(Disclaimer: I have no monetary interest in either Sky-Watcher or Agena Astro. I’m just a happy customer.)
With little to no fanfare, Sky-Watcher has discontinued its line of excellent Esprit ED refractors. Indeed, on their USA website, all of the Esprit ED refractors have been marked as discontinued. Sky-Watcher ED refractors are nowhere to be found on US vendor sites, with the exception of the Sky-Watcher Esprit 80ED remaining available and on clearance at AgenaAstro.com. The clearance price as of this writing is $1199.99, practically half off the full price I paid a couple years ago. At this price, if you’re looking for a short refractor, you’d be crazy not have this high on your list.
As the owner of both an Esprit 100ED and Esprit 80ED, I can’t say enough good things about the Esprit line of refractors from Sky-Watcher. They are pretty-much universally recognized for their high optical quality as well as their excellent build quality. The 100ED was my first astrophotography instrument, and I was so pleased by it that, when I wanted to find something a little more portable for RV travel, I purchased the 80ED. Having shot with it for two winters now, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone looking for a compact short-focal-length (400 mm) refractor. It includes a field flattener as well as a nice finder scope (which, unfortunately, doesn’t appear to be usable as a guide scope) and a decent 2″ star diagonal.
I paired mine with a ZWO ASI2600MM Pro camera (which has an APS-C-sized sensor) as well as a ZWO off-axis guider. This combination yields a decent field of view in excess of 3 degrees by 2 degrees. I also use mine with a Starizona Apex ED-S 0.65x reducer/flattener sometimes to get a really wide field of 5 x 3 degrees. Here are a few shots I took this past winter with the 80ED:
It saddened me to learn that the Esprit ED lineup from Sky-Watcher is going away, but apparently there’s a new EDX lineup in the works. Sky-Watcher’s global website already has them listed, although I’m not sure they’re available yet (at least not in the US, from what I can tell). Hopefully the new EDX line will uphold the high standard that the Esprit ED line established.
