BLACK DIAMOND ED80 The Black Diamond ED80 is a modestly wide-field telescope offering bright, wide swaths of sky in a single view. It is well suited for wide-field astronomical observation of prominent nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies from a dark-sky location, or can be used as an astrograph for sky photography. As a terrestrial spotting scope or telephoto lens, the Black Diamond ED80’s performance is absolutely superb. Ultra high contrast allows the subtlest of details to be easily scrutinized under conditions of good seeing. The petite silhouette of the Black Diamond ED80 makes for an excellent compact, portable telescope that travels light and fits a small space. At about 50-power structural detail becomes apparent in our solar system’s gas giants like Saturn and Jupiter. The Moon also exhibits striking crater detail along the lunar terminator. Schott Glass Used in Selected Models for Crown ElementBlack Diamond ED80 SCHOTT benefit from the inclusion of Schott glass being used for the positive front Crown element in the objective. Schott is the recognized world leader in glass utilized for precision optical lens systems, including medical instrumentation, and famous-brand camera lenses. While Schott glass is only used in selected models, all other models utilize top-quality, Grade-A glass from perhaps less famous but, nonetheless, highly respected, high-quality glass manufacturers Metallic High-Transmission Lens Coatings Each air-to-glass lens surface has exotic anti-reflection metallic coatings applied to ensure optimum light through-put of approaching 99.5%. The proprietary Sky-Watcher “Metallic High-Transmission Coatings” (MHC) are the finest photon anti-rejection coatings in their class. Light-Baffled Optical Systems The objective lens cell is light-baffled to reject stray, unfocused light. The draw tube is likewise baffled to insure optimum contrast. The tu