EVOSTAR 80 - 5 Stars for Guiding / 3 for Observing - GUY
Observers review: As a pick up and go observers scope it makes for a light weight travel option, it has fast optics and short tube length which means you will get lots of false colour on bright edges you will also get some colour distortion but the views per £ certainly outweigh any negatives. Some of these issues can be resolved with filters you may want anyway. Great starter scope and much MUCH! better than these national geographic type starter scopes on fleabay and supermarket clearance shelves, in fact it’s not in that league at all. Imagers review: Well what good can be said about the Startravel 80 OTA? Well from an imager’s point of view a lot! This little gem finds its way atop of some of the world’s most exotic telescopes, the reason is because at f/5 it has fast optics which means for astro imaging it makes a great guide scope, easily picking out faint stars, when you’re in a bleak area of little guide stars to choose near the target a fast scope is a bonus, otherwise you’re going to need a way of moving the guide scope about, this will introduce flexure a long exposure imagers nightmare, I have only once ever needed to move the ST80 to find a guide star, I simply loosened the front scope ring and wedged a small piece of firm paper between the scope ring and the ST80 tube, this raised the scope enough to find a guide star. ST80 remains rigidly bolted above the imaging scope. I hate guide scope rings, thank fully I don’t need them.
