AstroVisioneer 80mm

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Brand and Model:AstroVisioneer 80mm
Price ($USD):$125.00
Type:Achromatic Refractor
Attributes: un-checked Go-To un-checked PEC
Aperture:80mm (3.1")
f Ratio:f/5
Focal Length:400mm
Finder:6x30
Electric Power:n/a
Mount:photo
Tripod:photo
Weight (lbs):3.5 lbs
Dimensions (w/h/d):15.5"x4"
Description:Affordable Astronomy's Review

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AstroVisioneer 80mm
After several years of light use, the thumb screws used for aligning the finder have all broken off. Chinese metal screws are notoriously brittle. I just use a Rigel Quickfinder with it instead.

The other night, the supplied diagonal and my 5.2mm Pentax XL both slid out of the focuser when used near the zenith. Luckily, both hit thick grass and not concrete, causing no damage to either. My point is, either use a digonal with a notch for the set screw or use lightweight eyepieces with this focuser.

I have come to the conclusion that it is quicker to lug out my small dob which gives superior views on everthing in every way (except diffraction spikes) than to setup the tripod and this telescope. Thus, it doesn't get much use anymore.

3 inches of aperture and lots of chromatic abberation just don't do it for me, even when traveling.

Overall Rating: No Vote
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=304281

AstroVisioneer 80mm
GREAT VALUE. Easy to use. Great grab and go scope or piggy-backed on larger scope. Optics pretty good overall, and quite good for low magnification, wide field viewing (which is really what this scope is intended for). There is moderate chromatic aberration on bright star (e.g. Vega) and planets (especially Jupitar) but for the price it's a great scope. I purchased from Bill at Telescope Warehouse for a great deal and value. The diagonal included is a pretty good 90* Prism and the included tripod adequate for the scope. The eyepieces are Kellner and RK and perform typical for this class of eyepiece. For the wider field of views (e.g. 20mm Kellner) the image is quite good. For higher Mag (e.g. 9mm) there is a very noticeable difference between the supplied Kellner 9mm and a higher class (e.g. 9mm Ortho).

Overall, I am very happy with the scope and the package that comes with it, particularly for the price. It performs as expected and provides excellent wide-field views. It is weak at higher magnifications and does have some chromatic aberration, but these things are not what this scope is designed to do (IMHO).

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:7 Mount:7 Ease of Use:10 Value:10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=47657

AstroVisioneer 80mm
I rate the scope so high because it is a great blend of performance and price. I wanted something to give me wide field views and this is just the thing.I use a Meade 26mm super plossel ep and have added a celestron slow motion control and a generic red dot site. I have seen more Messiers with this than in my Celestron G9.25 simply because I keep this set up and grab it and go outside on a moments notice. Do not push the power over 100X and you'll be happy. I have seen the entire Veil with an OIII filter, you can see M1, the Crab, for real(from a dark site). You can see the dumbell, and Orion nebula easily from suburban skies. With my Celestron 12.5mm Ultima ep I can make out a nice little smoke ring(M57) in Lyra with good seeing.With moderate seeing you'll see bands on jupiter and hints of Cassini on Saturn. Venus and Mercury have plenty of color but still you see distinct discs and crescents. Mars from my suburban site was a small orange disc with no hint of surface features. This was on a night with typical Southeastern, US seeing... mediocre at best. This little scope is a treat. I have compared this scope to a TV85 and, as expected, there is no comparison... to your wallet. I did not see an "$1800" difference. These are fun scopes. I am very happy with mine... Jjustfredd@aol.com

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40000

AstroVisioneer 80mm
You pay for what you get. Good auxilliary scope for my LX-200.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=39998

AstroVisioneer 80mm
Great Telescope and great Value. I upgraded from the 3 standard eyepieces to two better ones for a small added fee. Optics appear to be of very good quality. great wide field views. Looking forward to a more thorough usage when the skies clear up. Tripod and alt az mount even better than I expected. Only negative is there is some slippage on vertical axis when the heavier eyepiece is used. Overall a great scope value and highly recommeded. Purchased from Telescope Warehouse.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=39997

AstroVisioneer 80mm
Wonderful scope. Asked Bill Vorce to replace the kellner EP with a 26mm Superplossl. Excellent service from Telescope Warehouse, including adjusting the diagonal.

Views breathtaking. Minimal to no colour problems, not even on the near full moon. Good contrasty details on moon. Easily takes 133x magnification. Able to split the double-double at 80x. Beautiful view of M27 and M57.

