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Orion Optics SPX200 F4.5 1/10PV

mark7331

By mark7331
in Member Equipment Reviews

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mark7331

mark7331

Posted
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Yesterday my long awaited SPX200 arrived from Orion Optics UK. I ordered it 12 weeks ago as my first “real” imaging scope. I'd been using my NexStar 6SE up to this point. I chose the 200SPX to go with the Atik314L+ CCD that I bought at the same time. The combination should match well for the objects I'm trying to study. I ordered the 1/10PV mirror upgrade with the scope because I thought I may as well get the best optics that I can afford. I also ordered a mirror cooling fan and a 1:10 focuser. The tube weight was also a factor as it weighs in at 7kg. It's so light!

Ordering & Delivery

Ordering from the OO website is straight forward and you can choose from a range of options and mounts. I ordered the scope on a Saturday and after paying the £744 I received an email on the following Monday telling me that the scope would be delivered in 6 weeks. I called to confirm this an Orion Optics told me that the mirror was being made for me and it took time. Cool. In total the scope tool 12 weeks to arrive after several phone calls chasing progress and a range of excuses. The one thing that worried me was that Orion Optics didn't contact me once to say there was a delay.

So yesterday It arrived at 9am. The OTA came with a power lead for the mirror fan with crocodile clip ends. A focuser extender tube and is capable of holding 2” or 1.25” EPs. There was a document confirming the “better than 1/10PV” mirror quality and a letter of thanks but no other documentation or manual whatsoever.

Build quality

My initial impressions were good. The scope looks well built and there were no scratches but as I inspected closer I noticed quite a lot of detritus in the tube. Small pieces of metal. I then looked at the primary mirror and to my horror it was covered with little bits and pieces :blob10:. I took my rocket air blower, inserted my arm into the tube down toward the primary, taking care not to touch the secondary and puffed a few times. The pieces of matter blew away and after a long inspection the mirror was clean. I ensured any remaining rubbish was removed from the tube.

I put the SPX onto my NEQ6 mount so that I could start collimation and tried to rack the focuser out but it didn't move. I checked the focus lock and still no movement. After a couple of minutes using an alan key to adjust the focuser it was working perfectly. At this point I thought I would check the mirror cooling fan and after inserting the jack lead supplied and attaching to power nothing happened. Hmm :hello2:. I was starting to get a little peeved. After a good half an hour of removing the mirror fan jack socket and making another lead that I could plug in to my Powertank I found that the fan was OK. The problem was with the jack plug and socked combination. Specifically the jack plug was just a little too small for the socket. A good quality replacement took care of this.

Collimation

I've only ever collimated my 300P before and that was a little stressful as it's a large scope and needs two people but the SPX was a dream. I checked Astro-Baby's guide and all was as she describes. I used my laser collimator and had it finished in about ten minutes. The secondary mirror is really small compared to the 300P!

First Light

Yesterday after receiving the scope it rained so heavily I lost satellite reception on my TV and to be fair I expected this. The forecast for tonight was for grey cloud but just as it became fully dark there were hardly any visible. So, steeling myself against the likely hood of disappointment, I decided to simply set up the scope on the mount and manually point at a star so that I could check the collimation.

I ran out with the NEQ6, roughly pointed it north and levelled the mount then popped the scope rings onto the head and put the OTA in place. The tube rings come supplied with very usable plastic nuts that are much easier than the metal ones I've used so far.

After a quick balance I was ready. I turned on my red dot finder (separately purchase) and pointed at the most visible star – Altair. The EP I used was 30mm as I wanted a large field of view just in case my earlier finder calibration was out. It wasn't and Altair appear mid view as a large white doughnut – I was way out of focus. So I racked the tube all the way out and was still looking at a white blob. At this point I removed the 1.25” EP holder and unscrewed the 2” EP holder from the focuser tube. I screwed in the supplied focus tube extender and put the 2” and 1.25” EP holders back in place and after a few turns I was in focus.

