This item is no longer available.
The Sky-Watcher GreatStart 80AR-EQ2 is a medium aperture premium entry level telescope with superb optics and a robust equatorial mount with beefy tripod suitable for more advanced studies of the heavens. The Sky-Watcher SW 80AR-EQ2 has an 80mm aperture telescope offering the increased light gathering ability to discern highly detailed surface phenomenon in solar-system favorites and faint structural detail in prominent deep-space objects. This telescope will also serve as a high resolution terrestrial spotting scope for razor sharp views of distant landmarks, nature and people.
As seen through the SW80AR, the Moon is a veritable cornucopia of wondrous detail. Along the lunar terminator of the first quarter Moon the lunar contrast is at its best. The SW 80AR will deliver near breathtaking detail of famous high-walled craters and vast flat expanses known as lunar seas. The planet Saturn reveals deeply satisfying views of the planet's ring structure and 4-prominent moons. Jupiter's equatorial bands begin to show good detail with evidence of discontinuities between the bands not visible in smaller aperture telescopes. In deep-space prominent nebulae and globular star clusters are revealed as luminous, amorphous regions with some brighter stars appearing as discrete pinpoints.
A number of double stars are suitable for study as are larger satellite transits silhouetted against the surface of gas giants like Jupiter. The air-spaced, achromatic doublet objective lens of the SW80AR-EQ2 is fabricated of Grade-A Crown & Flint glass. Each lens element is precision pitch polished to demanding standards of optical excellence. Each air-to-glass is multicoated with metallic high-transmission optical coatings ensuring the optimum through-put of light.
The metal focuser assembly is solid and stable with a mechanically smooth metal rack & pinion focuser. The 80AR-EQ2 is an equatorial (polar) mount telescope. The telescope's mount is aligned to the Earth's axis which is approximated by pointing the telescope's polar axis to the North Star. The mount's mechanical orientation compensates for the observer's latitude anywhere on Earth. The mount's cantilevered orientation is off set by counterweights to maintain dynamic balance. When set up in this way, the telescope only needs to follow objects in one axis.
The telescope physically emulates the natural motion of the sky as objects move from East to West. Slow-motion controls allow very fine incremental tracking adjustments that facilitate keeping fast moving sky objects centered in the eyepiece. Just a fraction of a turn of the cable control knob is all that is required to keep an object easily captured in the telescopic field of view.