Here's my comparison of the Celestron 80ED and Orion 80ED scopes. Feel free to ask any questions.
"With clear nights few and far between lately, I eventually got a chance to match my Orion 80ED against Celestron's 80ED (on loan) on the 24th March and 2nd April. Seeing was excellent on both nights but the Moon interfered with viewing deep sky objects on the 24th and the night of the 2nd April was somewhat hazy.
Both telescopes are random off-the-shelf models. I've owned my Orion 80ED for about 9 months and obtained the Celestron 80ED from the local Celestron dealer.
Build Quality and Components
The telescopes are both 80mm f/7.5 models. Rumours have it that the optics are from the same factory but there is no definite confirmation of this to my knowledge. Whatever about the optics, the optical tube assemblies certainly bear no relation to each other in appearance.
The Celestron 80ED is built like a tank and extremely robust. As I mentioned previously, it's almost Russian in that respect but is in fact built in China. Everything is black bar the focuser wheels. There are no plastic parts other than the end caps. The tube ring is a heavy metal assembly held on to the OTA by a twin clasp mechanism. It works well and holds the OTA very securely. The integral dovetail is designed to fit Advanced GT CG5 mounts and a variety of other similar Celestron/Vixen mounts. It also has ¼-20 threads for tripod mounting.
The Celestron 80ED is more curvy than a typical astronomical refractor but Celestron initially began marketing it as a spotting scope so perhaps this is not unsurprising. The company is now releasing two astronomical versions, the 80ED-R and 80ED-RGT on the CG-5 and CG-5 GT mounts. The telescope measures 575mm in length with dew shield attached, no diagonal fitted and with focuser fully racked in. The tube circumference is 28.5mm. Movement of the 2" rack and pinion focuser assembly is a bit stiff for my liking rendering it difficult to achieve fine focus. Adjusting the four screws underneath makes no difference. If this were my scope, I would strip the heavy sticky grease off and use lighter grease instead. It should work well then. The locking screw works perfectly. Shining a light into the lens reveals three uniform medium green reflections with no unevenness so no complaints with the multi-coatings. There are two baffles in the tube and one in the focuser drawtube. The dew cap again is a heavy metal affair, which screws on to the tube assembly. Unfortunately, the plastic lens cap is a poor fit and falls off when the scope is turned on end. However, this is a trivial matter, easily rectified by a couple of strips of tape or felt.
The Celestron 80ED comes complete with a 6 x 30 finderscope (dovetail mount), 45º erect image 1.25" diagonal and 25mm Plossl (24x) so all the user has to do is supply a tripod. The astronomical versions come with a 6 x 30 finderscope, erect image 1.25" diagonal and 25mm Plossl (24x). Thanks to a flared slot, it's easy to slide the finderscope dovetail in at night.
The Orion 80ED, made by Synta in China, looks larger due to the oversized tube. It measures 650mm in length with dew shield attached, no diagonal fitted and with focuser racked in. The tube circumference is 32mm. As everyone knows, the Orion 80ED is a rather boring gunmetal grey. One wonders why Orion didn't have the OTA painted white or even black? Although lacking the Celestron's tank-like build, the Orion 80ED is more than robust enough to stand up to astronomical use. It's made by Synta in China. Although the Orion's Crayford focuser has its detractors with some owners fitting alternative focusers such as the Moonlite CF2 or FeatherTouch, I find it a pleasure to use visually, being smooth, precise and easy to achieve fine focus with. Were I an astrophotographer however, I would have to modify the focuser assembly (details available on the Orion 80ED site) as the lock screw has insufficient bite (a common problem with this telescope) or replace the focuser entirely.
The Orion 80ED comes as an OTA only; tube rings, finderscope (dovetail type), diagonal and eyepiece must be purchased separately. Alternatively, it can be purchased as a package; the SkyView Pro 80ED EQ. It's a mystery to me why telescope manufactures can't make dew caps to fit properly The Celestron cap is so loose it falls off while Orion's is so tight it's difficult to remove without pulling the dew cap away at the same time. I attach the Orion tube rings to a Celestron dovetail fitted with ¼-20 thread for tripod use. Shining a light into the optics revealed two uniform medium green and one pale purple coating (not white as I incorrectly indicated in a previous posting), so a less than adequate coating on one surface. Like the Celestron 80ED, there are two baffles in the tube and one in the drawtube.
