Hi Michael,
I commend you for the effort you have put into researching your options for a new telescope. Often consumers do not put this time into their purchases. I do, but not as yet to the extent you have done, so well done.
The points you have made regarding the design issues in GSO dobsonian range are mostly valid - to a degree.
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Dob repaint and My 10" GS Dob REBORN! - Cutting and powder Coating
-GSO dob rust
Link and;
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I wish to dispute the issues you have raised with the last point "Rust". This problem was apparently evident on the older, silver OTA, and I have also read posts here at IIS which suggest that this issue is not, and has not occurred on the white OTA's, which have been around for some time. So GSO fixed the problem. What's the issue with this? Aren't companies allowed to improve? To your credit you did mention that this issue has been fixed.
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Finally, defective secondary mirrors appear to be very common to GSO made dobs, whereas I have not heard of anything like this for the Orion scopes. Indeed, some have returned their defective GSO secondary mirrors only to get another defective secondary!
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Where has this information come from, just out of curiosity?
My summary on these telescopes (I have owned two) is that they are
built to a price, simple as that. Yes they have issues with most the points you raise, but for 90% of the customers who want an economical Dobsonian telescope that just works out of the box and gives them satisfaction in using it, they do the job, and I think you are forgetting that important fact.
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I would also like to note here that I have looked through several GSO dobs at my club that performed excellently, but they all needed substantial modifications to get to that stage.
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I have used my two GSO dobs and others "straight out of the box" with a bit of collimation and they have performed excellent.
Your analysis of the truss designs is probably valid,
BUT, as I said all scopes are
built to a price, and
built to a market, and I think you are being too critical of them.
Also your opinion of the location of the collimation screws is also probably valid form an optical and engineering analysis, but in the end, all I want are three easy-to-turn collimation screws to sufficiently collimate the mirrors. They do the job! My first scope's primary mirror collimation screws had three 3/16 bolts with wingnuts welded to the heads. They worked perfectly.
I think you need to resign to the fact that GSO Dobs are not for you, and you perhaps fall into the 10% of customers that will not be happy with the compromises made in their construction and design. You are obviously not GSO's "target market".
I am not going to debate the deepest, darkest details of faults with 'this scope' vs. 'that scope'. It seems you have made your decision on what build quality you wish to put your money on, and as a consumer, thats your prerogative. As I stated earlier, GSO Dobs are
built to a price!.
Again, congratulations on most of your research into the pros and cons of these telescopes. I hope when you eventually decided to but one, one day in the future, you end up enjoying the wonders of the night sky.