Orion (USA) Intelliscope Dobsonians

[continuum]

There is always lots of discussion about Skywatcher Dobsonians when someone is considering a new scope, but I've never seen any comments/discussion on the above Orion Dobs.

I quite like the idea of a Dobsonian GO TO without the inherent problems of Meade and Celestrion GO TO's.

Has anyone any experience or knowledge of the Orion Dobs - Intelliscope or otherrwise?

RonJ

[kniclander]

my guess is that people who buy a dob (ie me) get it cos its the cheapest way to get a big aperture and the Orion Intelliscopes are much more expensive (I don't know whether they are optically better but I think they do come with better focussers) so it kind of defeats the purpose of getting a dob. You can also buy your own dob guiding syestem for not too much money which I think would work out quite a lot cheaper - there have been threads about them on here.

not really an answer to your question though ...

[Doc]

Basically you are paying a premium for the COL.

A dob in it's basic form is very cheap, start adding encoders etc and the price goes up, but the aperture could come down.

Better to have a bigger mirror and learn the sky yourself IMO.

[DaveGibbons]

Ron, I currently own a 10" Flextube dob and have in the past had a 10" Orion intelliscope dob both bought new. The Orion dob was optically excellent but so is the Flextube! Someone correct me if I am wrong but I think the optics are made by Synta in the same factory. The object locator was incredibly accurate and allowed you to find ANY object in the sky with great ease and was dead simple to use. I actually know my way round the sky pretty well and on many occasions would just use it as a normal non push to dob. The solid tube of the Orion does give slightly better contrast than the open tube design of the Flextube (c'mon someone make a shroud available- my attempt at a home made one failed), and of course should in theory hold it's collimation better. I do find the flextube easier to move around(lighter) and easier to store and of course it is much cheaper. I don't know what size scope you were thinking of but the 10" was as much as I could handle the 12" Orion is a bit of a monster! I suppose it boils down to wether you want to invest time in honing your own star hopping skills or would like to find all those elusive targets first time out and if cash and scope weight are not an issue the Orion is an excellent choice .

cheers

Dave

[moondog]

At the Sky Party I recently went to in New Zealand there were three 'push to' Dobs with encoders. Home built - not Orion. Must admit I was impressed with their ease of use and accuracy.

MD

[continuum]

Dave

Thanks for that but still considering options at present, although whichever I go for -funds permitting - it will be an 8" or 10".

RonJ

[NickH]

Get a nice big Dob...go on UK astro buy and sell, and wait/request a Lumicon sky vector or similar (most use the same chipset when it comes to DSC systems), and encoders (4096 step is more than fine), and you'll have the same thing.

The Lumicon is superb, I used one for years on my C8, and it was deadly accurate every time

[PhilM]

I've looked at the Orion Intelliscopes before - they seem popular and get good reviews in the US, especially the 10". There are reviews by Ed Ting (who knows his stuff) of 10", 8" and 6" XT scopes here

Having used push to with a Skyvector a few times I was impressed by how accurate push-to can be. I have to admit that having served an apprenticeship star hopping with everything from binos to a 20" there is something quite nice about getting the scope straight on target and observing - especially with the British weather limiting observing time, and you can always switch it off when you want the joy of finding it yourself...

Just my 2p

Phil.

[continuum]

Thanks for all the very helpful info and comments. Seems that "push to's " are fairly popular

and Orion's optics are reasonable unless you are unlucky enough to get a "Friday afternoon" one.

RonJ

[TheThing]

I have it on good authority that the 'push tos', like the Wixey, will work on any scope with a metal body, not just Dobs.

So, 'GOTO' of a sort is more affordable to all.

[NickH]

The Lumicon clones come up on UK astro buy and sell from time to time as well, recently saw one for £45 without encoders..

You can also get a second hand PSION organiser and use that as a DSC, or a very cheap second hand palm 5 (used that once, and it works)

http://digicircles.eksfiles.net/

good stuff here