The stars looked good and I was about to grab a collimation cap when I remembered the 1:10 focuser control. I tweaked the knob a little and Altair exploded into life. It was bright and perfectly sharp with four faint defraction lines emanating away from the centre - I was blow away.

The scope had me then but the gods of Astronomy gave me the idea of trying to manually find M57 so I gave it a try, released the clutches and roughly slewed to Vega. I followed Lyra down to where I thought M57 should be and hey presto there it was clear as a bell. At this point I took a 15mm EP with a 2x Barlow and adjusted my view so M57 was dead centre. It was moving relatively fast in the view but I had enough time to position it so that I could track it on one axis roughly. The view was spectacular. I've never seem M57 so close up and so clearly. I resisted the urge to hug the scope. I was in public view afterall :).

By now there was a film of grey cloud but the job was done. The scope had shown me a taste of what it can do.

Summary

After the initial problems with junk on the mirror, malfunctioning focuser tube, complete lack of instructions am I happy with the scope or more importantly would I buy another one? Absolutely - 100%. This is an amazing scope and I can't wait to start imaging with it.

I hope this is of use to anyone considering one of these.

Mark

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John

John

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Thanks for the review Mark. The scope sounds fantastic - it's just a pity that OO still can't quite get the customer feedback and final quality control quite right - given that this sort of experience seems relatively common I guess they figure either a) that they have got it right or :) that they don't need to get it any better.

Still, in the end you have what sounds like a great scope - congratulations :blob10:

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mark7331

mark7331

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Mark,

Regarding the lack of instructions, you have probably already found them but there are some downloadable files here that are relevant:

Downoads Page

John, thanks for the comments and for the link. It is a pity that attention to detail seems to be lacking. Also if they had said "We're making your mirror and it's going to take 3 months" right up front I would have been happy.

In the end it's worth the hassles. :blob10:

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Nick P

Nick P

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Nice review Mark, interestingly I had exactly the same experience with OO 7 years ago for the old version of this scope! (except for the focuser problems, mine was supplied with a rack and pinion 1.25 focuser).

But they do give great views though and well worth the hassle

I'm sure you'll enjoy your new purchase!

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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great review and welcome to the OO fan club! I may be 'seeing the best in people' but suspect that they are so busy that they rush to get the job out to satisfy the customer. That said, how long does it take to check the tube for 'fluff' and that it all works smoothly?

As you say, a bit of managing peoples expectations would not go amiss and if they said at the start that they are so busy with orders that for your scope it will be 3-4 months and you got it in 10 weeks or even 12 weeks then you'd think they were great!

hope you enjoy the new 'baby'.

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russ

russ

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Sounds like i had a smooth ride with my 150 compared to most. My only only disappointments were the original packaging, non-detectable benefit of Hilux and the Orion dual speed focuser (not as good as it looks).

But the views are great, you'll love your 200 f4.5.....:blob10:

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  • 2 weeks later...
ombos

ombos

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I have the a 1-10 spx 250 and you are lucky my friend. To cut a long story short its great now I've sorted it out. It came with the mirror loose and other basic defects which it shouldn't have. IMHO they rush them out and dont give a damn. Dont get me wrong I love mine and it takes pics far better then my Tak which is saying something but the build quality from the unit is poor and the focuser (the upgrade one) is really a peace of junk which as to be replaced with a moonlite or starlight one. These are my findings after paying close to £1100 for one.:)

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mark7331

mark7331

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OO said that the f6 may be a better bet ?? any thoughts.

Hi Graham. Right up front I will say that I totally love this scope. It's amazing. The optics are something else. There is a "but" though in a minute.

You have to pick the F# to match your intended use. Mine is imaging. An F6 would be better suited to visual and although my F4.5 gives stunning views, it's a bit harder on the eye pieces. Faster ratios need better eye pieces.

