Log Astronomy: Up your wide-field astrophotography game!

Add a wide-field twist to a time-tested telescope design with an ED80 refractor & 0.8x focal reducer package!!

Expand your view!

Astrophotographers Donna and Donnie Houston captured this image of the Heart Nebula using the 80mm FCD100 Series Air-Spaced Triplet Refractor with the NEW 0.8x Focal Reducer.

Up your wide-field astrophotography game with an ED80 refractor & 0.8x focal reducer package

The NEW Explore Scientific 0.8x Focal Reducer lets astrophotographers explore the wonders of wide-field astrophotography.

The 2-element 0.8x focal reducer turns our Essential Series and FCD100 Series 80mm Refractors, which have a focal length of 480 mm, into devices with a focal length of 384 mm. The reducer changes the telescopes from an f/ratio of f/6 to a much faster f/4.8.

When you compare this with smaller diameter wide-field telescopes, the time-tested Explore Scientific ES and FCD100 80mm telescopes are clearly a better choice for astrophotography because they offer significantly more light-gathering aperture without sacrificing portability. The Essential Series and FCD100 80mm telescopes gather:

1.3 times more light than a 70 mm telescope
1.8 times more light than a 60 mm telescope
A whopping 2.6 times more light than a 50 mm telescope

The faster f/ratio, coupled with more light-gathering aperture, allows more light to fall onto the camera sensor. For instance, to capture the same amount of light as a 100-second exposure with the Explore Scientific 80 mm takes 256 seconds on a 50 mm, 178 seconds on a 60 mm, and 131 sec on 70 mm – assuming the same f/ratio. This means that the Explore Scientific 80mm telescope with the 0.8x Focal Reducer can capture far more detail faster than the competition.

The focal reducer, which has 55 mm (+/- 2 mm) of back spacing, is threaded to accept a standard 42 mm T-ring, making attaching a camera easy.

SHOP NOW

$ED80 Essential Series Refractor & 0.8x focal reducer$

ED80 Essential Series Air-Spaced Triplet Refractor with 0.8x Focal Reducer

$799.99

$ED80 FCD100 Refractor and 0.8x Focal Reducer$

ED80 FCD100 Series Air-Spaced Triplet Refractor with 0.8x Focal Reducer

$1199.99

$ED80 Essential Series Refractor & 0.8x focal reducer$

ED80 Essential Series Air-Spaced Triplet Refractor with 0.8x Focal Reducer and iEXOS-100-2 PMC-Eight Tracker Mount

$999.94

$1399.97

$ED80 FCD100 Refractor and 0.8x Focal Reducer$

ED80 FCD100 Series Air-Spaced Triplet Refractor with 0.8x Focal Reducer and iEXOS-100-2 PMC-Eight Tracker Mount

$1399.94

$1799.97

Astrophotographer John Kroon captured this image of the Cygnus constellation's Sadr Region in the Hubble Palette with the aid of an Explore Scientific ED80 Air-Spaced Triplet Refractor.

Need help getting started in astrophotography?

CLICK TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BASICS OF ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY