Orion AstroView 120ST EQ


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Subject: Moved Message
By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.199.64)
Date: 02/17/2002 08:28:13 pm PST
One last thing of interest. I'm the guy who wrote in on 10/17/01 by the way. During the winter with Jupiter so bright the false color was getting a bit more obtrusive and I felt that the contrast could be improved. On most refractors and reflectors as well most of the problems usually come from the outside of the optics. In playing with my 120ST I find that most of the color is coming from the outside little bit of the objectives. I removed the lens cell, it just threads off. THe first baffle looks real small and worthless. I began cutting and trying cardboard baffles against the real baffle. During one trial I broke the baffle loose. This was easy as it seems to be painted on. What the hell I figured so I made a nicer plastic baffle disc, colored it black and began sliding it up and down the tube. THe center hole is something like 4" by the way. I have found a point where the color is reduced by at least 3/4 and the contrast is way better. Since the contrast is better everything looks brighter so I could care less about reduction in aperture. Side by side last night with a Stellerview 102 (I sure hope it was not the apo for the owners sake) the 120ST won easily. Brighter and less color by far. THe 102 seemed to take higher mag just a touch better but it was close. I encourage you to try this if the contrast or color is bad on your scope. you can email me if you want. paulsax@attbi.com


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Subject: Re: vote by xxx.xxx.221.138
By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.201.63)
In Reply to: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.221.138) (Original Vote)
Date: 09/21/2002 05:15:58 pm PST
>ex. buy for a rich field scope. color was not bad for a f5.had better color corection and went to higher powers than my old 5"f5 yeagers. had it up to 225 power on double stars and no break up,ran out of barlows.EQ3 mount a little shakey but installed wood legs made it much more stable.very good light weight scope for the money.EQ3 motor drive worked very good. rating 8 cotascope@webtv.net


225x-your crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1


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Subject: Re: vote by Staruser
By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.173.41)
In Reply to: Staruser (Original Vote)
Date: 12/05/2002 11:41:48 am PST
I'm not sure why people leave goofy comments like this. If I wanted an 8" DOB for the same price I'd buy one. But that's not why I came to this site. I came here to read reviews and evaluations of the Orion 4.7" short tube refractor. For that purpose this person's review is worthless. No examples cited to substantiate the opinions given.

Overall, this guy's a loser.

>If you buy an 8in. dob. for the same price you will see more things. This is a OK low power scope for a quik setup. Good for brighter star clusters, a few nebulas and thats it. Overall, low quality optics.


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Subject: Re: vote by Staruser
By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.134.30)
In Reply to: Staruser (Original Vote)
Date: 11/18/2003 01:15:40 pm PST
>If you buy an 8in. dob. for the same price you will see more things. This is a OK low power scope for a quik setup. Good for brighter star clusters, a few nebulas and thats it. Overall, low quality optics.

Perhaps, but let's compare apples with apples here. An 8 inch dob doesn't make a good grab and go, wide field scope. Nor does one expect APO-like performance from a $319 scope.
So, overall your opinion is rather out of context.


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Subject: Re: vote by Staruser
By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.43.250)
In Reply to: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.173.41) (Original Message)
Date: 07/13/2004 03:18:24 pm PST
>I'm not sure why people leave goofy comments like this. If I wanted an 8" DOB for the same price I'd buy one. But that's not why I came to this site. I came here to read reviews and evaluations of the Orion 4.7" short tube refractor. For that purpose this person's review is worthless. No examples cited to substantiate the opinions given.
>
>Overall, this guy's a loser.
>
>>If you buy an 8in. dob. for the same price you will see more things. This is a OK low power scope for a quik setup. Good for brighter star clusters, a few nebulas and thats it. Overall, low quality optics.

Ok, ok. But how well does this scope perform as a "rich field" scope. Do the views given measure up? Is chromatic abberation bad, or liveable. Do fringe filters help here or not?
Does the mount hold steady and perform well as an equatorial platform? I don't want an 8" DOB at this point in time either.


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Subject: Re: vote by Staruser
By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.22.125)
In Reply to: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.134.30) (Original Message)
Date: 01/11/2005 06:17:56 pm PST
>Perhaps, but let's compare apples with apples here. An 8 inch dob doesn't make a good grab and go, wide field scope. Nor does one expect APO-like performance from a $319 scope.
>So, overall your opinion is rather out of context.

