Posts Made By: Nattee Chotinun

What are your eyepieces' focal lengths? I have the MN56 plus 2x and 3x barlows. I never use the barlows for visual; it's mainly for webcam imaging. For lunar and plenetary higher power use, I have 4mm Ortho, 5mm Ortho, 6mm Clave, 7mm Ortho, and 8mm RKE eyepieces. It does barlow well with my 10.4mm Tele Vue plossl and the 3x barlow, but I don't use this configuration. Normally I use it with 4-6mm eyepieces, depending on the seeing condition. The 4mm gives me about 187X, which is about what the seeing will support around here most of the time. For me, the barlow does make the image a little dimmer; that's why I got all these short focal length eyepieces.

Nat
Santa Fe, NM

I just bought the Orion XT8 this summer as my quick-look scope. My other quick look scope is MN56 on Super Polaris. But 5" is 5" The MN56 is great for when the moon is out or for the planets because the mount has tracking. I am primarily a DSO observer and the 8" is the smalles portable quick look I am willing to go with when there's no moon. The XT8 tube is rolled metal so it's very light. I am very happy with the XT8. I just got a 26mm Nagler Type 5 and this combo easily satisfied my quick look cravings.

My light bucket is a 15" f/5 discovery truss dob and it's always setup with the wheel barrow handles and ready to be rolled out of my garage. However, the 8" XT8 has one advantage: I can move it to the side of my house that is protected from our frequent high desert wind. The 15" is bound to driveway outside of my garage.

You may have the best setup already. It's hard to beat an 8" dob for its simplicity, cost, and light-grasp. The more I used it, the more I asked myself how come I did not buy a 8" dob years ago? These are my opinions; they are based on the fact that I live at 6300 feet, outside of a city of 60,000 and have dark, unobstructed, desert sky. I don't need to drive anywhere.

Nat
Santa Fe, NM

I feel your pain. I just bought the Nagler 26mm Type 5 for my 15" f/5 and 8" f/6 dobs. I spent two successive nights with it on the two scopes. It was worth it. The eye relief is rather short but hey, you won't get any blackouts.

I have the Pentax 14mm XW, 10mm XW, and 7mm XL. Yes, the blackouts can be a problem with the XW's. You have to unscrew the eyecup to get it right. However, the views are worth it.

It's good that you are trying them out first. I bought some Radians and found that I did not like them! Definitely try before you buy.

Nat

All too often the item is listed as pickup only. The price and size of such scope wil limit the number of buyers available already. Putting geographically limit on it will certainly reduce the number of potential buyers even further. Even if the seller will ship, the buyer is expected to pay for shipping. This will add hundreds of dollars to an already expensive item.

That's my take on why it takes a while to move these scopes.

Nat

Larry,
Thanks for posting the first impressions. One thing that I could not tell from reading Orion's spec: can it be used with 2" visual back so that you can use 2" diagonal?

Nat Chotinun
Santa Fe, NM

XW's are big! For this focal length, have you considered the 19mm Panoptics? I love them in my Denk II binoviewer. 19mm Panoptic is a good cyclop EP as well.

Nat
Santa Fe, NM

Take a look at this website:
http://www.pc-cameras.philips.com/sw_pcvc740k.html

Nat

John,
Do you have any link to a website with any specs or picture of the 16"? I am curious about how much it weights.

Nat
Happy owner of a 15" Discovery Truss.

Hey David,
Looks great. Who's the manufacturer for the reticle EP?

Nat

I own one Nagler EP, the 26mm Type 5. No other EP really gives me the same 'wow' feeling in my undriven, 15" f/5 truss dob. The view of the Veil Nebula with a 2" O-III filter is all the reasons I need to keep it around. My other wide angle EP are panoptic and Pentax. For wide, low power views in my dob, the 26mm is hard to beat.

In a driven f/10 SCT, there are other, lower cost alternatives. I have a 10" f/10 SCT and never bothered with wide angle EP until the dob came along.

Nat
Santa Fe, NM