Hi Andrew, it looks like you've been hung out to dry on this very simple question. I thought others would have answered before now, but they haven't, so here goes. (I've had a glass of red, so my answers might suffer a bit.)
First, this is an excellent scope, great for a first scope, and you won't be disappointed. Basically, the views are great.
Mine is a bit old now, so maybe features have changed. Still, I think the OTA's tube is better than the GS dobs. The black inside is plenty dark enough if you're not obsessive. Removing the spider and mirror cell is easy, if you want to paint/flock the tube.
The focuser on mine was inferior to ones on the GS dobs that I've seen, so I eventually upgraded it to a Crayford (which are reasonably cheap now). The R&P motion was just OK, and construction was just a bit flimsy, thin metal, etc.
Collimation is easy enough, although I never liked the recessed allen key screws and replaced them with more appropriate knobs. Either way, it holds collimation well. F6 seems to hold collimation a lot better than F5, BTW. I never managed to remove the mirror from its cell: stuck too tight. Never mattered much, since I could still clean it, etc.
I LIKE the tension handles, much better than mucking around with strings and springs and things. There is a solution now, too, apparently, if you ever want to go down the encoder DSC route. Talk to Gary at Wildcard.
Like all dobs, the alt az movements vary a lot, as do owner's preferences for smoothness vs stiction, etc, but it is easy to modify these things. (The tension handle pretty well sorts the altitude movement anyway.)
It's pretty well known that I like the 8 inch because I think it gets used more than larger scopes. I have about a dozen steps to climb to get to my back yard. Whatever sacrifice there is in brightness is more than compensated for by my ability to carry it.
Cheers and Enjoy,
Brian.
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Originally Posted by Astroman
Hi all you owners, now its time to get the nitty gritty of this scope.
Can I please have some reviews of this telescope? I will be getting one hopefully this week, if not next. Type of thing I want to know is how does it perform, smoothness of axis, how easy is it to collimate, removel of mirror cell is it difficult, the tension control handle (what the?) Colour of the inside of the tube is it that bright grey? how easy is it to remove all the optics to paint the inside and baffle 
That should do for now. |
