Borg 76ED

Ratings:Top:Astronomy:Equipment Reviews:Telescope Reviews:Borg 76ED

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Brand and Model:Borg 76ED
Price ($USD):$693.00
Type:Apochromatic Refractor
Attributes: un-checked Go-To un-checked PEC
Aperture:76mm (3")
f Ratio:f/6.6
Focal Length:500mm
Finder:optional
Electric Power:N/A
Mount:optional
Tripod:optional
Weight (lbs):3.74 (1.7kg) l
Dimensions (w/h/d):N/A
Description:Components included:
76ED lens cell
Hood with cap
80mm dia. 205mm tube[7800]
Draw tube holder[7749]
Helical focuser M[7835]
2" eyepiece holder S[7508]
2" eyepiece holder L[7509]
M57 to M36.4AD[7522]


Cloudy Night's Borg 76ED Review
Converting a 100 Ach/ED Objective to a Series 80 Tube
Hutech Astronomical Products
Borg Oasis Studio

Vote Highlights Vote
Borg 76ED
First of all I would like to comment on a previous users response that this scope is a "joke" and optics were bad, etc. There are several professional astronomers who tested this scope and pushed it hard.

If you want the ultimate 76mm scope purchase a Tak. But everything comes with drawbacks. The Tak is built like a tank and is much heavier and not as easy to travel with as this Borg. Plus, it costs $400 more.

Rating the optics which is what everyone wants to know. When you start comparing prices you'll find the Borg is hundreds of dollars less than its nearest ED / APO competitor.

I've looked through several of the semi-ED and short tube achromats on the market. This Borg will clobber them, it's not really fair competition. I would definately recommend this scope.

The main drawback is the Borg helical focuser. I like the focuser but would prefer a high crayford instead. Otherwise a very solid scope and worth every dollar.

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:9 Ease of Use:8 Value:10
Weight: 10 (Trustworthy Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=264744

Borg 76ED
Greetings...

I have the Borg 76ED and the Borg Mini-50. I use the 76ED for both visual and photo. The Mini-50 is used as a guide scope with a ST-4 in the back and is sometimes used as a finder scope on my C-11. I bought only the OTA's and skipped the mounts so I would refer you to those people who have them for their use.

Versatility is a great asset in the Borg line. The ability to change from one configuration to another is quite nice and more price conscious than buying a new scope. In both of these scopes it is even possible to move the focuser to the front making it a much more rigid setup.

As for the optics I would say they are quite good, certainly equivalent to many TeleVue scopes I have looked through. Looks at Saturn and Jupiter show what is supposed to be there. Stars are nice pinpoints with a light airy disk showing in slightly defocused images.

Looks at the moon shows no color with my 15mm Panoptic and a 4x Powermate on a 2" Everbright diagonal. The only thing I see is black sky around the moon.

My 76ED also fits nicely in my Pelican 1500 case along with diagonal, Borg accessories, several eyepieces all ready to go at a moments notice out the door.

As I said earlier I bought these scopes as OTA's. I mount them on my Losmandy Gemini G-11 and I have a TeleVue Telepod for the traveling and quick runs outside. I have no problems on either mounts.

The problem I see with the Borg scopes is that sometimes the threads have a way of unscrewing at most inopportune moments. Perhaps this is just my not being familiar with these scopes. I do seem to be not doing it as much anymore, but it would seem that a better way might be instituted by Borg.

My other bitch is with the Borg catalog. It is written in Japanese! It seems to me that any foreign company that comes to this country should have the wherewithal to produce a simple catalog written in English. You can sometimes tell apples from oranges by looking at pictures and the thread sizes. However, I should point out that the representative (Hutech Astronomical Products) here in the States is quite willing to make sure that you get what you need if you are willing to make a long distance phone call.

Perhaps this problem in language will resolve itself as Hutech now has 2 USA distributors. Perhaps as sales go up we will see a real English catalog produced for the needs of the American people.

I rated this scope at an 8 overall. If the problems in language were resolved I would rate it a 9/10.

Clear Skies,
Janice Kreidel

Overall Rating: 8
Optics:8 Ease of Use:7 Value:10
Weight: 5 (Veritable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=229855

Borg 76ED
I saw this on another westibe yesterday and had to see it again. The folks on ISS truely have the best job in the world or I should say outside of this world.

