$130 Telescope vs. $600 Telescope vs. $1,750 Telescope

The 80mm refractor is a great first telescope for the budding astrophotographer, but there are so many choices! This video will review three to give you an idea of what to expect at different price points.

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[NebulaPhotos]

WARNING: This video was comment-bombed by a scammer impersonating me. If you received a reply from someone about a package, that is NOT me. Do not engage with them. I am not on Telegram or Whatsapp, and will never run a giveaway through youtube comments or those apps. Sorry for the inconvenience. Hopefully Youtube can fix this problem soon! ~Nico

[dpc]

I love my Svbony! It's been a great first refractor for me. I use the reducer/flattener and the Svbony guide scope and 120mini guide camera. Hoping to get a new main camera soon, mine melted in a house fire. Thanks for all the videos, you were one of the people that got me into this fantastic obsession.

[derrickgeiser]

Well done. It's the law of diminishing returns. Extra $500 gets you a lot of return compared to the extra $1k, but if you're going for perfection it's worth it.

[gloomiehoodie]

Unless you need the results to win a contest, the results of the SV503 for $600 is the best bang for the money hands down.

[jblackjack]

What a great honest comparison of three different price ranges of scopes. I have the svbony 102ed, and it's so hard to break through this "it's cheap so it's bad" mentality with people. I'll be linking your video all over the place, thanks for doing such a great job.

[DraktonTube]

I don't even own, nor have plans to buy a telescope. And I watched your complete video. Thumbs up for such an informative, excellent quality review!

[TheDarkgusgus]

Hi, I started AP last year and have 3 scopes now and still use my ST80 to this day.
A few notes about the ST-80:
1. My dew shield gets off of mine, but i think i have the older model
2. To reduce gradients, a good and easy tactic is to color the side of your lens with a black permanent marker.
3. I needed to add an extension to my camera to be able to get proper focus.
4. it's 100$ frikin dolla
5. I have been able to produce nice images, most problems can be treated in editing.

[dgdave]

Now that SVBONY has released their SV550 APO triplet for around $800 it would be a great comparison to add to this. At half price of the Askar, the new SVBONY triplet seems a great value.

[lukomatico]

Awesome job Nico! - I love videos like this, huge respect for the amount of work to do it right too my friend, awesome job! 🙂Clear skies!

[joshfinley]

Great video
That svbony 503 80ed was my first refractor and it exceeded all my expectations. With the field flattener it really is an awesome imaging scope for the price range.

[old_guard]

Very good review. Drawing analogies to conventional camera optics:
1. Two elements corrects chromatic aberration (color fringing) for two out of three colors to be “achromatic” but adds no correction for coma (triangle effect near the edges) or field flattening. The SVbony does an amazing job of bringing the third color into correction.
2. Add a third element, and you add correction for flatness of field. With the “field flattener” the SVbony becomes in effect a three-element lens.
3. Four elements gets you spherical aberration correction, a fully-corrected achromatic or something approaching apochromat with ED glass, depending on who is in charge of the definition.
Limiting maximum aperture and keeping focal length in the normal-to-long range for the format minimized spherical aberration and field flatness issues for the simpler camera lenses back in the day. Seems like Orion did a pretty good job with the test scope considering the wide aperture. Better for direct viewing with a decent eyepiece than photography, clearly.

[srf]

Great review. I used to have a 12" Dobsonian and a small refractor for my children when they were young 25 years ago. I'm thinking of getting a hobby scope again and I think I'd like the option of dabbling in astrophotography. This has been a great help in narrowing in on what would be appropriate for me. Thanks again.

[backgammonbacon]

Hi Nico, your content just gets better and better. This really does make it clear what you are getting for your money and just how much of an improvement you get from ED glass compared to an Achromatic telescope. Looks like people will get great results from that Svbony without needing to break the bank.

I honestly think this is a massive service to the community and in hindsight its a really simple idea, just show what each telescope does with the same target.

I recently tried to do mono imaging on a skywatcher startravel telescope, rebadged orion so same scope, and I could just not get rid of halo's on blue filters so sort of solved the question of "Can mono imaging cure the deficiencies of acrhomats?" with a resounding no, even using narrow band OIII filters couldn't cure the blue issue. Would be nice to see what the Svbony could do in mono imaging too does that bring it up to the level of the Ascar?

Welldone!

[TRICKZTER]

Was just looking at the SVBONY! Thank you so much for comparing these 3 so I know exactly what I'm getting

[anstef]

Thank you for this eye opening comparison. For an APS-C shooter the Svbony seems to offer very good results.

[cdavidhord]

Your videos are informative, detailed, and "full of learning". You have a wonderful astrophotography channel and your work is greatly appreciated!

[Bluesparker]

Thanks for going out on a limb of the galaxy and boldly showing what no one has shown before.

[overmind]

Thank you, you made me decide. I am gonna get Askar for my daughter as her first telescope. We will go out of the city, set it up, and take many beautiful pictures!

[ChainsawFilms]

Awesome video Nico. I have the SvBony 80ed and I am totally pleased with it, even though it is only a doublet. I have a crop sensor camera, so it never disappoints for the price range.

[DuderinoDeux]

Rotation is essential I'd say even just for observational astronomy if balancing an issue though length weight dependant. Richfields can be small portable and a bargain