Collimation/Star Test
I allowed both telescopes to cool down for at least one hour. Eyepieces and equipment used: Televue 8mm Radian with Televue 2.5x Powermate (187x), Celestron 1.25" 90º diagonal, Manfrotto Triman tripod with Manfrotto 029 head.
The Celestron 80ED was in perfect collimation, just as well as there doesn't seem to be any way to adjust this other than as a factory job. Intra-focal and extra-focal rings were concentric and almost identical, just a fraction of overcorrection. The Orion 80ED was also in perfect collimation. Although the lens has no adjustment screws, it is possible to adjust the collimation slightly on this scope using the focuser assembly and shims if needs be. Again, intra-focal and extra-focal rings were concentric and almost identical, just a fraction of undercorrection. Edge correction was excellent in both telescopes; the in-focus star image with single diffraction ring was visible right to the edge of the FOV with virtually no distortion. Inside focus, both telescopes displayed a slight magenta fringe and outside focus, a slight green fringe. No colour is apparent in focus. So, overall, very well colour-corrected for ED doublets.
Observing
Despite a bright Moon, thankfully hidden behind the house, both telescopes gave me incredible wide field views of the Orion Nebula complex from NGC1981 down to Iota Orionis and Struve 747 using the 13mm T6 (46x). The four stars in the Trapezium were easily visible and pinpoint. Open cluster M35 in Gemini was a sparkling array of pinpoint stars as were the Auriga Messier clusters. Both scopes split Castor at 75x. It really was impossible to detect any difference optically with deep sky objects and a few double stars. The scopes performed brilliantly.
Turning to Saturn, both scopes took 150x and 187x easily on both nights so I increased power to 200x (Vixen 7.5mm Plossl/2.5x Powermate) and the views still didn't breakdown. Unfortunately, I didn't have any eyepieces to hand allowing me to go higher to test the upper limits but I suspect 230x/240x was possible. The planet looked superb, almost in 3D, a gorgeous pale yellowish-ochre orb floating within the rings. The shadow of the planet on the rings was clearly visible as was the Cassini Division and banding on the planet's surface. No false colour was apparent. After swapping scopes a few times, I must say I preferred the view through the Celestron 80ED. Detail was just that bit sharper and more defined. The diminutive but superb Vixen 7.5mm Plossl incidentally outperformed the 8mm Radian (like David & Goliath when stacked side by side!). No amount of money would persuade me to part with this eyepiece (not a current model - can't find it anywhere on the Net but similar to this 7.3mm version in appearance:
shop.centre.net.au/index.html?cat=0007JJ...00NRC&it=product
Jupiter took 187x and 200x with no problems whatsoever. The SEB, NEB, EZ and dark polar regions were readily visible. Fainter but still seen were the STB, NTB, STrZ and NTrZ. No false colour was apparent. Once again, the Celestron 80ED provided a slightly superior view than the Orion 80ED. As with Saturn, the views at 200x using the Vixen 7.5mm Plossl/2.5x Powermate were superior in terms of sharpness and contrast to that at 187x with the 8mm Radian/2.5x Powermate. Unfortunately, The GRS was not favourably placed on those two nights to compare views.
I had tested both scopes on the Moon on a previous night and found it difficult to tell the difference. Both showed a similar tiny amount of yellow/green colouration on one side of the rim and both provided excellent sharpness and contrast on lunar features. After some telescope swapping, I decided the Celestron 80ED enjoyed a slight edge in terms of sharpness and detail.
Conclusion
Because of the Crayford focuser, I found the Orion 80ED nicer to use than the Celestron 80ED but with re-greasing, the rack and pinion focuser should work well. I could not detect any difference between the two telescopes during deep sky viewing but for planetary viewing, the Celestron 80ED definitely shaded it. Quite a remarkable achievement for a spotting scope! Considering my Orion 80ED is not the only one sold with less than perfect coatings and I have yet to hear of any problems with the Celestron 80ED, it would appear Celestron's quality control is currently better. I've read a few comments now suggesting that Synta/Orion handpicked the early models and later scopes are exposed to the vagaries of less perfect quality control. Let's hope that Celestron does not let its quality control slip in the same way. Overall, both telescopes are very good ED refractors and it is great to have this level of quality at such low prices. However, if I had to choose between the two telescopes I tested, I would opt for the Celestron 80ED because of its slightly superior optics. Like Orion, Celestron has a winner on its hands and the OTA only (spotting scope version) and new astronomical versions should sell well."
Gordon
I'm still very keen, and it will be interesting to see if A&S will introduce the 'pricematch' offer. The 100ED looks great also, must check the budget though
