But back to your scope, it does not fairly compact. From the short focal length, I reckon it will not be very good for planetary use?
rich
It will be quite compact when the dewshield is retracted (about 16"). Only thing is that this scope is heavy. The Orion 80mm ED, having used a 100mm f/6 tube at 24 inches weighs almost 2lbs lesser than this.
The scope performance actually surprised me. It takes magnification very well. At 184x, Jupiter managed to snapped into focus with clear contrasty bands. The purple fringing is quite obvious at that magnification but if you look at the planet itself, the surface is pretty sharp and contrasty. I didn't really want to exceed the 50x/inch rule on achromats, but this scope handles the magnification well. With a violet filter, this scope should give good views on planets at high magnification.
One thing about this scope is that it is very sharp. Deciding the focus point is easy..it just snapped into it. On that night I was testing this, the sky was pretty hazy and to make it worse, the moon was 3/4 up and sitting pretty close to Jupiter. So able to see sharp contrasty bands on Jupiter's surface at 184X is quite amazing. But I didn't just see bands. I also saw patterns within the bands.....and not just 2-3 straight lines. Ok..my eyes were trained to pick out these stuff, but the scope sharpness is quite incredible too. Shouldn't be a problem to do 200X on a good night. Just have to get over that purple frindge though.
By the time I finished on Jupiter, Orion Nebula happened to be just above a street light pole.....it was quite low at that time. Needless to say that part of the sky was very bright. But since I had the scope setup, might as well just take a peek at M42 also. I was quite surprised that it resolved the 4 trapezium stars under that kind of condition. I was using the 21mm Pentax XL with a 3X barlow. Some of the nebulasity can be seen, but most were washed away by the light. But resolving that 4 stars under hazy skies which is just above a light pole is quite amazing for a 80mm achromat.
On the moon, the CA is negligable. No purple fringe, just maybe a line of blue and red at its edges. Increasing the mag above 100 X will increase the CA more but still not bothersome. Moon details were still sharp at 103X (14mm Pentax XL with 3X barlow), no softness, nothing. Very good.
Optics-wise very little to fault this achromat. Very sharp with better than average colour abberation. Collimation was spot-on right out of the box. I used a fibre-optic light placed 300 feet away for my star test. Certainly easier than using a real star.
A nice scope for the money.
Just one more thing to add. The CA of the Pronto is definitely better than this scope. I have star tested Sam's scope and I know how much CA is present in his scope. I am not surprised though, considering it's a 70mm scope with the same focal length as this 80mm achromat. Furthermore the Pronto has an ED element, and that should cut the CA down further more.
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