Didn't expect an APO for the money, but was looking for a fast, larger aperture refractor for deep sky video and webcam imaging and thus far the 120 has performed quite well. The cameras are monochrome so that aspect of chromatic aberration is not an issue. As the image scale is relatively small, all but the brightest stars tend to focus to tight points. Fine detail in faint nebulae, galaxies and clusters has been rewarding. The central star of M57 was easily resolved with both the StellaCam II and Atik 2HS at f/5. I hope to eventually replace this scope with a similar aperture ED or APO, but I'll be hanging on to the 120 -- it's a keeper.

http://www.lafterhall.com/deepskyvideoimaging.html


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Subject: Re: vote by xxx.xxx.221.138
By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.56.240)
In Reply to: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.201.63) (Original Message)
Date: 03/03/2005 11:07:48 am PST
>>ex. buy for a rich field scope. color was not bad for a f5.had better color corection and went to higher powers than my old 5"f5 yeagers. had it up to 225 power on double stars and no break up,ran out of barlows.EQ3 mount a little shakey but installed wood legs made it much more stable.very good light weight scope for the money.EQ3 motor drive worked very good. rating 8 cotascope@webtv.net
>
>
>225x-your crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

no 225 is not at all crazy for a scope of this type on jupiter or saturn, even stopped down. not crazy at all, very do-able and a bit of fun!


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Subject: Re: vote by xxx.xxx.221.138
By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.50.81)
In Reply to: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.56.240) (Original Message)
Date: 04/02/2005 01:10:41 pm PST
>>>ex. buy for a rich field scope. color was not bad for a f5.had better color corection and went to higher powers than my old 5"f5 yeagers. had it up to 225 power on double stars and no break up,ran out of barlows.EQ3 mount a little shakey but installed wood legs made it much more stable.very good light weight scope for the money.EQ3 motor drive worked very good. rating 8 cotascope@webtv.net
>>
>>
>>225x-your crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
>
>no 225 is not at all crazy for a scope of this type on jupiter or saturn, even stopped down. not crazy at all, very do-able and a bit of fun!
>

I ran mine up to 300 once, I wouldn't recommend it, but it can be done


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Subject: Re: vote by xxx.xxx.195.170
By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.96.212)
In Reply to: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.195.170) (Original Vote)
Date: 05/03/2005 11:18:11 am PST
if you are saying that the upper limit for your usage is 50x to 75x you should be giving this scope a 4 out of 10! this is a 5 inch scope!
yeah, a widefield, short tube but you should be using 150 - 200x without much problem.

maybe there is something up with yours?




>This is my second scope and I intended it to compliment my Celestron 9.25 SCT. I purchased the OTA and was pleased with Orion in all aspects of the purchase. As I have a 9.25 f10 scope already I really wanted something to toss up quickly and have some nice wide fields to look at. With a 600mm f.l. 2, 3, and 4 degree FOV's are a snap and good fun. Infact you really don't need a finder. I placed the OTA on the mount that came with my SCT after upgrading. The CG5 mount is a good fit for this scope and I am happy with it now. As for the tube the mechanics are fine and things seems to be assembled well. The focuser has a good amount of travel, vert little shift, though is a little grainy feeling. Not enough to really bother me or affect viewing at all. This scope does have color when looking at a bright object like Vega or the Moon. With a 6mm Radian the purple haze around Vega is sort of pretty. I have yet to get a nice view at this mag (100X) so I would call the upper limit for my usage maybe 50X to 75X. I would like to see a little more contrast in the view as well. The tube has a single baffle and I think that some more are in order so I plan to put in some foam discs and see how that works.
> In a nutshell I like this scope but I knew exactly what I wanted from it. If you are into planets of getting anal about fine detail on the moon or globulars you will be pissed. If you want a simple scope for some really wide field viewing you will be happy. Were this my first scope or my only scope I would rank it lower and kick myself for getting what is something of a specialized scope. Cheers


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Subject: Orion AstroView 120ST Great Deep Sky
By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.85.97)
Date: 10/11/2005 06:17:00 pm PST
I've found this ST wonderful for finding Deep Sky, views are so wide makes it easy to locate many of the brigheter NGC'S and Messier are a piece of cake ! Didn't even star hop to find most of the summer Messier Objects from the Archer up the Milky way, was a wonderful experience. The 4.7 inch aperature makes things brighter, M110 abit of a challenge for my smaller scopes, but was easy in the ST, even giving shape ! Add to this its portability. I did manage to see some detail on planetary as Jupiter, but it excels in the WIDE VIEW, also nice contrast. This scope does well for what its designed for, The Big View, Ease Of Use FANTASTIC. Great Fun Scope.. Warren Illinois .<>. PS .. Its Perhaps like your favorite eyepiece, example, I always start with my 40mm, for the Big Picture ..<>..


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