Orion reflector a good first scope

[messiermonster]

Hi everbody, this is my first post on this forum and of course its the age old question, is an Orion skyview pro 8'' reflector scope a good scope to start out with? My main interest is deep sky viewing and would eventually like to get into astrophotography. I know my way around the sky pretty well but havent made the purchase until now. Does anyone have any experience using this scope and wouldnt mind sharing their experience?

[ronin]

From looking at it I would say it is the equal of the Skywatcher 200P reflector here, Orion here is different to Orion in the US.

Good all round scope and at f/4.9 should be good for AP although you may need a coma corrector. Look at the Astro-Tech offering ij the US, heard it is good and not overly expensive.

Achieving focus may be a problem, check into it, often the wording is you can attach a DSLR, doesn't say attach and focus one.

May need a low profile focuser, alternative is to move the main mirror up the scope a bit to push the focal plane further out.

Not sure what the mount is. Here it is usually an EQ5, the one I see looks similar - so I will reply accordingly:

For visual the mount and scope is fairly good, for AP it may be a little light. The scope can shake a bit owing to a light breeze and as the scope rotates during imaging the balance shifts and things move.

One of those areas where imaging is possible better imaging would be on a better mount. Best advice is try it, learn and decide what to do in terms of possibly changing and upgrading.

Just realised that the Orion skyview pro 8'' reflector I am looking at (telescope.com) does not have either dual motors or goto. You will need motors to track as a minimum for AP (also nice for visual) and goto will save time locating objects and allows expansion to guiding. Guiding means more mass so a better mount could then be essential.

My advice is check the mount, get the full details on it. May need a polarscope for polar alignment - they are not always provided.

[messiermonster]

Yeah I figured I would just do some observing first then move on to some photography maybe a year or so down the road. I thought about adding the goto feature at that point but do you think I would be better off investing in an entirely new and better mount?