Now waiting for views of Jupiter and Saturn.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=39996

AstroVisioneer 80mm
The scope is excellent on axis, and only slightly mushy off axis. A bit of color, but at US$140.00 for the tube, it makes a great general purpose add on to the LX.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=39995

AstroVisioneer 80mm
I read some of the reviews and decided to try one. Bill Vorce sent me the OTA without the mount and lenses. Wonderful little scope. I've built my own paralellogram mount for it and use Meade UWA and Super Plossl lenses. Splits doubles easily. Moon had a little coloring around the edge because of the brightness. Once I put a neutral density filter on, the coloring dropped to almost negligable. Yeah, the cover could fit a little tighter. I mounted a red dot finder and it does the trick. Tried a 3x Barlow in front of a diagonal with Meade 8.8 UWA for 181X. Nah...
That's pushing this little baby too far. But at 100X, sure. Nice and crisp. Small package makes this a great travel and quick look scope.

Overall Rating: 8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=39994

AstroVisioneer 80mm
For the money, it can't be beat. However, I have to disagree with the previous post about the ease with which Jupiter's two main bands can be seen. The chromatic aberration is so bad that I can barely make out the bands without heavy filtration. Unexperienced observers see nothing but a multicolored ball with pinpoint moons next to it. A minus violet filter helped, but much stronger filtration was needed to clean up the view enough to see the bands. Saturn was unaffected by the false color. The moon is also fine. The Orion Nebula shows good nebulosity, but unexperienced observers expect the image to be brighter. 80mm only collects so much light compared to an 8 inch Newtonian. The finder is difficult to align and doesn't always line up the same the next time it is attached. However, it is sharp! Coated glass optics in a mostly metal tube. The only drawback is its short eye relief and lack of focusability for eyeglass wearers. The focuser is loaded with tar, not lubricant, for some reason. This must be cleaned out and replaced with light grease for decent motion. Nice helical rack and pinion. Better than my Tectron rack and pinion focuser! The hood just slips on and is held in place by friction. It cap slip off during transport. The cap doesn't stay in place very well within the hood, either. The supplied tripod is of very little use due to the poor motions of the head. A Bogen tripod and fluid head make for a much better pairing with this telescope. The supplied 20mm RKE eyepiece is very nice. Sharp with good FOV and good eye relief. Both the 12.5mm and 9mm KE eyepieces have too little eye relief (eyelashes get in the way) to see the whole field of view. They are sharp, though. Vixen Lanthanum and Pentax XL eyepieces really show what this scope can do. The 90 degree mirror diagonal ($15 upgrade) was adjusted to perfection by Bill Vorce prior to shipment. The views with and without it were identical. With a 5.2mm Pentax XL just about overloading the diagonal, I was able to glimpse the E component of the Trapezium because of the lack of diffraction spikes. Very impressive!

A good knock around telescope with the proper mount and eyepieces. Highly recommended to all.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=39993

AstroVisioneer 80mm
Always wanting a widefield scope, I could not help but notice the
80mmf5 scopes Bill Vorce was advertising. Three 1.25inch eyepieces
(kellner), photo-tripod and the scope for $175. Bill claims that these
new Chinese scopes have better optics. Well I bought it, and put it
through some tests. The scope is a very attractive "Celestron" black.
The first thing I noticed was the objectives retaining ring was very
tight, knowing the history of the ST 80 with pinched optics, I loosened
the ring, then made it hand tight. The focuser seems pretty smooth with
no wobble. The 6x30 finder bracket that slides into the dovetail mount
was too loose even with the retaining nut tightened. Quick fix was a
cut off piece of pop sicle stick, that was wedged between the dovetail
and the bracket. I placed the scope on the photo tripod, brought it out
and let it cool down for 30 minutes. Placing a 32mm erfle eyepiece with
5 degree FOV, the Orion nebula was beautiful, and pinpoint star
images-what a great combination. With a 16mm plossl the trapezium was
glimpsed. Moving up to a 7.5mm Plossl the view was spectacular, the
trapezium was easy, and a lot of nebulosity. Jupiter with this combo
was tack sharp, and false color was not objectionable. Banding even at
this low power was evident. Unfortunately the photo tripod will not be
stable enough for higher powers. Next I took a look at the moon. Much
detail was evident, and only a hint of false color around the limb. Now
it was time to experiment, even with the photo tripod. Placing a 2x
barlow in front of the diagonal (now acting as a 3x barlow), I placed
my 6mm ortho giving me 200 power. On a shakey photo tripod, the view
was still pleasing. The Atmosphere was quite turbulant on this cold
night, but the little scope held its own. Star testing showed no
astigmatism, or pinched optics. With this initial look I feel this
scope is a real winner. Also I noticed the air spaced objective is
seperated by a metal ring, not the usual 3 foil cutouts. Maybe this
wider spacing has decreased some of the chromatic aberrations these
fast achromats are known for. I rate this scope a 10 for optics and functionability for its incredibly low price. Bob Midiri DVAA

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=39992

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