Excelsis - Display Vote

Orion SkyQuest XT8 (IntelliScope) Dobsonian

I bought my XT-8 from Orion about a month ago. They dropped the price $50 a week later and upon my request they credited back my card the $50. Very nice of them. The scope itself is amazing. I have only had it out a few times in the last month due to a surfeit of nocturnal cloud cover, but the views I have had were nothing short of breathtaking. I slapped a Rigel Qwik-Finder on that bad boy and found M51 in about three seconds. I have never seen so many galaxies in a single night as i did last night. The mount doesn't hold up well in 20-mph winds at anything higher than about 50X, but I spent most of the niget below 40X. Stars are nearly pinpoints. The diffraction pattern is only annoying on Jupiter and Venus and nearly nonexistent on other objects. The Rigel finder is an excellent optical aid for this scope. One problem did come up...my prized 56mm 2" Meade 4000 superplossl would not come into focus with my glasses on...but with them off, it did. Very odd. Orion has listened to the recommendations made by XT8 owners and upgraded the scope nicely. It now comes with a 2" focuser, ultra-easy collimation knobs, and an open rear cell with threading to attach a 4" computer fan to the cell to eliminate air currents. The grab handle is pointless. Just grab inside the front of the scope and gently nudge it. It moves easily enough, better with each use. It is easy to bring along...the expensive optional carry bag is outstanding. This should be a no-brainer purchase if you are looking for good optics in a large aperture Newt for less than $500. Go for it!

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Mount:9 Ease of Use:10 Value:10
Weight: 10 (Trustworthy Vote)
Date: 05/11/2002 04:47:01 am PST
By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.197.33)
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=90484

>I bought my XT-8 from Orion about a month ago.  They dropped the price $50 a week later and upon my request they credited back my card the $50.  Very nice of them.  The scope itself is amazing.  I have only had it out a few times in the last month due to a surfeit of nocturnal cloud cover, but the views I have had were nothing short of breathtaking.  I slapped a Rigel Qwik-Finder on that bad boy and found M51 in about three seconds.  I have never seen so many galaxies in a single night as i did last night.  The mount doesn't hold up well in 20-mph winds at anything higher than about 50X, but I spent most of the niget below 40X.  Stars are nearly pinpoints.  The diffraction pattern is only annoying on Jupiter and Venus and nearly nonexistent on other objects.  The Rigel finder is an excellent optical aid for this scope.  One problem did come up...my prized 56mm 2" Meade 4000 superplossl would not come into focus with my glasses on...but with them off, it did.  Very odd.  Orion has listened to the recommendations made by XT8 owners and upgraded the scope nicely.  It now comes with a 2" focuser, ultra-easy collimation knobs, and an open rear cell with threading to attach a 4" computer fan to the cell to eliminate air currents.  The grab handle is pointless.  Just grab inside the front of the scope and gently nudge it.  It moves easily enough, better with each use.  It is easy to bring along...the expensive optional carry bag is outstanding.  This should be a no-brainer purchase if you are looking for good optics in a large aperture Newt for less than $500.  Go for it!

Wow.This sounds like a good telescope.I am getting very into astronomy with my tiny tiny 60mm refractor,and this seems like a good telescope to upgrade to from there when the time is right...or start with...

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