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New Orion Dob

Beyond_Vision

By Beyond_Vision
in The Astro Lounge

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scotastro

scotastro

Posted
Posted

A good looking scope, but pricey compared to the competition. The intelliscope is probably worth the extra for helping find the fainter objects this would be able pull in.

The 600x probably comes from the often quoted 50x per inch magnification (IMO usually too optimistic). The 300x is based on the supplied EPs plus 2x barlow.

Mike

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GazOC

GazOC

Posted
Posted

in the specs for this new 12" it says the highest useful magnification is 600x but the other 12" that they sell says the "highest 'useful' magnification" is 300x. why is this?

The "rule" is x50 per inch of aperture but in practice it tops out at x300 for most objects. I'd guess its just an advertising guy following the rule without really understanding it.

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John

John

Posted
Posted

When I was discussing the Flextube 12 inch with Ade Ashford I asked whether he thought a 16 inch was in the pipeline to compete with the Lightbridge - he does not have any specific inside knowledge as far as I know but his hunch was that a 14 inch was more likely.

Time will tell I guess.

John

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Andrew*

Andrew*

Posted
Posted

When I was discussing the Flextube 12 inch with Ade Ashford I asked whether he thought a 16 inch was in the pipeline to compete with the Lightbridge - he does not have any specific inside knowledge as far as I know but his hunch was that a 14 inch was more likely.

Now THAT'S interesting. I was having a similar thought the other day - why are there so few 14"ers around? I thought the next logical step for Skywatcher from 12" would be 14" rather than 16". Given the choice between the three I think I would go for a 14 inch - good compromise between size, weight and views.

Andrew

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russ

russ

Posted
Posted

Now all this dob thing has me confused as to who sources their dob from where????

Now i know that Skywatcher is all Synta...obviously

And that the Revelation dobs were GSO.

And the Meade Lightbridge is also GSO.

Telescope House had to stop the Revelation due to a conflict of interest being the Meade main dealer????

Orion USA use to source theirs from GSO, my Orion XT10, circa 2002, was GSO. But then they switched to Synta. But their latest line of Truss tubes look remarkably like the GSO sourced Lightbridge, not the Synta Flextube. Or have Orion just specified a different design from Synta?

Telescope Service obviously source theirs direct from GSO and don't try to hide it. But their GSO looks remarkably like the Synta Flextube.

Oh boy how confusing?

Russ

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FLO

FLO

Posted
Posted

Skywatcher is now being marketed direct to the US so I wouldn't be surprised if we see them switch to an alternate supplier. I don't know where their new Dobsonian is sourced but it is interesting that it doesn't have Synta's patented tension adjust mechanism on the alt bearing.

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russ

russ

Posted
Posted

... there was another dobsonian on their site that really caught my eye :clouds2: :

http://tinyurl.com/6ntykf

I'm sure this'll be the next Skywatcher Flextube.

I am hoping that Skywatcher do produce one the same size but if/when they do it'll be their own, not GSO.

Sorry, didn't mean they'd use the GSO but i'm sure a flextube of that spec must be just round the corner.

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russ

russ

Posted
Posted
The solution for this problem is the truss tube design. It allows you to split the telescope into smaller, more compact parts that can be transported more easily.

Not collapsible. Just comes apart like the Lightbridge for easy transport.

Russ

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Doc

Doc

Posted
Posted

As Andrew says, its nice size of scope. I'm petty sure a 16" would also be an easy one man setup but I'd imagine as soon as you get to 20" it would start to become hard work.

A 16" is easily assembled by one person. A few might struggle connecting the secondry to the trusses but in general ok.

But to transport it you need a big estate car.

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calibos

calibos

Posted
Posted

Hi guys. I hope my attempt at a first post is not an omen. I just lost a huge reply to this thread by accidentally hitting the back key on my mouse...Arrggh :crybaby: :oops: :clouds2:

Here is the short version.....

Orion XX12 has an 8 pole truss system more like an obsession than a Lightbridge. LB 6 pole truss is rigid enough anyway but this Orion should be a little bit better but definately no worries about shrouds sagging into the lightpath. Other nice improvements over the outgoing XT12i (my current scope) are the larger 8in altitude bearings, side braces to reduce base flexure and ebonystar and teflon azimuth bearings.

If they did this scope in a 16in I would already have it pre-ordered but apparently they have no plans for a 16in.

Which brings me to the GSO 16in strut also mentioned in this thread. After discovering the joys of dark sky trips and outreach I now find that my current XT12i solid tube dob is simply too big for the car. It fits barely but there is little room for anything else in the car. I need a truss/strut but I feel that if I am going to change my scope I may as well combine this with a jump in apeture. Finances rule out a premium scope. I know the chinese trusses are not ideal and the obsessions of this world are better optically, lighter, break down smaller, better movements etc, but it is the chinese truses that are within my price range.

So a chinese truss then. But none are perfect. Each 16in chinese truss/strut from the various manufactureres has a nice feature or two but none combine them all in a single scope. I needed to pick the scope with a few nice features that could be modded the most easily with the good features of the others.

I settled on the GSO 16in strut. It brings to the party the following. Innovative Altitude bearings/brake with movable Centre of Gravity for EP balancing. Lazy susan and teflon azimuth bearing with friction brake. Black paint!! Very important :) Its straight lined base/rocker box shape lends itself to modding with captive nuts and knobs for tooless dis-assembly for transport.

Downside is that reports by early adopters indicate that the 3 strut design has some flexure. So from the lightbridge design I'll take the 6 pole truss idea. I'll fabricate my own aluminium poles. Remove the struts from the brackets and attach the truss poles to the origninal brackets. (obviously will need to rotate the lower UTA tube ring 1/6th of a turn to maintain focusser position while moving the bracket sockets on the ring into the correct position for the triangular truss pole arrangement)

The last idea robbed from another manufacturer to make my perfect scope is the Orion intelliscope DSC. I need to leave my intelliscope on my XT12i to help resale. But Orion do not sell the kit aftermarket I hear you say, and true aftermarket systems are 400-800 like the sky commander, JMI, or Argo navis.

Well it turns out that Orion sell a full kit for their Skyview Pro GEMs. Despite what they say ity can be modded to work wih a dob. ie some case modding and some wiring changes and its good to go. Its been done. Best thing?? Its $80 on Orions site!! Got an american buddy on the CN forums to order it for me and forward on to me here in Ireland. I already worked out how to attach it to the GSO Alt and AZ bearings and was chuffed when I discovered that the install kit for the argo navis for this scope used the same idea I had had.

So hopefully in a few months I will have my perfect scope. 16in 'truss' with dismantlable rocker box, great smooth bearings, intelliscope push-to dsc system, that takes up half the space in my car than my old 12in scope did.

Remember, this was the short version of my first post on these forums. :mrgreen:

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