Starblast 6

Looks like the venerable Orion Starblast just got a big brother! At 6" f/5, and selling for $249, this should do very well. I wish that it had a 2" focuser, but oh well...

http://www.telescope.com/control/product/~category_id=reflectors/~pcategory=telescopes/~product_id=09964

Doug Culbertson said:

Looks like the venerable Orion Starblast just got a big brother! At 6" f/5, and selling for $249, this should do very well. I wish that it had a 2" focuser, but oh well...

http://www.telescope.com/control/product/~category_id=reflectors/~pcategory=telescopes/~product_id=09964

Cute...but...I dunno...the original was and is perfect for what it is (when the summer storms begin to move in, and observing is catch as catch can, the SB and my 15x70s get more use than anything else).

Sometimes The Only Enemy of Good Enough is More Better

We'll see.

8)

I am with Rick on this one... A 6 inch F/5 Dob is not a good height for an adult observer. I have one and it sits on a folding wooden tripod, not bad and it is portable but I am not sure what one does for the 6 inch Starblast, looks to me like:

Small and handy is sweet and cute, when small and sweet grows up, well, things are not so sweet, not so handy anymore...



Jon

Very interesting! I might have preferred to see their
6" F5 imaging OTA (with 2" Crayford) on that mount,
but would have raised the price point a good bit.
Could be a really fun little scope.
http://www.telescope.com/control/product/~category_id=astro-imaging_scopes/~pcategory=astro-imaging/~product_id=09786

I have 6" f/5 for a grab-n-go, with a 1.25" focuser. It has replaced my 4" f/4 for that purpose.

Some experiences:
The 6 yields a 2* field in view.
6" vs 4"...is clearly a significant advantage in resolution. On any target.
Table top scopes are really, really limited by their mount. Not a good way to go.
F/5 is friendlier on the field of view than f/4, and f/4.5 focal ratios.
A 6 will benefit significantly from active cooling.
A 6 will benefit even more from a good, stable, free standing mount.
One can barlow the 6 up to 200x pretty easily, with decent results.
6" f/5 newt ota's come up fairly often in the classifieds here. They are not too heavy, and have a short moment arm. They are easy to mount on an alt-az tripod.