Orion's new intelliscope line

Ok, the fact of high prices for goto systems prompted me to opt for aperture instead so I bought an xt-10. I love the challenge of finding things sans the benefit of goto alot more than I thought I would at first, but, being the technonerd that I am accused of, the new intelliscope line is very appealing. So I wrote Orion and asked of the possiblity of providing the encoders in a kit form or if they would sell only the base so I could purchase the computer. Answers were no and no. I am not surprised at this because of the Mars fever going on that they would still get the top dollar for the previous model scope right up until the end. Then they pop this on everyone right mid-August to "hook" even more buyers, offering newbies the ability to see more than mars after the opposition is over. Pretty tight marketing (albeit annoying) strategy on their part.

But the reason I am going on about this is that rather than telling me that I would have to buy the new scope, they assumed I was totally ignorant and referred me to Jim's mobile and even gave me an 800 # so I could order their ngc max computer. Interesting arrangement they got there. Not really surprising, I guess.

Cheers,
Andy

Sounds like a nice practice on Orion's part; I'd think they would rather sell the new model than tell folks they can get the same features with their old one by going to a different vendor.

John

all companies do this, its normal.. did you expect them to announce months ago that they planned to upgrade their dob line?, they would not have sold anything for months.

Perhaps what you expect is an inexpensive way to upgrade your scope to the new standard, perhaps they are not interested in selling that, probably too many headaches and returns if people do not install it correctly. They properly referred you to a source of all this hardware.

Andy,

I've had problems with Orion's tech support also. I have found them to be patronizing and arrogant. I used to recommend their products to newbies, now I send them to Anacortes et al.

So, I wonder what the Alt motion is going to feel like on these scopes? It seems they've completely abandoned the traditional Dobsonian alt bearing approach. It looks a lot more like the little spring loaded friction clutches we had on Newts 40-50 years ago... They usually had a lot of "stiction" (jerky movement) when pressure was applied to move them.
It will be interesting to see how they've overcome this.

-Greg