A few months ago, a good friend of mine was to be away on travel for three weeks and offered to lend me his Stellarvue SV80 Access telescope while he was away and in return I allowed him the use my Nikkor 300mm PF lens, great - friends helping friends. I was so impressed with the telescope, I took a few minutes to write this up, and yes I ordered my own Stellarvue SV8O Access Telescope along with an SVR102T Carbon Fiber Triplet.
While Stellarvue is busy packing and shipping my new telescopes it provides an opportunity to spend a few days to spot check my current inventory of eyepieces and diagonals. While doing so, I discovered I needed to add a few more to my inventory, so a couple of new eyepieces will allow me to get the most out of what I have planned. Speaking of eyepieces I am very impressed with Explorer Scientific, so I will look at these first.
What is so special about a Stellarvue SV80 Access: To start with the SV line is made for anyone looking for a premium telescope at an affordable cost. Many people start their entry into Telescopes with a very restricted budget with limited knowledge and experience than compromise. Eventually, you want to acquire a better higher quality Telescope but still have concerns about your budget. Stellarvue SV Access Telescopes offer you that entry point. With an SV Access telescope, you just solved 85% of your long-term requirements. Exceptional color correction, imaging and viewing characteristics, top quality build, and the finest customer service one can experience.
Build: The Stellarvue SV80 Access is built to last a lifetime, your grandchildren will love you for your decision, especially when you hand this telescope down to them one day. Everything about the telescope is top shelf, Beautiful painted OTA featuring a matte crinkle finish that is wonderful to look at as well as hold, a rock-solid flawless Stellarvue Focuser, no slop tolerances, with direct screw-in flatteners to prevent flexing of the optical path. Comes with precision machined CNC rings and Knobs >- beautiful work -<>- Exceptional Price -<
Something I should mention or bring to attention again is the finish. I mentioned it is a matte finish but the exquisite feel and texture is a pleasure to touch, I prefer this over the slippery enamel finishes, with the telescope in your hands the feel is more in contact and sure with the OTA and less likely of slipping out of your hands + beautiful to look at. Nice Job Stellarvue!
Optics: The Optics of the Stellarvue Access 80 mm telescope are all high performance Super ED APO glass using high quality materials to produce jaw-dropping views that are free of color corrections, shows high contrast and excellent field flatness. The objectives is an apochromatic doublet setup using a combination of FPL53 and Lanthanum to ensure your image maintains high contrast. Stellarvue goes the extra mile to perform a final lens alignment before shipping your instrument to you. These optics I must say are some of the best I have owned for an ED APO and render visually a color-free performance equal to telescopes in a much higher class. Stellarvue uses exceptionally well corrected apochromatic glass in this doublet and while out one night I can tell you that the views through this tube are extremely clean showing high contrast with finely detailed pinpoint stars, it is a pleasure to look through. Inside the tube is well darkened to reduce any light scattering, The optics show no color abbreviation around any of the bright objects I toured in my outings with this telescope. I must say I was very impressed, looking through the telescope, especially at the price I paid, the views are relaxing and enjoyable, night something I have not experienced in a long time, this SV80 telescope encourages me to stay out longer because it is so pleasing to look through.
Focuser: This is a 2.5" rack and pinion dual-speed focuser having a very precise focus with very smooth movement throughout the range, and when the need arises you can rotate the focuser as well, the rotation is well dampened with absolutely no slope - it is precision. I do not know the exact capacity is for this focuser, but I am sure it will handle my lightweight CMOS camera and or a DSLR if needed without problems.
In summary: I would highly recommend without hesitation a Stellarvue SV80Access for anyone starting in the hobby, or looking for a fantastic telescope in the 80mm range, makes a great lightweight, portable package with exceptional performance.