Overall Rating: 0
Optics:5 Mount:4 Ease of Use:4 Value:0
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=601179

Borg 76ED
excellent value for money. Possibly the best semi apo in the market.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=411619

Borg 76ED
I was asked to test this refractor (new, received by a potential french re-seller) as on the picture. I don't own it. The concept is interesting, because it's light and easy to carry around.

Frankly what I tested frightened me. A test on a polychromatic source at 300m (~300 yards) showed that the optics were not collimated: both lenses had moved in the cell, yet I was unable to change this fact. The eyepiece turret is crap: in the best case (objective properly collimated), the flip mirror prevents you to use it on axis, therefore diminishing performances. The mount is a joke: you can't use it above 60° elevation, or you have to set it up as an "equatorial" in which case the OTA will never be balanced. I will not even mention the purveyed tripod: its only redeeming quality is its lightness, but, unfortunately, it also does a great job as a diapason. Sure it's a light refractor, but I would have preferred a metallic collar to fix it on the mount. The only mechanical part which was OK was the helicoidal focuser.

On the sky (I tested this refractor on a local hill, 5500ft elevation), thanks to the wonderful properties of the tripod (and the mount isn't far behind), viewing a planet at high power was a nightmare (9mm UO Abbe Ortho + x3 Intes Barlow). If that wasn't enough I will also add that the glow around Saturn was enormous. It did a better job on M42 (30mm Clave Plössl, or 14mm UO Koenig), the view was even pleasant... if you are enough of a stoic to remain on your knees thanks to the small size of the purveyed tripod.

My verdict: Certainly my objective wasn't very good and I do hope that other objectives were better. Yet I do not play russian roulette: if my objective wasn't very good, chances are that others were not better. This added to the mechanical nightmares I encountered are enough for me to justify the poor ratings I gave to this refractor.

Overall Rating: 0
Optics:0 Mount:0 Ease of Use:1 Value:0
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=187455 

Just do me a favor and keep writing such trenchant anaslyes, OK?
"A test on a polychromat ic source at 300m (~300 yards) showed that the optics were not collimated: both lenses had moved in the cell"

You based your scathing review on a scope that was obviously out of collimation??  
Just because you couldn't change it doesn't mean it can't be done.  And by the way- do you even know how it lost collimation?  Perhaps your French friend screwed it up somehow-
I highly reccomend that you at least try to review a scope that is functioning as it is designed to- that's what this site is for!  Not to bitch about how your scope is "broken"

Frankly your review 'frightens me'-  I give it a zero.

And no, I don't own one of these.o
Borg 76ED
Excellent performance in very light-weight package at the attractive price!

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:9 Ease of Use:10 Value:10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=143048

Borg 76ED
Absolutely superb optics. Helical focuser is unique and utilization-friendly.

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Ease of Use:9 Value:10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=125747

Borg 76ED
As a former owner of some 20 scopes, I say this little baby beats most of my other scopes in terms of portability, tube weight balance on a camera tripod, sharp images (although it does have a teeensy color abberation on brights like venus with a Pentax XL eyepiece), wonderful wide-field performance similar to a RFT.

At $810+$100 for diagonals $ 1.25" adaptor, this little scope is a major buy. I have never seen optics this good, hands down, primarily because I never spend more than $600 for a scope. I went into major debt for this one and I will never look back. It's that good, that I'd sell everything else I own except for a huge dob and a 5" Mak I use for brighter opjects.

Everything is quality, quality, quality. The helical focuser is the best focuser I've seen on any scope yet.

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:9 Ease of Use:9 Value:10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=100471

Borg 76ED
In its aperture class, it cannot be beat when cost is factored in, no question. Best value in small refractors, today. A must for discerning small refractor users who cannot afford or will not wait for the very high-end models currently being produced by others.

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:9 Ease of Use:10 Value:10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=49548

Borg 76ED
Brilliant little scope. I've compared it with a similarly-priced 80mm Megrez and the color correction is significantly better but the contrast on planets (to my surprise) was just slightly less. (I'm going to try to do something about that by baffling or putting flocked paper in the focuser.) But it's very light and portable, my favorite travel and quick look scope. Certainly a "best buy" as well, for the quality. Mine was tested at about 1/8th wave, and star images are excellent. The focuser has a huge range of focus with a drawtube, yet a great deal of precision in the helical focuser, which allows you to calibrate focus to 0.1 mm. The Borg alt-az mount does a fine job with it, too, with decent slow-motion controls and reasonable steadiness.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=41333

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