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Orion Starquest XT8i Intelliscope Unsung hero?


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Hi Guys,

 I've been researching an upgrade for my Heritage 130P for some time and am now convinced it's an 8' Dob, all things consider this is spot on for me.

However, I'm lazy. I prefer 'assistance' out in the  field so to speak. Many times I have read. '' Get Turn Left at Orion'', educate yourself, don't be lazy and actually learn what your looking for, I brought the book, admittedly it's a great book packed with information, a fascinating read, maybe a little 'heavy going' in places?  I started to read but stopped after the first few pages, as I said, lazy.

Personally, I would like to be taken on a grand tour of all those wonderful objects with the assistance of those incredible databases, to me that's exiting!  I'm also thinking it's less time consuming on our cold British nights, more fun and much less effort.

This has brought me to Goto AND the Orion Intelliscope Push to system. With a little research I found her, Orion XT8i, perfect!

Obviously most of the talk in the UK is all Skywacher and their brilliant 200p Dob, these are priced at £369, BUT, the Goto in this version goes up to a whopping £999! a bit out of my price range.

The XT8i is £ 717.99 on Amazon.  I know it's a different system being push to, but after much research I think I would prefer it, in fact, I'd probably go for this over the Skywatcher now if it was the same price!  because being push to gives you 'some input', which I like, it also uses much less power, one 9V battery apparently, they say that Syncscan eats batteries then may need an additional power pack, or so I think I have read.

Also, the XT8i gets VERY good reviews and it's said to be of excellent all round quality.  Orion don't seem to get much publicity here and aren't readily available, which is a shame, I think I know a bargain when I see one say why pay another near £300 when I could buy this beauty! 

My only reservation is buying from Amazon and not a reputable dealer.

Any thoughts or any XT8i/ XT10i owners input would be much appreciated. 

Edited by steve wiz
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2 hours ago, steve wiz said:

Hi Guys,

 I've been researching an upgrade for my Heritage 130P for some time and am now convinced it's an 8' Dob, all things consider this is spot on for me.

However, I'm lazy. I prefer 'assistance' out in the  field so to speak. Many times I have read. '' Get Turn Left at Orion'', educate yourself, don't be lazy and actually learn what your looking for, I brought the book, admittedly it's a great book packed with information, a fascinating read, maybe a little 'heavy going' in places?  I started to read but stopped after the first few pages, as I said, lazy.

Personally, I would like to be taken on a grand tour of all those wonderful objects with the assistance of those incredible databases, to me that's exiting!  I'm also thinking it's less time consuming on our cold British nights, more fun and much less effort.

This has brought me to Goto AND the Orion Intelliscope Push to system. With a little research I found her, Orion XT8i, perfect!

Obviously most of the talk in the UK is all Skywacher and their brilliant 200p Dob, these are priced at £369, BUT, the Goto in this version goes up to a whopping £999! a bit out of my price range.

The XT8i is £ 717.99 on Amazon.  I know it's a different system being push to, but after much research I think I would prefer it, in fact, I'd probably go for this over the Skywatcher now if it was the same price!  because being push to gives you 'some input', which I like, it also uses much less power, one 9V battery apparently, they say that Syncscan eats batteries then may need an additional power pack, or so I think I have read.

Also, the XT8i gets VERY good reviews and it's said to be of excellent all round quality.  Orion don't seem to get much publicity here and aren't readily available, which is a shame, I think I know a bargain when I see one say why pay another near £300 when I could buy this beauty! 

My only reservation is buying from Amazon and not a reputable dealer.

Any thoughts or any XT8i/ XT10i owners input would be much appreciated. 

So...you could buy direct from Orion (UK.telescope.com) for the same price, and if you went through topcashback you could get a discount. The problem is that Orion have the xt8i and xt10i listed as no longer available on their website.

If you bought through Amazon you would still be buying from Orion (not Amazon direct), so you may have missed the opportunity to buy new.

The xt12i is still available.

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1 hour ago, Starslayer said:

Hahaha. - are you the official forum police Heather?

 

No, I'm a person who tries to search out helpful information for people , and that thread came up top of my duckduckgo search.

After that response from you though ...

 

Edited by Tiny Clanger
can't spell duck
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3 minutes ago, Tiny Clanger said:

No, I'm a person who tries to search out helpful information for people , and your thread came up top of my duchduckgo search.

After that response from you though ...

 

Well that reply has certainly slightly confused this old pensioner but I can certainly affirm that your memory , attention to detail and willingness to help others is non surpassed by anybody else on this forum. Matched maybe but not surpassed. 

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18 minutes ago, Starslayer said:

Well that reply has certainly slightly confused this old pensioner but I can certainly affirm that your memory , attention to detail and willingness to help others is non surpassed by anybody else on this forum. Matched maybe but not surpassed. 

'The (whatever) police' phrase you used is a criticism , it implies a picky, over officious attitude. For instance https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/the+grammar+police That was not nice. Maybe unintended, but as you have noticed, I read posts carefully.

 

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16 minutes ago, Tiny Clanger said:

'The (whatever) police' phrase you used is a criticism , it implies a picky, over officious attitude. For instance https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/the+grammar+police That was not nice. Maybe unintended, but as you have noticed, I read posts carefully.

 

Wow, never intended that way.  I did wonder if you were referring the op to a similar post or his original ( which it was )?  If the latter then why bother as he would be aware of that maybe.   No offence meant either way and apologies IF it was taken that way. 

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