Any one heard of the Orion skyquest xx16g, WOW

[staffiebite]

Hi the scope does look massive , i purchased the xx14i just before xmas and thought that was big but you are still able to use it without steps . It also fits quite easily into my car (audi a6 ) when broken down , in fact I find it packs up neatly and doesnt take up much more room than my 8inch dob . The views I get compared to the 8 are a big leap with colour starting to come through and globular clusters are now spectacular being able to see all theindividual stars rather than a fuzzy cloud so your's will provide some amazing sights , money well spent

[vlebo]

Many thanks for all of your fantastic replys I have to admit I am in the middle of extacy and panic at the same time, from a 200p its a mahoosive jump I just hope I can use it to its potential. I am looking forward to some fantastic nights out in the cold.

Weather in the north east has been terrible ever since I got it so I just got to be patient and pray it clears up so I can test it out on Mars as I dont have any good pictures of mars yet at all. many thanks again and I'll post some shots as soon as I get the chance to use it.

Hope you don't mine me using the Mahoosive Viebo its still got me laughing yet. :-)

Feel free :-)  Can't  wait to read the first light report

[Bignev]

 

Hi all, firstly please let me say sorry for not posting for a while about my scope but i just have not had any time to take it out anywhere to actually use it, work really makes a massive impact on my life and sometimes i wish i never even discovered this as a hobby but we all make do with what we have.

I have managed to get it out a few times and i know how to set it all up now so i have learned all of that lot but what i just don't get is the time to enjoy myself

with it.

I have been spending my time to get my whole setup ready for the real important time, when the dark nights come back next month, I got myself a trailer for this

baby because the overall load i am transporting now was just too much for my car so i have been fitting it out so i can use it as a shelter during the night as i have

managed to rig everything up so i can work it remotely in the trailer through my laptop, camera included so my time has not been wasted and i am even more

keen to get out now than i was before so i have put on a couple of pictures of the trailer setup for you, hope you understand i did give myself a massive bit  of

learning to catch up on but i have enjoyed every piece of it and i know it will be worth while at the end of the day and hopefully in a few weeks i might be able to 

put on some real pictures on here that all are waiting to see.

[Bignev]

don't know why its posted everything all over, not having much luck am i LOL

[Lowstar]

Size does matter   Best of luck to you and clear skies.

[ollypenrice]

You can get truss Dobs into moderate cars but they need to be estates. My Dob is rather larger, a 20 inch, and you can put it in an Astra estate, for instance.  But would you want to?  I wouldn't, and after not very long the guy who built it didn't either... I drove it down to my present location where it has been at rest ever since. I admire those who haul the big ones out to dark sites but, boy, you have to know you want to. Mine lives under a sentry box roll off.

Olly

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

16" aperture is just great. Having recently sampled the joys of looking through a big dob (the 20" mentioned above) I am not at all tempted by your big scope, really, not at all

[Bignev]

Hi all, fantastic site this is it realy is so informative i love reading all of the tips you can find here,Just a update on my orion xx16g which i purchaced back in april. Im affraid it has not been a easy relationship upto now  as i fear i am fighting the gods themselves just to get a look through it, every time the weathers right im always in bed for work or going to work. Just to give you a idea of what i am having to put up with here this is what happened the last 2 times i took it out, First time, Packed everything up all excited as usual left the house for the trailer to unhook itself  and try to  make a deposit in my local bank on the high street,new catch fitted and all repairs done 3 weeks later. Just last Tuesday, all excited again, Managed to keep trailer on and travelled to a lovely new dark site i have found, got very thing set up ready to go, tilted the base tube forward a touch so i could  put on the weights and the whole mirror fell out of its housing, thankfully no damage to it but night was over yet again.Very upset with the overall quality of this scope for the money paid, the base is only made out of high density MDF and we all know what happens to that once water gets to it.Anyways i might one day get to use it and put some pictures up,good luck everyone and clear skys to you all.

[todd8137]

It looks,rather heavy And it's looking like a two man job with that heavy base (watch ya back these are heavy,I have a sixteen inch dob all custom made ,I,was looking at these of the shelf ones but for the extra bit of cash ect if you have any light pollution it can ruin great views of the fainter stuff ,but you will be rewarded this scope will open your eyes

Pat

[todd8137]

16" aperture is just great. Having recently sampled the joys of looking through a big dob (the 20" mentioned above) I am not at all tempted by your big scope, really, not at all

Would love a bigger one myself

[FenlandPaul]

Hi Bignev

Sorry to hear it's been a strained relationship thus far. Let's hope these are teething problems and once you get into a rythmn and routine of using it things will pick up. I am very interested to know how it works out. I'm toying with the idea of upgrading to a big dob soon (well, within a year) and the xx16G was on my shortlist. It's huge and what I'm learning with my existing scope is that ease of use and setup is key to taking advantage of short viewing opportunities (which many of us with families, demanding jobs, shifts etc need to work around, without even mentioning the weather!). It's still on my shortlist but I suspect a slightly smaller aperture might work better for me. Still envious of yours though!

Long nights ahead. There are some great spots in the north east (when I was younger I used to trudge up to Hamsterley Forest from Newton Aycliffe) so I am sure you'll have a fantastic Winter with the new toy and in 6 months time all of these teething issues will be forgotten about.

Paul

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Would love a bigger one myself

Aperture fever, it's called aperture fever

[todd8137]

It's just the size of a 30" that's putting me off at the minute the 16" is just manageable ( glad it lives in the obsy ) and fits into the car with not to much trouble

Pat

[astronymonkey]

Hi Bignev,

Its a shame youve had some problems but Im afraid a lot of bigs dobs are tempramental in some way but reward you once youe mastered them. Unfortunately the majority  need some sort of fettling in order to make them work at their best, but once youve got that bit sorted then set up becomes second nature.

When I first got mine I had to strip it down in order to flock the scope, and this at least gave me chance to work out the bits that needed sorting out and now its a pretty fine scope. So see it as a work in progress and soon you'll be up and running.

cheers

[Bignev]

Cheers guys thanks for the words of wisdom i have been needing some lately. I just love this scope i have just had so much bad luck with it i am hoping its not going to continue for much longer because its really starting to get to me now, all i want is to get out with it for one night  and i know all of the stress that i am feeling right now will just vanish. For a big scope its really quite easy to put up even by myself its done in no time, put it up tonight hoping the clouds might clear but no its back down now because as paul was saying its just a nightmare trying to fit this in with my shifts that i work ( a problem that never entered my mind)

 I have just finished the last repairs to my trailer so i am all ready to go again, I have a 8 days working off the belt now late and early starts then i have 4 off and my plans are to take it to the lake district for a couple of days but that is depending on weather as usual. Anyways cheers for the wisdom and hopefully i will have better news next time.

[Elysian]

That looks amazing!