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Orion Optics UK OMC140 v Celestron C5

DRT

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DRT

DRT

Posted
Posted

Perhaps not a fair fight, but it is what I have and one will probably go. 

I bought the C5 new a few months ago to team up with my TV60 as a travel solution on a Giro GR-Mini. The C5 has proved to be very capable planetary scope but when @Stu put his OMC 140 up for sale I couldnt resist. 

So here they are ready for darkness on my Ercole...

IMG_0320.thumb.JPG.306aa888598823168396c0fd9a03d842.JPG

The first obvious comparison is size. The OMC 140 is not a hand luggage option. It is three to four times the size of the C5. 

Weight is another difference, but the OMC is very light for its size at 3.5kg. The C5 is lighter, but not in the same proportions to size. 

It is getting dark. More later...

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John

John

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Look forward to reading your findings Derek :smiley:

While they are not perfect I have a soft spot for the Celestron C5 - I seem to have owned 3 of them over the years :smiley:

I've read that NASA used them on the Skylab, Shuttle and ISS because they are light, compact, robust and optically good !

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Peter Drew

Peter Drew

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Very interested in the outcome!. I've used several C5's and always found them good. We have an OMC140 but I've not had chance to try it on the night sky. It was one of the telescopes bequeathed by a late member. I have no idea of its Strehl specs but a tryout in daytime showed that it could stand very high magnifications.   :icon_biggrin:

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DRT

DRT

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20 minutes ago, John said:

Look forward to reading your findings Derek :smiley:

While they are not perfect I have a soft spot for the Celestron C5 - I seem to have owned 3 of them over the years :smiley:

Having not yet looked through them my suspicion is that the OMC will blow the C5 out of the water on Jupiter (my planned target) but I must say for such a small and light package the C5 packs a great punch as a travel option. Would I want it as my only scope? Probably not. But it is good to have in the arsenal.

 

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John

John

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Well it will be interesting to see Derek.

It's probably just me but I don't tend to expect any thing to blow anything out of the water these days. There will be differences of course but to me "blowing out of the water" would mean totally different levels of detail, and I can't see that happening unless one of the scopes is faulty. Most often it's all more subtle than that. 

Make sure that the collimation is good in both scopes, to keep the playing field level :wink:

 

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DRT

DRT

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Well this didn't turn out as planned. The seeing was absolutely awful and the highest mag I could achieve with the OMC was x62.5 with a 32mm Plossl. Nice sharp views at that mag but not enough to really start picking out detail. As the events of the evening (GRS and Io transit) were not due until the early hours I just gave up and went to bed.

On a positive note - collimation was spot on :cool2: 

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Stu

Stu

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40 minutes ago, DRT said:

Well this didn't turn out as planned. The seeing was absolutely awful and the highest mag I could achieve with the OMC was x62.5 with a 32mm Plossl. Nice sharp views at that mag but not enough to really start picking out detail. As the events of the evening (GRS and Io transit) were not due until the early hours I just gave up and went to bed.

On a positive note - collimation was spot on :cool2: 

Sorry to hear that Derek :(, but glad the collimation survived the trip!!

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Chris

Chris

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I'll be interested to hear more about these side by side if you get the chance Derek, I really liked the slightly larger C6 when I had one, I think that would come close to the OMC140 :) 

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DRT

DRT

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14 minutes ago, Lockie said:

I'll be interested to hear more about these side by side if you get the chance Derek, I really liked the slightly larger C6 when I had one, I think that would come close to the OMC140 :) 

My observations to date are:

  1. These scopes give the same performance when a heatwave destroys the seeing.
  2. These scopes give the same performance when it is pouring with rain.

I am hoping for another chance to compare them soon :smile:

As an aside, the OMC140 has gained a Baader DeLuxe 2" SCT Clamp. Very secure and the usual Baader quality build and aesthetics. 

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Chris

Chris

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1 hour ago, DRT said:

My observations to date are:

  1. These scopes give the same performance when a heatwave destroys the seeing.
  2. These scopes give the same performance when it is pouring with rain.

I am hoping for another chance to compare them soon :smile:

As an aside, the OMC140 has gained a Baader DeLuxe 2" SCT Clamp. Very secure and the usual Baader quality build and aesthetics. 

I'm surprised Seben hasn't seen this as an angle for advertising - Seben...,gives a Takahashi a run for it's money...in the rain!

Nice clamp, I do like Baader bling :) 

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Alan White

Alan White

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On 5/29/2017 at 19:37, DRT said:

My observations to date are:

  1. These scopes give the same performance when a heatwave destroys the seeing.
  2. These scopes give the same performance when it is pouring with rain.

I am hoping for another chance to compare them soon :smile:

As an aside, the OMC140 has gained a Baader DeLuxe 2" SCT Clamp. Very secure and the usual Baader quality build and aesthetics. 

Goodness, quite a finding Derek :wink2:

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Peter Drew

Peter Drew

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Inspired by this thread I dug out our ,as yet, untried OMC140 last Friday evening as we had a rare clear spell. I have looked through it terrestrially in the past and it showed good potential, a glint on a nearby pylon standing in for an artificial star showed that it was well collimated. The night time test started well, at 9.30pm Jupiter was well placed and presented a clean well detailed disc at 150X. It was very windy and the scope was mounted on a Vixen Porta so I had to hide behind one of the observatories for shelter. When the GRS came into view it was a nice deep orange, higher magnification was not realistic due to wind and the light sky. I also had a 16" SCT running and it was interesting to compare the views. At a similar magnification I have to say that the OMC gave a crisper image although the detail was better seen in the 16" which was pretty much to be expected in the deteriorating conditions. A visitor brought along a SW 127 Mak which was a better comparison aperture, the OMC was noticeably better.

All in all a promising start, I look forward to the forthcoming lunation and hopefully some better seeing.   :icon_biggrin:

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DRT

DRT

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28 minutes ago, nightfisher said:

Derek, i know the feeling, post up if the skies ever clear and you get a chance to compare

Will do, Jules, but I have to say this prolonged period of really poor skies and other things getting in the way of me observing is making me consider clearing out a load of kit. Expensive glass is of little use with lens caps permanently attached! :rolleyes2:

That said, this weekend is looking good for solar :cool2:

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nightfisher

nightfisher

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1 hour ago, DRT said:

Will do, Jules, but I have to say this prolonged period of really poor skies and other things getting in the way of me observing is making me consider clearing out a load of kit. Expensive glass is of little use with lens caps permanently attached! :rolleyes2:

That said, this weekend is looking good for solar :cool2:

Derek, that is so true, about expensive glass with caps permanently fitted, out of mild curiosity how does the C5 shape up on the mirror flop issue , i know the OMC 140 is pretty solid regarding this, the skywatcher Maks do suffer a little, more so on the larger aperture models

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