Orion ED80T CF Triplet Apochromatic Refractor Telescope for Intermediate Astronomers and Astrophotography Enthusiasts - an Optical Tube without Tripod

I got this a few months ago and just haven't put it down. Very easy to use, nice wide wide field (so careful what you look at cos lots of things end up pretty teeny!) I take photos with it and a flattener is a desirable addition (I got the Orion 8893 which is "for" it.)The focuser is very sturdy - handles my camera easily. Good strong focus lock that shifts the image *juuuuust* a little bit, but doesn't alter the focus no matter how hard you mash it down.The dew shield is impressive; I hardly ever have to use my dew zapper.The little "shoe" that holds it to the mount is adequate for visual and probably for photo as well, but it's really dippy. I put rings on it (you buy the ones for the 90mm scopes) and the rings overwhelm the poor little thing. It *is* a tiny scope after all and gets overwhelmed by all that hardware. But it works with the rings and rail and I'm glad I set it up that way.Its size contributes to its "limitations." So, the back end of the scope, the focuser, can rotate 360 degrees if you loosen a thumb screw, which is really really convenient. But put rings on, stuff it on to a mount and now your focus knobs will bump into things if you rotate the focuser. It's faintly inconvenient, nothing more.Overall I absolutely love the thing and am glad I made the upgrade. The only setback is the price but everything else of this style and quality is about the same price and you actually get an awful lot of telescope and optics and bells and whistles for the price.

This is the first telescope I have ever bought. I cannot be more pleased with this piece of equipment. I am giving it a rating of 4 for one small detail. The screw that secures the dew shield is very flimsy. After a bunch of use mine had stripped and fell out. I cannot find any way to repair it or take the dew shield off. Other than that this scope is built very well. The rack and pinion focus is amazing! And, last but not least is the image quality of it. I use mine for astrophotography and couldn't be happier. The pictures I have captured are amazing and I believe you will love this if you buy it. I have taken all of my pictures with either a Sony A7Sii or Sony a6300. I have attached some for your viewing pleasure. I'm on IG @65_bomber Stop by and say hi!

Perfect for astrophotography.Camera: ZWO-ASI533MC-POn scope computer: Zwo AsiairFocal Reducer: Orion 8894 0.8xScope: Orion 9534 ED80TMount: Sky-Watcher EQM-35iGuide scope: ZWO 30f4Guide camera: ASI120MM Mini (mono)Filter: L-ExtremeFocuser: ZWO Standard Electronic Automatic FocuserStacked and edited with Pixinsight.

The telescope quality is very good, the foccuser is smooth and can hold heavy equipment , visually is a pleasure to look through it, at the very edge of the field of view, a slight chromatic aberration can be seen, almost imperceptible, for astrophotography, I am very pleased with my first results of Orion's nebulae, but the field flattener is a must with large ccd chips or DSLR cameras, ,the field of view with an aps size chip is amazing!? For a beginner, or for wide field astrophotography I strongly recommend it.

There are lots of apochromatic 80mm refractors to choose from. I choose the Orion model because of it's compact design, superb focuser, sliding dew shield, and carbon fiber tube. These features all combine to make the Orion ED80T the lightest, most compact "high end" refractor in it's class. The optics are superb. Even when observing Venus, the image is completely color free. This is the ideal astrograph and compact travel telescope.

Had dust Inside the tube and some was stuck to the INSIDE of the lens. Cant clean that. What good is the high end glass if its assembled in a dusty environment?Poor threads on the lens cap. They always want to cross.Not worth the price.Cant return. No original box.It is portable though. Ill give it that

Cloudy skies have delayed any serious use of the Refractor , however, what little use I have had with it I consider it exceptionaland a good buy. Quality Build I like Telescopes , I do not LOVE telescopes. Otherwise I would have given it 5 Stars.A "grab and go" APO to use anytime and ever time.David

I liked this telescope because it was compact and it came with a metal casing so it could be carried easily and can be used as a laptop table in the field. Their are other telescopes but I like this one because it is built to last and easy to use. Great for astrophotography.

Para observación podría servir, pero para astro-fotografía NO. Aparecen extraños círculos concéntricos en las orillas, tiene un desagradable viñeteo (esto se corrige).Parece un defecto de diseño del tubo óptico.Aunque la nitidez de las imágenes es espectacular.

First impression upon unboxing were very positive. This scope looks, feels, and is of high quality construction. The focuser seems well built and able to withstand a fair bit of weight hanging off of it. Almost everything about this scope seems to be well made and mechanically sound. The only complaint I have is regarding the little dovetail shoe. It isn't exactly robust, and doesn't give much clearance over the mount's saddle. Personally I can't reach the focuser's tensioning/locking thumb screw on the bottom of the focuser when it is sitting balanced on my EQ6 Pro mount. I also can't rotate the focuser as the focuser's knobs will just hit the mount. I would suggest to anyone buying this scope to consider replacing their shoe with rings and a dovetail bar; especially if they're planning on using this scope for astrophotography. Make sure the rings you get have riser blocks in them to give yourself some clearance off of the dovetail bar!The other minor complaint I have is with regards to the case. It's an okay case and seems to provide adequate protection to the scope, but the build quality isn't there. It looks quite shoddy in comparison to the scope. It is also disappointingly small; you can't fit ANYTHING except the bare scope in there. If you have the field flattener, you have to take it off as it won't fit in the case if you leave it on. There's no room to pop it in the case next to the scope either. Same story with a diagonal; it'll have to be carried separately from the OTA. Finder scopes have to come off and go in another case as well. It's all just a minor inconvenience but it'd be nice to carry the few accessories that you use each and every time with the telescope.Optically it seems great. Stars are perfectly round and the collimation seems perfect. I'm not super experienced and this is my first refractor, but from what I can tell it has great optics. I've yet to check for colour fringing on bright objects. I was quite surprised how crisp images were and how much detail was teased out of 2-3 minute exposure images. It seems easier to get details out of deep sky targets than my 8 inch newtonian, even though it has slower optics. Note that I was using Orion's Field Flattener for Short Refractors. I can't comment on how things look with the old Mk. 1 Eyeball because it has been too cold to be hovering around the eyepiece. I'm sure this scope will give good views of deep-sky objects and the moon, although I would caution that with a focal length this short and this small an aperture good views of the planets may be beyond the reach of this scope.This scope should make for a great astrograph for beginners; the light weight, fast optics, and short focal length make it a very forgiving scope. Pairing this scope with a good quality EQ mount, a DSLR camera, and the previously mentioned field flattener makes for a great beginner's astrophotography rig!The image attached is of Bode's Nebulae and Cigar Galaxy which I captured during the telescope's first light. This is the resulting image from stacking 26 two minute exposures, as well as dark, flat, and bias frames, and some very quick and nasty processing. My apologies though; it was incredibly windy so there was a bit of star-trailing. As a result the stars aren't perfectly round. In reality the scope gives perfectly round stars!In all I'm incredibly pleased with the quality of this scope. I'll add any updates to this review as required.Update- 2017/05/30: I've dropped my review down from 5 stars to 3 as I have discovered a concerning defect. Where the focuser mates with the carbon fibre tube there is slack/wiggle, putting the whole optical train off-axis. This seemingly minor deflection is amplified when the focuser is racked out, especially with an extension on. This no doubt affects the quality of images seen/taken through this scope and makes autoguiding a pain if not impossible due to differential flexure. I've attempted to contact Orion through their website and although I get an automated response telling me my tech support inquiry has been received, it has been well over a week since I've submitted the inquiry and I've yet to hear from anyone. Orion says in most cases they will reply in 1 business day. Not impressed.