Brandon 80mm f/6 Apo

Ratings:Top:Astronomy:Equipment Reviews:Telescope Reviews:Brandon 80mm f/6 Apo

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Brand and Model:Brandon 80mm f/6 Apo
Price ($USD):discontinued
Type:Apochromatic Refractor
Attributes: un-checked Go-To un-checked PEC
Aperture:80mm (3.1")
f Ratio:f/6
Focal Length:480mm
Finder:optional 1x
Electric Power:N/A
Mount:N/A
Tripod:N/A
Weight (lbs):6 lbs.
Dimensions (w/h/d):4 " x 18 "
Description:Not currently in production.


Cloudy Night's Review
Ron Wodaski's Astronomy Stuff

Battle of the small (highly portable) scopes.. of better quality

Vote Highlights Vote
Brandon 80mm f/6 Apo
A great little scope. It did not come with a mount and I use a Unitron equitorial mount provided later by Vernonscope. Generally color free except will show some color on Venus. I can generally use 189X on planets. A super travel scope because of it's size. I would never sell this scope.
JWK @ net zero

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:9 Mount:0 Ease of Use:10 Value:10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=396699

Brandon 80mm f/6 Apo
Excellent build quality,color free,none,zip,zilch,nada.High quality optics in a OTA small enough to take anywhere.I use it on a Gibralter with Sky tour.This scope is a keeper.I may someday go for more aperture,but I will never sell this scope.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38333

Brandon 80mm f/6 Apo
Extremely versatile and compact Apo. Grea

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38332

Brandon 80mm f/6 Apo
Very nicely built telescope. Rubber armored and compact. A great travel scope with a nice balance plate that optimizes use on photo tripods. Similar in build quality and weight to the TeleVue Pronto but has more 10mm aperture and an apochromatic triplet ED objective. This scope is unfortunately too often confused with Brandon's 1980's 80mm F/5.6 and their Masterbirder 80mm spotting scope, which are not real apos and crap out at high powers. The F/6 version is a genuine apo that performs very well for its aperture at low and high powers. However, compared to a Takahashi flourite, the Brandon is not quite as sharp at high powers. Visibly more light energy is transfered out of the Airy disk to the diffraction rings in the Brandon as compared to the Takahashi. A small amount of color is visible on bright stars when slightly defocused -- one point deducted. The crayford focuser is nice and has lots of travel, but again not as smooth as the Takahashi -- another point deducted. Still, other than the Tak Sky 90, I'm not aware of a better travel scope in this size (the TV 85 is much longer and heavier).

Overall Rating: 8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38331

Brandon 80mm f/6 Apo
I will never part with my Brandon 80mm f/6 APO refractor, they will have to pry
it out of my hands. I have owned a number of 80mm refractors from various mfg.
and the Brandon is the best of the bunch. I mounted it on a Celestron CG-3 mount
I had. This combo makes a great grab & go rig, just pick up the whole thing and
carry it outside and your ready to go.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38330

Brandon 80mm f/6 Apo
Latest version 1996 Nice apo, well made, well corrected. A bargain if bought near list.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38329

Brandon 80mm f/6 Apo
I bought this scope used and made the mistake of selling it. For the $$ and it's size, it was perfect. Took great pictures. Very nice rugged, rubber tube. Great optics and a 2" focuser. Very nice little carrying case. Worked great with a TV upswing mount and bogen tripod. Made a super-finder/piggy-back telephoto lens on a larger scope.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38328

Brandon 80mm f/6 Apo
Is well color corrected. However, the optics are extremely rough. Out of focus star images do not have circular diffraction rings. They have distinct spikes. Highest useful magnification is about 100x which just happens to be about the limit for the Bogan head I have it mounted to.

Overall Rating: 8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38326

Brandon 80mm f/6 Apo
Well made APO telescope with rubber armoring, 2" focuser, and tripod adapter. Very sharp in-focus image with no color visible. Out-of-focus diffraction rings show slight color (green / violet) and are not quite symetrical. Excellent Jupiter images but could benefit from more aperture.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38324

Brandon 80mm f/6 Apo
I've recently purchased one of the used Brandon 80mm and have no information on it. Is there any info available?

Overall Rating: No Vote
Weight: <none>
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38327

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