SVBONY SV503 Telescope ED 80mm F7 Doublet Refractor OTA for Exceptional Viewing and Astrophotography

I wanted to purchase a travel telescope and was looking for a very good telescope since my main telescope is an Orion ED80 with FPL 53 glass. I love my Orion ED80 and didn’t want to lug it around and cause any damage to it. Enter SVBONY ED80 with FPL51 glass. My jaw dropped when I viewed the moon with a SVBONY 7-21 zoom eyepiece. There was ZERO difference between this scope and my Orion ED 80 with FPL 53 glass. I am not kidding. It amazes me to see how SVBONY can deliver such an amazing scope at this price point. I will go one step further and state that the focuser on the SVBONY is much smoother and easier to reach focus. As and added bonus, it came with the mounting rings too. This telescope amazes me and I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a workhorse of a telescope with excellent image quality. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Get them while they are still available. I ordered a High quality Binoviewer and just can’t wait for it to arrive to pair it with this telescope for planetary and brighter DSO viewing. Clear Skies.

I purchased the SV503 eD 80 mm F7 for astronomical observations and astrophotography. It's very well suited for both applications. However, you need an astronomical mount to use it successfully. To get the eyepieces into focus, you need extension tubes of the appropriate length, onto which you can screw the eyepieces and insert them into the focuser. If you want to observe birds or landscapes, etc., with the telescope, you need a diagonal mirror, a diagonal prism, or an amici prism so that the telescope can display the objects upright. If you want to photograph star fields with the telescope, the mount must be equipped with a polar finder scope and an electronic tracking device. The telescope is very beautiful, very solid, and well-designed; the build quality and materials leave nothing to be desired. The imaging performance is excellent for a two-element lens.

Excellent quality, excellent product, super well protected for shipping, and arrived super fast!!! Thank you!!!

On Sale, Great deal, buy it. It's a quality product.

Very good quality, I liked it a lot.

I recently bought this telescope as a gift for my boyfriend, a beginner with theoretical knowledge about optics and photography. The telescope arrived securely packed, though it didn’t come with a transport bag, which would have been handy. It’s lightweight enough to be easily carried for outdoor stargazing, and the setup was relatively simple. My boyfriend also purchased some additional basic optics for it, like Barlow lenses and finderscope. Soon we were able to capture stunning pictures of the moon making it a fantastic choice for beginners, with many options for future upgrades. Also, it is possible to see Saturn and Jupiter with this telescope, but making a picture of them is more difficult, and requires additional auto-motor for the mount.

The SVBony SV503 is a very good small ED refractor at a very attractive price. I purchased it primarily as a "Grab & Go" visual scope, but it appears well suited for astrophotography as well. I've only had the opportunity to use it once so far for viewing the moon. Yes, there was a very slight color fringe on the moon's limb, but it was not disturbing. In general the view and moon detail were excellent. I pushed the magnification to over 100x and there was no breakdown of the image at all - not bad for an 80mm scope. Since the SV503 utilizes an objective doublet with one element made from Ohara FPL-51 ED glass it is not a true apochromatic scope. There is some chromatic aberration (CA) on bright objects, like the moon, but it appears to be minimal. The optical tube assembly (OTA) is very solid and well made with three internal baffles. It has a built-in dew shield that is retractable for easy storage. The focuser is a 2", two-speed fine pitch helical track rack and pinion (R&P) style that can rotate 360 degrees for better framing of photographs or more convenient viewing if mounted on an equatorial mount. My scope arrived with significant backlash in the coarse focuser adjustment. This is not a cheap or bad focuser, however. There are several 1.5mm set screws on the focuser that control the alignment and tension of the focuser mechanism. Although these are not meant to be user adjustable, I found the correct set screw and I was able to slightly tweak it to completely eliminate the backlash. I have another scope with a true Crayford style two-speed focuser and after adjusting the SV503 R&P focuser it is virtually every bit as smooth and free of play or backlash as the Crayford focuser. The R&P focuser helical gearing also eliminates the "creep" that can occur on a Crayford style focuser that has no gears and relies solely on friction to move the focus tube. Overall the fit and finish of this scope is excellent - nothing appears to be "cheap" on this OTA. It has the "feel" of a much more expensive instrument. I deducted one star from this review due to the out of adjustment focuser and the fact that it ships with absolutely no instructions or user manual - in fact no paperwork at all! Pros: Excellent price for an 80mm ED scope. Good ED doublet objective lens. Retractable dew shield. Good Helical R&P 2", two speed focuser. Focuser can rotate 360 degrees. Both the 2" focuser and the included 1.25" adapter have compression fittings. Light weight (OTA, tube rings & mounting plate weigh 6.2 lbs). Nice metal lens cap. Good fit & finish.

This is a very nice scope, especially for its price point. I've taken some lovely images using this scope. From the start, I've used the focal reducer and found I could never get round stars to the corners; it doesn't give a very flat image. This scope is undoubtedly a good buy and perfect for getting into "serious" astrophotography. **Pros:** - Well built - Allows for very nice images with some post-processing. - The dew shield is retractable, which makes it easier to move around. - It looks really nice! - Sold at an excellent price, especially considering its good quality. - The tube rings are moveable and have a built-in handle. - Many more cool features! Love this unit. **Cons:** - I couldn't get round stars to the corners, but post-processing can overcome this. This is a really nice scope. You can get high-quality images at a relatively budget price. I liked it enough I bought the 70ED as well. I would not hesitate to recommend this scope. Like almost anything in astrophotography, you'll want to upgrade to a more flat field scope at some point.

Love this scope! Very well made. 2 speed focuser is great. Image quality is excellent, really beyond expectations. Very sharp, no discernable chromatic abberation.

Great build quality. Nothing loose or flimsy here. I use this one for astrophotography and it works. Best one at this price point by far. No play in the focuser, i mounted a motor on it for autofucus and it works perfectly