Had a newt with a nasty chip in the primary and it worked sweet as for visual and gave a very nice view. Lol there not refractors and can take a fair beating, the main thing is the mirror coatings and signs of them flaking and peeling. The focuser can always be cleaned adjusted and regressed so i wouldn't worry on that front, collimation's the only main issue with newts but thats only 5mins of your time anyhow. BTW saxon is skywatcher and orion its just the australian distributor, there all synta and there all good. GSO are great as well though i've had a pretty average primary in a 10" before, where as all my saxon/skywatcher newts have had a1 optics so far but i'am sure there let some avrg ones out the door before as well. GSO use bk7 glass and saxon use pryrox, the bk7 take a little more time to settle though aided with a fan there about the same. At the end of the day GSO wins because of the price as the scopes are nearly the same apart from the glass. Go used and save some money to put into a nice eyepiece
