Orion XTg: 12" Dob with GoTo

[tebling]

Announced a few hours ago on their Facebook page:

"Orion is pleased to give you a sneak peak into an exciting new product line we’ve been working on: the Orion XTg series of Dobsonian telescopes with full GoTo functionality. The 12” XT12g with full GoTo is coming soon. We expect an XT8g and XT10g as well. More details will be announced soon, but we wanted to let our Facebook fans know about this exciting new line before any information is posted on telescope.com."

Orion Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/oriontelescopes?_fb_noscript=1)

http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs237.snc3/22446_298300549665_87123139665_3212 996_1195740_n.jpg

CN Thread (http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/3618924/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1)

[mic_m]

Thanks for pointing that out Tim, it looks very impressive!

For the XT12g Orion have upgraded the XTi focuser for a dual speed and the base and GOTO controller appears to be basically the same as the SW GOTO base and SynScan controller, so given the information on the SW site I assume that it has tracking, GOTO as well as push to. You can read the details of the SW12 GOTO here: http://www.skywatchertelescope.net/swtinc/product.php?id=158&class1=1&class2=106. It will be interesting to see if the designers at Orion have also included a fan as standard on this model, if they have I think it will be a very complete package.

For those that want a solid tube dob this looks like a great alternative to the GSO or Saxon, and for those that want a tracking dob without worrying about a finding an effective light shroud it could be a decent alternative SW12 Flex AUTO. But I guess we’ll have to wait for pricing in AUS.

Personally, I like slewing a scope manually to find objects and I dont mind tracking them myself either, but a GOTO and tracking scope would be great for detailed planetry observation and very usfull for showing objects to groups without having to re-align whatever is being looked at in the center of the EP. So if it is like the SW where one can use it manually as well as AUTO track thats great.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we also come to see tracking and GOTO on the Orion truss dobs.

There are certainly lots of options for dob buyers at the moment.

[JethroB76]

Be interested to see the pricing given Orions' history in Australia, although recently they have become more reasonable.