I went for the F4.5 to match the CCD I was going to buy. I built a spreadsheet so that I could match focal length/speed with pixel size in order to give me exactly what I wanted. Will email it to you if you'd like (PM. me). I also used the New Astronomy Press CCD calculator which shows you the views of popular Messeir etc objects. So I picked the scope for the camera and it really worked.

The SPX200 weighs in a only 7kg. This means that my total imaging setup including guide scope comes to about 12.5kg and that's important because for good guiding you should aim for half the load capacity of your mount. The NEQ6 is approx 25kg. It also (the SPX) has a focal length that is slightly less than my guide scope (900 vs 1000) so the smartguider I use runs very smoothly.

So for me it was matching CCD -> focal length -> guiderlength -> mount capacity.

Now here's the "but".

BUT. 1) We know about OO's poor order/delivery times. 2) When the scope arrived the OTA was full of metal chips and the mirror was covered in muck. 3) The cable for the mirror cooling fan didn't work (after stripping the fan). 4) The focuser didn't work - it hadn't been adjusted so racking the focus knobs did nothing - the tube flopped in and out at will and finally 5) one of the secondary mirror veins was misfitted resulting in double diffraction spikes (and the advice from OO was "bend it back into shape").

That said I would buy another scope from OO because they are without an doubt excellent when you get them working.

EDIT: Graham, meant to ask what do you want the scope for? Imaging or visual?

Mark

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ombos

ombos

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Heres 3 pics, if I've uploaded correctly, no stacking, no alterations just out of a standard canon, no long exposures max 30sec I have no idea how to mod or stack pics oh their not even in RAW just jpg so even though I think the SPX build from the factory is poor, they still do the job with a little time and extra cash! which of course you should'nt need to do.

post-14256-133877485368_thumb.jpg

post-14256-13387748537_thumb.jpg

post-14256-133877485376_thumb.jpg

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mark7331

mark7331

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Nice images ombos. The F4.5 really gobbles up the light quickly so you can get good shots with short exposures. The longer exposures really pay off though. This is a single 15 second sub of M45. Even in this short exposure you can see the nebulosity clearly. That's what the F4.5 will do for you. F6 or slower will need longer exposures and there's a limit on what they will capture. I've tried DSO imaging with an F10. It's not pretty! :)

My albums have more examples that I've taken in the last week or so.

Stargazers Lounge - mark7331's Albums

Mark

mark7331-albums-dso-spx200-picture6573-m45-1x15-second-sub-luminance-again-waiting-clouds-go-away.jpg

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Strangelet

Strangelet

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Thanks for your comments. I am looking to do both. Trying to keep the family interested as well as starting out in imaging. At the moment I have a Nexstar 4 and a loan 6" startravel refractor. The longer I think about it the more I think that I should by a standard 200mm skywatcher and see how it goes,

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  • 2 weeks later...
markymoo

markymoo

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Hey Mark,

Interesting review... although it's making me a bit nervous! As you know, I've just ordered an OMC 140 which is a Mak, and I'm expecting five weeks delivery.....

I hope there aren't any metal flakes in mine, as I'm a newbie and don't fancy taking the thing to bits!

Sad to read so many people have these bad experiences with Orion Optics - I wonder how many people have a problem-free experience?

So far my experience with the has been good, so fingers crossed it stays that way :o

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John

John

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... just the tube mechanics aren't as good as a skywatcher.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that :)

My OO 10" F/4.8 does have nice optics though, which is the most important thing. I bought it 2nd hand so didn't get an opportunity to experience the OO customer care programme first hand :o

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mark7331

mark7331

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I'm expecting five weeks delivery.....

I would expect it to take a bit longer. They said 6 weeks for me but it turned out as 12.

I hope there aren't any metal flakes in mine, as I'm a newbie and don't fancy taking the thing to bits!

I don't think you'll have any problems with a Mak. I think the problem is that Newts are open - exposed to bits and pieces whereas Maks aren't.

I have skywatcher scopes and the OO quality, now I've sorted out the problems, is excellent.

Markmoo don't panic - you'll love your new scope. :o

Mark

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