ORION thin Off Axis Guider question

[Nico13]

Hi all,
Anyone using the Orion Thin OAG? See it here LINK (http://www.bintel.com.au/Astrophotography/Guidescopes/Orion-Thin-Off-Axis-Guider/1688/productview.aspx)
I was just about to order one from Bintel but they are out of stock till after Christmas so just wanted to ask for others comments if you are using one and what you thought of it. :question:
I would be using with my SLR on my RC8

Thanks for any input.

[DJT]

Not had a huge amount of sucess with mine. I also use an RC8 with a Canon.

Its fiddly to work with. Hex grub screws are pretty naff and stripped really quickly and its a bugger to adjust for focus, just from a design point of view. I got one successful session when it did what I expected it to but after that it went downhill and I moved on.

Other features include instruction manuals which reference diagrams critical to figuring out how to keep the focus that dont exist plus the adapter which attaches the OAG to the Canon and which replaces the standard t-Ring has a lot more play than I would have expected. It rotates quite freely about 1cm side to side when attached to the camera.. Great idea but badly executed as it does mean the camera would move over time during a session

You get what you pay for with this. Yes it comes with lots of adapters etc but if it cant be secured effectively between the camera and the scope then its going to cause grief.

Look at the TS one which seems more robust and is thin enough to work with the Canon.

Review here
http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=2454

[LewisM]

I had one. I sold it fairly quickly. David's comments ring very true.

I would hold off for a TS one. The Orion one was, well, awkward is a good metaphor!

[Nico13]

Thanks guys you have just saved me some considerable stuffing around I think.
Will have another look at the TS unit before I buy. The focusing issue has been somthing that stood out with me as a lot of them, even some of the more expesive units dont have an easy focus adjustment method.

[DJT]

To be fair, once you get the focus right, you shouldn't need to adjust an oag that much from what I can tell assuming you are using same camera setup. Any oag though is going to need to be tweaked to get it right first time and then some later on. TS will be the same, but quality of the basics should be better.