Trip to Orion Optics today.

[stafford_stargazer]

With living only 30 minutes from Orion Optics UK and still never been, I thought I nip over and let John check out the mirrors from my newly acquired Tal 1m project.

They were fine and he advised not to waste any money on recoating, I did however ask him if he could put a spot in the middle, he cleaned the mirror again before applying the spot for a nominal charge, at least I know it's central and will make collimation easier.

While he was doing it I had a look in the small showroom, it maybe small, but it's nice, the the telescopes on display were phenomenal.

We chatted about a future 6inch f8 planet killer I want to order with them with 1/10 pv optics .

I'll be ordering this soon, next week probably.

I asked about the spec PV of the skywatcher mirrors, he reckons about 1/2 PV to 1/4 PV  if you get a good one, that sounds reasonable for a mass manufactured telescope mirror.

But I fancy getting something top notch for once in my life and for the cost, which is about double that of a skywatcher 150PL 6 inch f8 I personally think its very reasonable.

Looking inside the tubes, they are really dark and obviously it's not blackboard paint, apparently it's something NASA designed and they now use, I bet the contrast is amazing.

Trying the focusers on the VX range in the showroom  they felt sooo nice.. look and feel quality.

A few photos from today.

Any thanks to John for being honest and helpful.

See you soon for my VX6L. 😁

Enjoy.

Thanks Gary 

 

[John]

Interesting report and photos.

I think OO are being harsh on Skywatcher mirrors - I've owned 3 Orion Optics newtonians (tested as 1/6th, 1/8th and 1/9th wave PV) and a number of Skywatcher ones and not found significant differences in optical performance - "subtle and slight" would be my description.

Some nice looking OO scopes though 🙂

Enjoy your VX6L when you get it 🙂

 

Edited March 21, 2023 by John

[jetstream]

While the figure of SW (and others) mirrors are rumoured to be good, the smoothness or "polish" might be a bit rushed. But not that bad either...

[bosun21]

18 minutes ago, John said:

Interesting report and photos.

I think OO are being harsh on Skywatcher mirrors - I've owned 3 Orion Optics newtonians (tested as 1/6th, 1/8th and 1/9th wave PV) and a number of Skywatcher ones and not found significant differences in optical performance - "subtle and slight" would be my description.

Some nice looking OO scopes though 🙂

Enjoy your VX6L when you get it 🙂

 

I agree with you about the pv values of Skywatcher, Stella Lyra etc. There’s no way my new 12” Stella Lyra is 1/2-1/4 pv. Me thinks he’s playing down the competition.

[iantaylor2uk]

Interested to see the scope labelled HG8 - does anyone know what this is?

The model HG8 doesn't appear in the list of OO products as far as I can see.

[dweller25]

Great report but I would say that I had the 1/10th wave OO VX8L and a very sharp Skywatcher 8”F/6 Newt and there was no difference in visual detail but to my eye the Skywatcher had better contrast on the planets.

[Alan White]

I think OOUK concentrate on mirror wave as a sales line to be honest,
Mirrors vary across all makers and I cannot say my OOUK stand out.
What does stand out is its supporting UK jobs and also the lighweight construction is a big plus.

As to that HG8, I was curious on that one too.

[Space Hopper]

28 minutes ago, iantaylor2uk said:

Interested to see the scope labelled HG8 - does anyone know what this is?

The model HG8 doesn't appear in the list of OO products as far as I can see.

Was it a prototype before they introduced the 'AG' line of fast corrected imaging Newtonians ??

[dweller25]

34 minutes ago, Space Hopper said:

Was it a prototype before they introduced the 'AG' line of fast corrected imaging Newtonians ??

Could be as it looks like the secondary system is a long way down the tube.

Edited March 21, 2023 by dweller25

[Mr Spock]

I've heard this before from OO about other manufacturers. Both the 10" Skywatchers and the C9.25 I've had were better than ¼PV - no complaints about any of them. I had a OMC-140 which was ⅛PV and can say with certainty my SL 12" is much better than that. 

[Elp]

Has the Ideal range replaced their black F4 astrographs they used to make? The AG aren't exactly the same kind of price class.

Edited March 21, 2023 by Elp

[Space Hopper]

I was scratching my head there for a minute @Elp

'Ideal range'........?

But they are on the website, and yes, it looks like the 'VX' range is having a refresh. I'm assuming the VX's will be discontinued and replaced by the new model.

The AG range is still there.

[Elp]

5 hours ago, Elp said:

Has the Ideal range replaced their black F4 astrographs they used to make? The AG aren't exactly the same kind of price class.

Silly of me to confuse Orion Telescopes (above mentioned f4 astrograph) and Orion Optics, that's not confusing at all...