Stellarvue 80/9D

4.0 Lots Of Value For The $$$

Excellent build quality with very sharp images.

Heavy. Dew shield retracts when pointed at zenith. Limited aperture.

I have had a few observing sessions with the Stellarvue 80/9D, so I thought I would post some thoughts about the telescope. The build quality of the scope is very impressive. It is a heavy little guy, and all parts are machined beautifully. The telescope is rock solid in its construction. I was amazed that a scope this size could weigh so much after being used to the much lighter weight Synta scopes in this size range. I used the scope with an Orion Sky View Pro mount, which holds the 80/9D quite nicely. The internal felt pads did not hold the sliding dew shield firmly enough for my tastes, so I replaced them with slightly thicker pads. Before the modification the dew shield retracted each time the scope was pointed near zenith.

The rack and pinion focuser is designed with oversized gears and large focus knobs that have rubber edges, so it’s a pleasure to use. It is not quite as smooth the R&P on my Burgess 1278, but still very easy to use. And like the Burgess, the 80/9D has what I consider to be minimal amounts of image shift for a R&P design. Newer versions of the scope now include a Crayford focuser. The Stellarvue RDF worked as advertised. I bought the 80/9D for quick looks when I am too tired to get out my larger scopes, or when I just don’t have a lot of time to observe (which is frequently the case it seems). I am primarily a planetary, double star, and lunar observer. The 80/9D excels in these areas within the limits of its 80mm aperture. I cannot express just how impressed I am with this little scope!

Televue Plossls were used for observing (32mm-8mm) with an Orion Shorty-Plus Barlow Lens. Stars are nice little pinpoints across the FOV. Star tests show nice concentric circles inside and outside of focus. I’ve able to use 125x-188x (up to 60x per inch) on Saturn depending on seeing conditions. Cassini was very sharp and cloud banding was nicely evident. Contrast is very good in this telescope. The small aperture probably helps this, as backgrounds are jet black. A few of Saturn’s moons were nicely visible. The scope splits the double-double cleanly and it split Rigel nicely even when seeing was not the best. Other 80mm achros I've used have lost the smaller companion in the glare of the primary under similar conditions. 4 stars show cleanly in the trap though the image scale is small compared to larger instruments. Next I went to Sirius for the dreaded CA test. (Insert drum roll here...) Well, the CA is definitely there. Outside of focus there is some purple fringing. Inside focus the color shifts a bit but is still there. When properly focused it is there, but not at the same levels demonstrated by a Synta 70mm (f10) I’ve used many times. The moon shows very little color and then only on the limb. I had to really look for it to see it. I am confident that a V-Block filter would practically eliminate the CA in this telescope, but I do not want to dim the views any further with only 80mm of aperture to start with. Saturn shows no false color at all. The sharpness of the moon is perhaps the best I have experienced through an achro - period. I was mesmerized by it and have spent much of my time looking at it. The Stellarvue optics are just tack sharp. Stellarvue indicates the 80/9D uses a lower dispersion lens and I believe them! I will have to agree with other’s assessments that this is a very well designed 80mm achromat. The scope shows star colors beautifully. It appears to have very vibrant colors for its aperture, comparing more closely to my 5 inch achro in this regard than the Orion Observer 70mm. Reds, blues, ambers, all appear very vibrant through the 80/9D.

Polaris and its companion were nicely visible, but this is where 80mm of aperture begins to show its Achilles heel. With my 5 inch achro the companion is significantly brighter, especially at higher power. The 80/9D gets dark on me much more quickly than the 5 inch as power increases. The biggest disappointment to me was the double cluster. Again simply because of aperture limitations, the 80/9D is not in the same league as my larger scopes. But to be fair, an 80mm scope is not really intended for deep sky work in the first place. M45 looks great through it.

The 80/9Ds strengths are in its razor sharp views of brighter objects. There is just something about ultra crisp refractor views that are addictive to me, and Stellarvue appears to have captured that quite well in the 80/9D