Excellent value for such a powerful and versitile scope
Written: Aug 08 '07 (Updated Feb 15 '09)
Product Rating:
Pros: Optics are excellent for the price, design is simple enough for even casual observers.
Cons: Heavy and difficult for single person to transport. No serious astrophotography.
The Bottom Line: Excellent overall mid level telescope with an excellent price. If you are looking for a step up from a beginner scope, you can't go wrong with this.
davebenham's Full Review: Orion SkyQuest XT8 Dobsonian (480 x 203mm) Telesco...
I purchased this scope used on Ebay several months ago. I've had half a dozen viewing sessions with it and I am absolutely delighted with this scope in nearly every way!
Price
First and foremost on this telescope is price. It's usually obtainable for around 300-400 dollars. There is just no way for to get 8 inches of aperture for this price.
Mount
The scope is a Dobsonian. Dobsonian mounts are often made of wood in the shape of a simple rotating box on which the scope rests. This design is good because it's simple and that helps keep prices low. The downside is this type of mounting will not track stars, so stars will drift out of view in a minute or so if you don't make adjustments. This can get a bit annoying at high magnifications because objects close to ecliptic will drift from view in less than a minute. Astrophotography of anything but the planets and moon is out of the question. All this aside, observing with this mount is just as simple as gently pulling or pushing the scope in whatever direction you want. The XT-8 mount has small pieces of Teflon to help make the motion of the scope on the mount buttery smooth.
Finder
My scope came with a right angle 6x30 finder scope. Orion recently upgraded the XT-8 finder scope to a 8x50 right angle finder. Either finder is a piece of cake to adjust, and it has a nice wide field of view. It has crosshairs to help center your target. The finder easily detaches to make transporting the scope easier.
Focuser
The focuser is a rack and pinion, and I've never had any problems with it. It can get a little difficult to adjust with higher magnification eyepieces. Even though I'm pretty happy with the focuser, some observers have complaints about it, so Orion has recently upgraded it to a Crayford style focuser.
I received a 25mm and 10mm Plossl eyepieces with my purchase. These eyepieces give 48x and 120x magnification respectively. Both eyepieces are pretty solid, although I wish they would have given some plastic cases for storage. I also have a Meade 6.8mm eyepiece that takes this scope up to 176x magnification. Optics
Because of the scope's focal length, collimation is probably a two man job (unless you buy a laser collimator with a rear view port). I can't stress how important precise collimation is essential to getting the best performance out of this scope (or any reflector scope for that matter). I've taken this scope out poorly aligned and I was disappointed. I have to collimate it probably every other session, and I probably should do it every time, but I just don't want to.
Moon and planets are awesome. With the 25mm eyepiece, I was just able to get Saturn and Venus in the same view back in June during their conjunction. Awesome sight.
The moon is blindingly bright, so I would recommend a lunar filter if you plan on looking at it. I haven't had many detailed lunar observing sessions, but the detail I've noticed so far is breathtaking. I saw a rille system inside once crater that was so detailed they looked like single strands of fine hair.
At higher magnifications, Jupiter shows half a dozen belts. I have yet to witness the red spot because of poor viewing conditions. Coupled with Jupiter's low position in the southern sky this summer, I'm sure all my views of Jupiter have been less than ideal. I was lucky enough to witness the transit of Io across Jupiter last month.
Saturn's rings are fairly clear, and I have seen the Cassini division as well as Titan. Again, viewing conditions were not ideal. Venus phases, well, they were there. Venus isn't all that interesting anyways. Unfortunately, I have not had the pleasure of viewing Mars yet.
With 8 inches of aperature, deep space objects in this scope are very nice. Although I'm sure since all my observing sessions with this scope have been from suburban Chicago I'm not seeing half of what I could with darker skies. I took a tour of Cygnus, Hercules, Lyra, and Ursa Major one night and enjoyed it immensely. M57, M13, M29 were easily found. With averted viewing, I could see some of the structure of both M81 and M82.
Portability
It's big, but still somewhat portable for an average size adult. When removed from it's base, both should be transportable in the trunk of an average car.
Unfortunatly, it's too heavy for one person to safely carry in a single trip. But it is easy to remove the scope from it's base, so carrying both separately makes it possible for one person to get it around. But I suppose complaining about an 8 inch scope being a little heavy is like griping about your computer requiring electricity to run, it's just a fact of life.
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