Hi all, our 8" finally arrived and as unbelievable as this sounds on the day we put it together the clouds cleared off and we had our best night of observing in months.
First of all, all the parts were in the boxes and they all fit just like they were meant to. Nothing broken, nothing scratched and in about 1 1/2 hours it was all together.
Collimation was not a problem and while the secondary arrived just a smidgen out I limited myself to adjusting the primary. After a star test I was glad that I had left it alone because the circles were circular and the center spot was in the center.
Movement in all directions was easy and smooth and once the telescope was lined up it stayed in position with no balance problems.
I used the same inexpensive eye pieces that came with my 4.5 Orion reflector and even with these ep's the views were amazing.
The Swan Nebula was a glorious swan gliding through the Milky way.
The ring nebula a distinct blue ring (no central star)
Triffid, Lagoon, and M24 gorgeous
Watching Ganymede traverse the face of Jupiter was a thrill I will not soon forget and the rings of Saturn were spectacular.
Overall impression is that this is a good telescope competitively priced. Certainly there are better telescopes. Certainly there are improvements that -could- be made to this telescope. Certainly bigger scopes, more expensive scopes would reveal more of the mysteries of the heavens.
But all in all this scope will keep us happy for quite a while.
Brian
first light 8" LightBridge
