My new Newt is here... and collimated! :-)

[rocketandroll]

So... after a six week lead time for it to be made, my new Orion Optics (UK) VX8L Newtonian arrived this week!

I must admit, I did feel good about ordering from a UK company and the service was great.

Being able to get the spec right for my needs was also very nice. Given the relatively minor additional cost I went for the full 1/10 wave optics in it. John at Orion did say the difference would probably not be massively noticable but for an extra £30 or so I figured it couldn't exactly do any harm!

I obviously also opted for the 10/1 focuser upgrade too and added the guide-scope mounting bar to the order too... though that is still en-route as it apparently wasn't painted in time to come with the scope.

First impressions when taking the scope out of the box were: It isn't quite as drastically heavy as I suspected... which is good :-)

The focuser looks nice and solid, though the focus lock is a plastic screw... which worried me a little... I'm sure it'll do it's job though.

I like the addition of a 12V cooling fan behind the primary too... should help!

The finder scope I got with it looks good.... it's Telescope Service branded one and optically looks very nice... might have a stab at modding it to take the guide camera at some stage.

With a BIG thankyou to Graham (Steelfixer) who popped round with his laser this morning, the scope is now in perfect collimation too... a nice easy job on a relatively slow scope.

So... now just waiting for the guidescope mounting bar (should be here by Monday) and a clear night to get first light on it!

At f6 and 1.2m focal length this scope is going to spend most if it's life collecting photons from galaxies and globular clusters though I'm also keen to get a nice close-up of M42 with it in the next month or two as well.

Full first light report will be on it's way as soon as I've had it!

Ben

[Stephen]

Can't wait to see the results, welcome to the Newt-world

[rocketandroll]

Cheers Stephen.... just hope the HEQ5 doesn't start groaning under the additional weight :-)

Gonna have to wait for a nice still night to get first light or it''l be all over the shop :-)

Ben

[Damo636]

Lovely scope Ben, congratulations.

[John]

Nice scope !

I have an OO Europa Deluxe 10" F/4.8 which looks very similar to your scope part from it's aperture. I found the OO newts noticeably lighter than their Skywatcher / Synta equivalents. It's worth going for the higher grade optics at that price - mine are "only" 1/6th wave PV but seem pretty good.

I have a Telrad finder on mine which is worth it's weight in gold for star hopping !

Hope you enjoy the views.

[rocketandroll]

Cheers all... I can't wait to get it up and running :-)

@ John: It's mainly for imaging use but.... I will no doubt be observing through it too. Having had less than 400mm of focal lenth for the last few months I can't wait to point it at Jupiter or Saturn... or even the Moon for that matter.

And yeah, John at Orion said 1/6th would be more than enough but, it was so little extra on a £700+ scope I figured it couldn't hurt to spend a few more quid and get them as good as they come. Odds of seeing or LP ever being good enough for it to be worth it are slim... but just in case :-)

I'm seriously considering bringing it home and pointing it at Jupiter from the Garden over the weekend even if i can't image with it yet.

Oh, and I have a Telrad left over from another scope I sold... so I can attach it easily. Probably won't ever need it with go-to but... worth having I guess :-)

Ben

[Steve]

Congratulations Ben, I reckon you'll have some fun with that

[libraryman]

Hi Ben, i'm looking forward to seeing how your new scope performs, i'm about to order a replacement set of new 8inch f4 mirrors.

glad to see the service was good, OO havn't always been able to please all who bought their scopes.

Ray

[rocketandroll]

Hi Ben, i'm looking forward to seeing how your new scope performs, i'm about to order a replacement set of new 8inch f4 mirrors.

glad to see the service was good, OO havn't always been able to please all who bought their scopes.

Ray

Yep... very pleased with the service and advice so far...

If the scope performs well then one of their AG or CT scopes will be my ultimate aim once I have a permanent imaging site and an.obsy.

Really looking forward to first light on it now!

Ben

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

[rocketandroll]

Well... sort of got first light on it tonight.

Forecast was clear skies until at least 1am... headed down about 8:00pm and got to my site to find that A: It had clouded over with wall-to-wall high cloud by the time I got there and B: Having spent a couple of hours charging the batteries and getting it ready I'd taken my camera bag but left my camera at home. Doh.

Not wanting to totally waste the evening I could see the full moon, Jupiter and a few stars so I started by pointing the scope manually at the moon... despite the cloud, lovely views of the whole thing with the 32mm Panaview.... and awesome details with my 8mm. With a filter in there and a clear night I think this could be quite spectacular... the detail in the mountains and craters on the rim was incredible.

Anyway, pointed it at Jupiter next, again, with the 8mm in there it was pretty impressive... four moons visible , north and south bands and a big dark blotch on the south band (the red spot?) Not bad despite the horrific sky conditions.

I also, just for fun, pointed it at M42 (even though only two stars of Orion were visible to the naked eye). Amazingly, with a little averted vision I could see the nebula and make out that the trapezium was multiple stars through the 32mm EP. Considering this was through cloud and, what 20 - 30 degrees from the full moon, that wasn't bad going I thought :-)

Anyway... after that, with the cloud getting worse, I packed up.

Really hoping for some good clear nights before Xmas so I can actually try imaging with the thing.

Ben