
I’m looking to
Buy on Amazon the Orion CT80mm with eq mount. Is that a good scope? Looking to try and mount it on my NexStar mount in the future. The Orion ST80 is hard to find I guess they call it the CT80 now.
The CT80 is a cheaper variant of the Short Tube 80. I don't love those.
@@edting The ST80 is no longer available, but I looked at Orion’s website it is back ordered till May for $179.
I’ll try the CT80 just see if I will like it. There are mixed reviews on the CT80. I ordered the OTA just by itself for $79 to try out.
OK, see what you think. ooofff, $79 sounds way too low for a telescope. Save all your packaging in case you need to return it. The last one of these I saw was very cheaply made.
@@edting Amazon had it on sale for $79 dollars originally $99. Going to try it on my NexStar 8se mount. What are your good recommendations on a good refractor to use on my NexStar mount until I decide what route to go. I enjoy my 8se but wanting to try a refractor without spending a lot of money. Sometimes I have a two hour window for me in work days so I was looking at a refractor because of the cool down time being very minimal.
What do you think of the svbony sv48P? Amazon has it for $299 with a $100 off coupon making it $199. Thanks for replying to my questions.
Not so much content about the ST80 itself but a good beginners video
Hi Ed,I Know This Is A Cpl Years Old,But,I Think You Have Me Sold,Been Looking For A Decent MidSize Refractor Easier To Move Around Than My 102/1000..And Would Go On My Nexstar 6se Mount…I Think,Maybe For Viewing,But My Sky Watcher For Astro,Thank You,Stay Safe,God Bless,and Clear Skies❤️🙏🏻🌏✨🔭Its $199,No Case..But Has The Rings and 8x40 Finder,and Decent EP, Includes 90-degree mirror star diagonal, two quality Sirius Plossl eyepieces, tube rings, and a Vixen-style dovetail mounting bar..Let Me Know What You Think,I Would Appreciate It🙏🏻❤️🙏🏻
Note on the "update" comment, the scope is back up for sale, renamed ST80-A. Looks exactly the same.
Next up: deep sky astrohptography tutorial with a smartphone and a dollar store telescope.
I took some phone pics on my 6" reflector and as long as you don't over-power the scope they come out fine. Over-power? If you're looking at the Moon or Jupiter and it is a shimmering blobby mess back off on the power. What good is a picture of Jupiter you cannot see any details? It isn't going to be big unless you have a big scope. I see videos online of the Moon looking like the heat waves of a hot desert road is under it, too much power for the scope and or the conditions.
If I want really good pictures there is the Hubble catalogue. Kind of hard to beat that.
Try getting an ASI120MM and/or ASI120MC and do it again.
@@edting What are those Mr. Ting?
Getting the counter weight figured out for your telescope with your Nikon camera has been a new kind of hell for me to discover. Good advice, back off from photography.
Haha, if you get the counterweight situation figured out, wait until you see the troubles that lie behind that problem!
You can never have too much mount for your telescope... that's what she said 😂🤣😂
just bought a walmart scope to piss you off .. sorry 😂😅
I just returned one worst telescope I've ever bought.
I love you man!
I'll listen to you. You explain things very well. Thank you. Cheers!